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For September, 2017 we read Kingbird Highway by Ken Kaufman. This is the story of of a 16 year old who drops out of high school to do a Big Year - seeing how many birds he can see in a single calendar year in North America. The book is part birder story, part coming of age, and part road trip. This is the time (pre-internet) when birders were just starting to communicate where birds were with methods like recorded messages at a phone number. Kaufman hitch-hikes back and forth across the country adding birds to his Big Year list.
Most agreed it was an agreeable story but maybe a tad extreme. The Big Year in birding circles this is a big deal and birders compete and cooperate to try for a record or at least a respectable showing. The idea of a 16 year old traveling mostly by hitch-hiking some 69,000 miles to list birds shows how seriously it is taken. We discussed the idea of dropping out of high school and then hitch-hiking cross country. We agreed Kaufman was not the average teenage. The stories of how other birders support him and share their passion gave an idea of what serious birding was all about. As the Big Year went on, Kaufman became less concerned with the count then actually seeing and learning about the birds. Just listing seems a little absurd until you think about how these birders have memorized field guides and bird songs of birds they have never seen so they can recognize them when they do wee (or hear) them. It seems almost like meeting a friend you only knew through Facebook.
Kaufman also talks about bird lists and how they change as species are lumped and/or separated. He also talks a little about pressures on birds from habit destruction here and abroad to pesticides but he never gets preachy. It's not a book to help you get to know the birds but should help you get to know birding. The book is interesting because it paints a picture of the birding culture, at least as it was in the early 1970's.
The group had a few, more than novice, bird watchers and they encouraged the rest of us to learn more about it. We discussed birding opportunities with the Baltimore Bird Club, the Audobon Christmas Count, the Backyard Bird Count, Patterson Park walks, Druid Hill Park walks, Cylburn walks and Lights Out Baltimore as well as the monthly ORNC walks on the first Friday of the month at 8:30. They stressed the beauty and individuality of each species that you hardly see until you make a concerted effort.
Overall the book was seen as a good read by almost everyone in the group.
