Season 4, Episode 5: Tarik Shahzad's Cook County Big Years

It’s my birthday and I’ll bird if I want to bird if I want to.  You would bird too -  if it was you.

Welcome to the birthday edition of the Big Year Podcast. Well, the only thing that makes it a birthday edition is, well, because it’s my birthday.  I’m Robert Baumander and I’m 66 years old today.  Do you like numbers?  Of course, we all do.  So, here’s a little birthday math for you. I was born on the 16th in 1960, and 1+9+6+0 is 16. How about that.  Hey, it’s my birthday, and I’ll add if I want.  As birders, how do you celebrate your birthday?  Me, I watch the backyard birds while sipping a morning coffee, then hope that my birthday wish of a rare bird alert comes true.  So far, not so much.

Any hoo I’ve spent much of the dog days of summer birding in my back yard and building a mini green house and rock garden.  And lots of baby birds are fledging from the trees. Just this week, there was a baby Downy Woodpecker, baby Common Grackles, and House Sparrows.  I’ve seen young Baltimore Orioles, Northern Cardinals, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and even a recently fledged Black-capped Chickadee.

Out in the wilds of Southwestern Ontario there are still moments of excitement to be found, as a couple of rarities dropped in for a visit during the past few weeks.  In Hamilton Harbour, along with a group of excited birders, I was able to enjoy watching a Brown Pelican.  Very rare sighting for Ontario, and in fact I only saw my very first one last year along the Niagara River in Fort Erie. Perhaps this is the very same bird.  The other great find was even more personal, a Eurasian Collared-Dove, right here in Brantford.  Again, I had only ever seen one in Ontario, way back in 2018.  That’s how rare they are in these here parts.  A couple of weeks ago our very own Eurasian Collared-Dove showed up in a local back yard and the homeowner was gracious enough to allow visitors to come see it.

So, what have we learned over the years from The Big Year Podcast?  Well, the life of a birder seems to be long drives followed by brief but beautiful experiences in the middle of nowhere looking for a bird that might not be where you hoped it would be or might not show up at all.  Someone once said, birding is not always about the birds you see, but often the places where the birds take you.  The places you might never have seen if not for the birds.

Yes, there is more to birding than Big Year Birding.  Yes, there is something to be said about the thrill of the chase and the discovery