A Record Of Two Small Big Years

Vermillion and Loon: Two people, hundreds of birds, thousands of miles apart, only one year. Who will identify the most?

[tumblirding]

Get Ready! For A VERY BIG Year

Hello Everyone!

If you like birds this is the place for you!

This year, two of us have decided to do a Big Year.

In birding- A Big Year is a personal challenge among birders who attempt to identify as many species of birds as possible by sight or sound, within a single calendar year and within a specific geographic area.

If you'd like to follow our journey, we'll each be birding a different US state this year starting January 1st 2026, and competing with each other to see who can spot the most species of birds!

We look forward to Tumblirding with you!

-Vermilion and Loon

[nattousan]

ok so, I approached my local library with a proposal to donate a mural as a way to A: build portfolio/gain practical experience and B: give back to a beloved public institution. The director was very enthusiastic about it and i've been working on it since the beginning of March. Come with me as I endeavor to paint what is in all honesty an excessive amount of birds

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

and that was a whole week on it's own so next comes the paintin' >:)

[nattousan]

and now, the birds

Birds 1 and 2/14: Red Winged Blackbird, Male and female, Agelaius phoeniceus

[nattousan]

Bird 3/14, American Robin, Turdus migratorius

[nattousan]

hoo boy, ok *out of breath*

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

this guy took me about 4 days to completely finish, all of those freakingk coverts were a bear to render

[nattousan]

speaking of obnoxious coverts:

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

the friggin stripes almost got me chat, i may not make it

[nattousan]

Madam....

[nattousan]

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

pleasantly simple to paint! next is the flickerrrrr

[nattousan]

*melts into goo*

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

nothing but pain and suffering, i'm sure hope the next bird will be much easier and with FAR less barring :)

[nattousan]

in other news, I am losing my mind hairline

[nattousan]

SHE'S DONE!!

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

[nattousan]

*does a little jig*

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

Also thank you everyone for your kind words and support throughout this whole process, it's been a genuine treat thinking there are potentially thousands of you out there cheering me on while I paint this 🥹

[nattousan]

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

the 16th is looming in the distance so i'm trying to get thru these as quickly as i can so i can have as much time for the GBH as possible. i still need to do the names next to all of them so i've got about a week and a half to finish everything which is GREAT because i have adhd and nothing gets my ass in gear like a fuckin deadline, let me tell you

[nattousan]

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

[nattousan]

thanks for the reminder, kid

[nattousan]

at long last, we've reached the end...

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

i'll see y'all soon :')

[tumblirding]

Hello! Its been a while since I last updated. Turns out I still know how to type messages. Yess go me. Anyway, I went out to the coast today and got me a few Caspian turns. Ah to be a Caspian Turn dive bombing straight into a lake without regard safety. Not too much else today, but I am planning a trip to the mountains tomorrow and hoping to score a lot. My good friend vermilion, you should be afraid. I will update you guys after my adventures this weekend! Bye bye all!

-loon: 143

[dogpuppy]

[tumblirding]

Ok I’ve been recovering

BUT

I escaped to.. THE MOUNTAINS!!

A lovely full day alone in the forest just me, the birds, and all the campers hikers and families I passed on the way to a very popular lake

I saw lots of birds I don’t usually get to!! Including a few lifers like this red faced warbler!

A wonderful very relaxing day that definitely did not injure my foot for the rest of the weekend.

Loon I’m sorry to break it to you, I have surpassed.

-Vermillion

Count: 136

[tumblirding]

-Loon

[tumblirding]

Ok I’ve been recovering

BUT

I escaped to.. THE MOUNTAINS!!

A lovely full day alone in the forest just me, the birds, and all the campers hikers and families I passed on the way to a very popular lake

I saw lots of birds I don’t usually get to!! Including a few lifers like this red faced warbler!

A wonderful very relaxing day that definitely did not injure my foot for the rest of the weekend.

Loon I’m sorry to break it to you, I have surpassed.

-Vermillion

Count: 136

[tumblirding]

ok this isn't really a huge update or anything, but PIGEON CUDDLE. PIGEON CUDDLE I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL. That is all

Ok who knows if this was actually a pigeon cuddle because as they were huddled against each other this turned into a preening session where one was aggressively trying to preen the other and one was extremely annoyed, but still an adorable thing to come across in the wild. Im guessing parent and child or maybe siblings. Maybe neither! What do YOU think?

Have a good day

-Loon

Count: 132

[pigeonidentifier]

Feral pigeons, both of them!

They are grey, one has black bars on its wings, they're probably not domestic because they are outside, thus I can conclude that they're feral pigeons!

Lovely friendly birds, they don't deserve the hatred they get from a lot of people.

Also, whilst I am no expert on pigeon behaviour, it is possible (my limited knowledge supports this) that they are a couple. Feral pigeons pair for life so they may be the pigeon equivalent of a married couple. That being said I am biased towards this conclusion (I find the idea of pigeons being in love adorable) so it could really be anything.

Truly wonderful birds in any case!

[tumblirding]

ok this isn't really a huge update or anything, but PIGEON CUDDLE. PIGEON CUDDLE I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL. That is all

Ok who knows if this was actually a pigeon cuddle because as they were huddled against each other this turned into a preening session where one was aggressively trying to preen the other and one was extremely annoyed, but still an adorable thing to come across in the wild. Im guessing parent and child or maybe siblings. Maybe neither! What do YOU think?

Have a good day

-Loon

Count: 132

[tumblirding]

Busy busy

Busy busy

Far to busy in general

Only catching glimpses.

Managed a rare one, then a migrator when I didn’t expect

Burger or bird?

I pull into the parking lot and pull out my binoculars

Hooded Oriole-125

Back in my car to get my burger,

And also

A shake

-Vermillion

Count: 125

[tumblirding]

hello friends

It has been a bit, but there has been a LOT going and a lot of projects. What a surprise, the hobbyist likes to do hobbies. I have still been finding some birds around if not slowly but surely. One of which was a group of oyster catchers which is apparently a rare find for the area! I went to a pretty common migration spot so I happened to catch them on their stop off to the coast. For being so brightly colored, the were really hard to see. I had to zoom in on my camera just to see them. Such pretty bright colors though. Birds are pretty in general

Sincerely: the unbiased opinion of a bird enjoyer

I also FINALLY found my osprey nesting in the usual spot I find them. I guess they reuse their old nests. Who knew! Also spotted some barn swallows as well. The usual suspects this time of year

All in all keeps me sitting pretty at 128, but im excited for the what spring will bring. Cya!

-Loon

Count: 128

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[tumblirding]

Heelllooooo my good people. It is your faithful and humble servant in birding. I am back with more news. They say you shouldn't gloat before you've already won buuuut, mwuhahaha HAHAHA! *ahem* sorry. Look I just can't help, but tease. Again I shouldn't get too comfortable. 5 birds isnt a huge lead and my buddy fly catcher isnt to be taken lightly so I should savor this moment while I can for I can imagine it they wont take it lying down. That being said, things are going well enough! The sighting of a Mourning Dove, Say's Pheobe and a Lesser gold finch are all Birds I've had my eye on for a while. It was just a matter of time. This goes doubly for the black billed magpie I saw. Outside of that.. things have been pretty quiet. There have been an explosion of rare bird sightings, but a lot of them seem to be outside my general range. Seems like I will need to start planning my next big trip! In the meantime, happy birding everyone, and I hope the spring birds appear sooner rather than later.

cya! -Loon count: 125

[fleshst4r]

.

we're not going to make it

we will make it

it'll take too long to rebuild ourselves

we will make it

but what if we don't wake up in the morning

we will make it

i don't see a future with me in it

we will make it

we'll give up long before then

we will make it

im scared

i love you. we will make it

Voting ended onApr 11

[animnightmare]

The votes on this post. Oh. A poem in poll form, interactive art, the fact we can see how the other people reading it felt. im. this is really good.

[cute-cotylorhynchus]

birding tip! when you see a bird. smile :)

[tumblirding]

Hello all, I have seen Loon’s post yes…

Little ol me at 114 and him at 120..

Except he messaged me his new count

WHEN I WAS LITERALLY IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ORGANIZED BIRD FIELD TRIP

So unfortunately for him I was able to count 4 new birds amongst the ones I usually see, and then when I got home I saw a Lucy’s Warbler checking out my wind chime with a straw hut on top.

I had two nest there last year and I hope they do again

Anyway, that puts my total count at 119

He’s still ahead but I’m certainly not out, and an incredibly rare seabird was reported less than an hour from me, so with any luck I’ll catch up very soon.

Catch ya on the fly side

-Vermillion

Count: 119

[tumblirding]

Hellooooo folks. It's your boy, Loon once again. i'VE got some incredible news. I had an astounding weekend this past week and hooooo boy am I in the running now. So many birds it's hard for me to list them all here. I FINALLY got my snow goose and I also went across the mountain and got some REALLY cool pictures of Sandhill Cranes.

It's at this moment that I've come to realize birders are really...uncreative..

at

coming up... with names

Yknow snow geese because they hang out in the snowy areas and Sandhill Cranes because I found them in a sandy hilly... area. If I were naming birds I would name it like the super ultra bird or name it something like the super apocalypse, world ender finch and let OTHER people decide what the heck that means.

Anyway. I also got myself a Western Meadow Lark, Vesper Sparrow, Wild Turkeys, Ring Necked Pheasants, and some California Quail AND a White Pelican. All birds that arn't super uncommon, but more common on the other side of the mountain I happened to be on this time and I wasn't going to take that for granted

All together it brings my count to 120 which puts me ahead of my buddy Flycatcher buuuut I shouldn't get too cozy. I can imagine they're planning their next attack because they're awesome like that. Anyways, see you all in the next one. Happy birding.

-Loon

Count: 120

[tumblirding]

Went out this weekend with my local bird society to go on a little field trip!

We saw a LOT some species I didn’t count because they were too fast or too far, but I counted the ones the guide described the field marks for and I could see or hear clearly.

Which gave me 8 more birds! Some sparrows, a vireo and a ton of northern cardinals!

-Vermillion

Count:112