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11th out of 53 books
—
34 voters
Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder
by
Kenn Kaufman
Now revered as one of North America's top birders, Kenn Kaufman hit the road at age sixteen and spent a year crisscrossing the country to see as many birds as he could, in a birding competition known as a "big year." In what has become a classic among birders, this memoir chronicles the subculture of birding in the 1970s and a teenager's search for his place in the world....more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
April 11th 2006
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published 1997)
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To prepare for my upcoming trip to Ecuador I visited a doctor to update my inoculations. I explained that I was going to South America to look for birds, he mentioned he "thought that pastime had died out." I asked him where he’d been the last twenty years. That’s when he pulled out the syringe and asked me to roll up my sleeve…in hindsight, I could have been more polite.
What I should have said was, "The public library has many fine books regarding the deadly serious and ever-growing lifestyle...more
What I should have said was, "The public library has many fine books regarding the deadly serious and ever-growing lifestyle...more
Confession: I'm a birder and birdwatcher myself. I usually find watching birds much more interesting than reading stories about other people's birdwatching adventures. But Kenn Kaufman changed that for me.
Kaufman dropped out of high school at 16 to hitchhike around the country in pursuit of birds. In 1973 he decided to do a "Big Year," seeing as many North American species as he could. He did so on less than $1,000 ... and yet was one of the year's top two listers, however you do the math.
This...more
Kaufman dropped out of high school at 16 to hitchhike around the country in pursuit of birds. In 1973 he decided to do a "Big Year," seeing as many North American species as he could. He did so on less than $1,000 ... and yet was one of the year's top two listers, however you do the math.
This...more
Extreme Birding! XTREME!
This is a book about hoe Kenn Kaufman spent 1973 hitchhiking North America to see the most species of birds he could see in one year. He was nineteen.
Okay, so probably not the best writing in the world, but I did not fall asleep (I am looking at you, For Whom the Bell Tolls). He had a lot of magical adventures that year all driven by this Big Year List. It makes me want to have a quest so that I can have some adventures. By the end of the year he gets tired of Listing bu...more
This is a book about hoe Kenn Kaufman spent 1973 hitchhiking North America to see the most species of birds he could see in one year. He was nineteen.
Okay, so probably not the best writing in the world, but I did not fall asleep (I am looking at you, For Whom the Bell Tolls). He had a lot of magical adventures that year all driven by this Big Year List. It makes me want to have a quest so that I can have some adventures. By the end of the year he gets tired of Listing bu...more
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This was such an interesting book to read, especially that it took place when all the heavy duty birding started to take place. Instead of Audoboning (shooting the bird as my husband would say), they start to just look, keep lists, and learn behaviors. First that he was obsessed with birds starting at age 6 is something in itself. That Kenn was allowed to quit school(only sixteen), take off with virtually no money, to find birds was really something. As a parent, I don't think I could have allow...more
Fun book. Fun. the subtitle says it all, "The story of a natural obsession that got a little out of hand." The book details Kaufman’s peregrinations around the continent in search of birds—as many species as he can possibly find in one year—when he was only a teenage high school dropout. He had so little money, many days all he had to eat was dry cat food. The author comes of age and goes one to become one of this country’s leading bird experts. Great adventure story as he writes:
“Sometimes in t...more
“Sometimes in t...more
The original subtitle, "The Story of a Natural Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand" is a better fit. This is the story of Kenn Kaufman's 1973 Big Year, his attempt to set a world record for the highest number of different species of birds seen in North America. Then as it is now, the stereotypical "birdwatcher" was a little old hobbyist, but KK was a 19 year old high school dropout, more passionate for discovering birds and wild places than he was for finishing his education, and his cross-c...more
This is a very special book for me. Kenn Kaufmann has become and is well known as one of the premier birdwatchers and authors on bird identification in this country.I started birdwatching at about the same time as the author, although I was probably about fifteen years older. The magic of this book is not only his marvelous adventure, but his sharing the fond memories of people and places that were included in this endeavor. Many of the people included in this odyssey are no longer with us, but...more
I had the same problem with this book that I have had with others by "power birders". Kaufman and his friends just strike me as too arrogant and self-absorbed. And here, the ugly side of birding--the competition to merely check off birds and move on-- takes on a life of its own. I had incredible difficulty believing that an 18 year old with 20 dollar binoculars could hitchhike across the country, flawlessly identifying hundreds of species on first contact and in so doing finding over a dozen rar...more
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Honest account of a 17 year old bird watcher who spent a year hitchhiking more than 69,000 miles in an attempt to see more than 665 different North American species. The author, who wrote the book 25 years after the fact, began with stars in his eyes and ended up ground down and disillusioned. His love of birds turned into a mindless pursuit of a tick mark on a list. Ultimately this book is about the journey, not the destination. It's age old to expect a certain outcome only to have the path cha...more
If this book was only about what the cover suggests - following the events of Kenn Kaufman's big year - it would have been quite enjoyable. However, Kauffman picked up the threads of several birding themes that made it exemplary. The story opened with the carrot of Kauffman as a high school dropout, hitchhiking rides across country to go birding, working in apple orchards to earn $50 to sustain him for the next month of birding, and eating cat food and sleeping outside to save money. The passion...more
May 23, 2008
Martha
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
recommended-by-pals
Oh, my, this book gave me such a warm fuzzy feeling. The author, Kenn Kaufmann, dropped out of high school in the early 70's to devote himself to his primary passion in life: bird watching, or in the subcultural parlance, "birding". Most of the book chronicles his attempt to crack the record for the most possible bird sightings in one year, which involves his criss-crossing (and back and forth and back and forth and back again) the country by hitchhiking.
He gives the reader not only an appreciat...more
He gives the reader not only an appreciat...more
This was a really well written travelogue by a guy who's a big name in the birding field today, writing for Audubon and other magazines. He quit school in 1970 at age 16 to hitch hike throughout the country to bird. The book is compared to a naturalist's On the Road and I think that was a pretty good description. This book was really inspiring to me as I've recently named myself a birder and am hoping to have a similar communal experience as Kaufman, or whatever version of that can be found in 2...more
Highly entertaining account of Kaufman's year-long travels throughout the U.S. (including Alaska) as a teenager in the 70s as he criss-crossed the country, mostly hitchhiking, in an attempt to beat the record for most bird species seen in one year. The birds he finds, the people he meets, and more importantly, the changes he goes through and the epiphany he experiences at the end of his quest make for fascinating reading which even non-birders should enjoy.
Ken Kaufman dropped out of high school at 16 and traveled the continent to seek his dream and love of birds. At 19 he spent the entire year, 1973, attempting to list as many birds as possible to set a record for a single year. His wanderings took him several times far and wide, back and forth, up and down the lower 48 states and Alaska. By mostly hitch hiking he calculates he covered 96,000 miles. Often spending only a dollar a day on food and sleeping outdoors wherever he could find a place to...more
About the time Kenn Kaufman was starting out on his Big Year, I was also discovering the joys of birding thanks mostly to my bedroom picture window which gave me a wonderful view of the birds in the large old trees in our yard. As a birder I probably relate to this tale more than non-birders, but the story should give nonbirders good insight into what motivates birders. His descriptions of the beginnings of the ABA, early birding hotlines, and the development of field guides was informative. It...more
A fascinating, amusing account of a time (the early seventies) when big year birding was a test of guts and true birding talent (not a test of hiring the best guides and having the most money to blow on airfare). Ken Kaufman hitchhiked all over the continent on very little money and met lots of colorful characters from Baja, Mexico, to the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, to a little island off Florida. Even if you don't particularly care about birds, this is an awesome road trip story (but you migh...more
I loved this book. I am a birder and I'm sure that added a lot to the appeal, but Kaufman was brutally honest about himself in this book and watching him mature and evolve over the course of the year covered was wonderful to see. The thrill of travel and the vagabond life certainly appeals also. If you are a birder, this is a don't miss!
I have read this book and Big Year by Mark Obmascik. I loved Big Year because it was about the birders while I did not enjoy this one because it was about the birds. I think people who are birders will enjoy this book, but if you aren't, opt for Big Year because I think it can appeal to anyone who just enjoys a good book
What a wonderful yarn! Full of the thrill of the hunt back and forth across the continent from Florida to Alaska, Texas to North Dakota. An unexpected added bonus is his mature reflection on the meaning (if any) of listing and the joy of watching birds. If I had any extreme birder friends, I'd recommend it to them. Tom has already read it.
Birds are some of the most interesting creatures, and so are those who bird them -- more than watch, it is stalk and enthuse and search the world (or at least the US) to find and commune with. Kenn Kaufman writes as well as he searches, with smooth prose & extreme poetry.
My third time reading this. Fun, light, well-written but it didn't really excite me this time.
But I did learn more about the history of the American Birding Association and how print media played a huge role in expanding the Big Year/hyper-listing phenomenon.
But I did learn more about the history of the American Birding Association and how print media played a huge role in expanding the Big Year/hyper-listing phenomenon.
Really enjoyable! I would have rated it "5" but I didn't enjoy the grim parts about selling plasma to have enough money to continue his quest; also, the description of his being hungry -- somebody should have given that teenager some food!
Really entertaining and a good story telling job by kaufman. I thought it could have been a better book had he kept explaining what this year meant to him in his career as an author of birding books and guides. I would have personally liked an epilogue and an afterword not just an afterword.
This compelling story generates fast-paced reading with (confirmed) appeal to birders and non-birders alike. Kaufman's story would probably be just another semi-interesting tale of a birder's Big Year if it weren't for the uniqueness of his approach and the single-minded depth of his passion. Highly recommended.
In 1973 a 17 year old kid hits the road hitchhiking for one year to see as many birds as possible. This works as a record of the time, as a personal history, as a travelogue and as a nature journal. Well organized and engaging read.
It was an interesting read beginning slow. Since we in south Texas are on the migratory path of many birds I was interested in that part of the journey of this birder. I enjoyed the philosophical ending.
Oct 23, 2011
Cindi
marked it as to-read
Now I officially have met Kenn Kaufman and his wife. They even know my kids by name. It's about time I read his book and immersed myself in the world of birds!!
Makes me want to take to the road although maybe not hitchhiking-- like Kaufmen does. I want to go to Gambell, Alaska now. And go birding in Baja.
Mar 26, 2011
Daniel Parsons
added it
Another story that sounds like my kind of thing. Hitchhiking around the country and living on less than $1 a day. A great birder too.
Charming as a travelogue, naturalist manifesto, and memoir. A must-read for all bird nerds.
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“ Dreams and coffee and sunrises make up the rhythms of the road.
Music is a part of it, too: the popular music on the jukeboxes and radio stations. You hear it constantly, in diners and on car radios. The music has a rhythm that fits the steady drumming of tires over pavement. It seeps into your bloodstream. After a while it ceases to make any difference whether or not you like the stuff. When you’re traveling alone, a nameless rider with a succession of strangers, it can give you a comforting sense of the familiar to hear the same music over and over.
At any given time, a few current hits will be overplayed to exhaustion by the rock & roll stations. In hitching across the continent, you might hear the same song fifty or sixty times. Certain songs become connected in your mind with certain trips.”
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7 people liked it
Music is a part of it, too: the popular music on the jukeboxes and radio stations. You hear it constantly, in diners and on car radios. The music has a rhythm that fits the steady drumming of tires over pavement. It seeps into your bloodstream. After a while it ceases to make any difference whether or not you like the stuff. When you’re traveling alone, a nameless rider with a succession of strangers, it can give you a comforting sense of the familiar to hear the same music over and over.
At any given time, a few current hits will be overplayed to exhaustion by the rock & roll stations. In hitching across the continent, you might hear the same song fifty or sixty times. Certain songs become connected in your mind with certain trips.”
“This is the West. We expect things to be tough out here.”
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1 person liked it
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