The birding was my salt, the thing that was missing, that essential amino acid I couldn’t get from anywhere else. It gave me life and reminded me that I was part of life. […]
Some people experience serenity by seeing their home team win, others by spending time with a loved one or racing downhill on a mountain bike. For me, it’s watching birds—seeing them, identifying them, wondering what they’re doing, marveling at their powers of navigation, or simply taking in their exquisite beauty.
I love birds.
~ Neil Hayward, “Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year”
A big year is an informal competition among birders to see who can identify by sight or sound the largest number of species of birds within a single calendar year and within a specific geographical area.
Early in 2013 Neil Hayward was at a crossroads. He didn’t want to open a bakery or whatever else executives do when they quit a lucrative but unfulfilling job…so instead he went birding…Neil shocked the birding world by finding 749 species of bird and breaking the long-standing Big Year record. He also surprised himself: During his time among the hummingbirds, tanagers, and boobies, he found a renewed sense of confidence and hope about the world and his place in it. (Source: Amazon)
Photo: Bluebird by Joan Schulz via Bluebird Recovery Program of Minnesota