We're In! Backyard Big Year!
I have cool birding friend who I don't get to see much anymore. We met when I worked for the National Audubon Society and have fortunately stayed in contact over the years since we both left.
Thing is, he's always coming up with cool new ways to enjoy birds. Like getting your RDAB - your Recommended Daily Allowance of Birds. He blogged about that a few years back and it really got me into paying attention to what I had the opportunity to see on a day to day basis. Being able to enjoy birds all the time and not just when I had a planned birding excursion.
Well, he's doing it again and I'm soooo in for it! Tomorrow he kicks off his Backyard Big Year. A typical Big Year is when a birder makes a commitment to trying to see as many species as possible in one year. There's a book, and now a movie, about a few crazy guys who do so competitively. Many folks have tweaked the Big Year to be more local or to be a Big Green Year which tends to be fossil-fuel free.
But I'm excited about this version. I have three kids under the age of three now, so it's not so easy to even attempt a local Big Year. Don't get me wrong, they love a good birding adventure. But what they love the most is exploring our backyard.
So last night at dinner we made a plan. We already watch birds and have started to tick off our backyard list.
But now we're gonna supe-up our feeding station and really see what we can entice into the yard. We'll keep track by posting pictures on our massively empty wall in the sunroom. And bust out our drawing notebooks and try and capture what we see and hear with colored pencils and markers and crayons.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW!
So thank you Rob, for being the brilliant birder I love and am inspired by. I hope you'll all follow his progress on his blog and Facebook. And, I'll try to keep you updated too about what me and my Littles Crew sees during our Big Backyard Year 2015!