Two new movies for birders

<p>These are more comments than questions, but:</p>

<p>Has anyone here watched the 2011 movie "The Big Year"? It's a true story (except they changed the facts). It's a rather entertaining film, based on a 2004 book with the same title. I even learned that there really is such a bird as a pink footed goose (I thought at first that they made that one up). And there really is a "Big Year" of competitive birding.</p>

<p>Interestingly, while these record-setting competitive birders were listing as many as 721 species sighted in a year, the book points out that there are only 675 indigenous species of bird in North America. Read the book or watch the movie to find out how. </p>

<p>Also, for birders, I recommend the new HBO documentary: <a href="http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/birders-the-central-park-effect/index.html?utm_source=Cornell+Lab+eNews&utm_campaign=6d43a6c951-eNewsFlash_The_Central_Park_Effect_July_16_2012&utm_medium=email">"Birders: The Central Park Effect"</a>. Very enjoyable and educational too.</p>

<p>Thanks Dennis,<br>

I'll have to watch for these two! Always good to learn something new each day, which you and I both know is not hard to accomplish by watching Wildlife! Either in person or through someone elses eye or lens.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Interestingly, while these record-setting competitive birders were listing as many as 721 species sighted in a year, the book points out that there are only 675 indigenous species of bird in North America. Read the book or watch the movie to find out how.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Vagrants! I know that, earlier this year, there were at least two Barnacle Geese (<em>Branta leucopsis</em>) sighted in Massachusetts. Barnacles are endemic to Europe, and I saw plenty of them in Stockholm last summer.</p>

<p>Dennis,<br>

I highly suggest reading the book, it is way better than the movie which is focusing on the comedy. (the book is more focused on the birds and the details of the race). You really have to be familiar with birds to appreciate the book though. I will say it was good to see a couple of the locations especially in Alaska. </p>

<p>If you REALLY want to see something great about birds that is VERY educational checkout 'Life of Birds' by David Attenborough .</p>

<p>"I will say it was good to see a couple of the locations especially in Alaska."<br>

The Attu scenes weren't really photographed at Attu (which has been closed to acces for years now). It looks like they tried to recreate the look and feel of the experience, though (I've not been there). <br>

The book is better than the movie, which is a highly fictionalized account. Despite that I enjoyed the movie, which I saw on an airplane. I would've liked it less if I'd paid to see it in a theater.</p>

 

Seen both and saw the LOB series as Douglas suggests. The LOB series was very entertaining for a bird lover;

unfortunately it's not on Netflix anymore. :(

Sounds like some good reading and viewing here. Is this similar to the World Series of Birding in NJ? When reading about it on the Cape May web site I noticed that it is also called the Big Day, and initially called the Biggest Day. LOB is amazing. I recall a segment of Nature that centered on Red Tail Hawks nesting on a building adjacent to Central Park.

 

Seeing how folks pursue interests in nature is often as enjoyable as being out there.

<p>"Is this similar to the World Series of Birding in NJ?"</p>

<p>In the sense that the 100 meter sprint and the marathon are both running races :)</p>

<p>The reality is that you have to be an extremely good birder to hit high numbers on a Big Day, it's really not possible if you you're not skilled at birding by ear. Since it's a sprint, it's more about skill than financial resources (obviously, the running analogy fails here, you don't need to be rich to spend a few hours running a marathon).</p>

<p>A Big Year for North America is as much about having the time and money to travel extensively to some of the more remote portions of the continen, often on very short notice, in order to chase vagrants, as it is about skill.</p>

<p>Putting together a Big World Year is even more about having time and money to travel the world ...</p>

 

Thanks Don. I'll look into the book for winter reading. While my birding hobby doesn't take me to these sorts of events I still find them interesting to learn about. I plod along at a pace somewhere between the tortoise and the hare. :)

<p>Hi Laura.</p>

<p>I have been out with groups of birders for 'Big Days'. It's quite an event to be around, occasionally a fight breaks out (That's a LEAST Sandpiper, not a WESTERN you moron" (that was a direct quote from the big day I was on). As a photographer these things are brutal. They *may* be happy enough to get a photo to prove their sighting but they do NOT have the patience a photographer needs to generally get a good shot in. They need to see, hear, and figure out what they have and move on. It really is a sport.</p>

Hi Doug,

 

Jeez, I wouldn't have guessed that an ID could get so testy. Sounds like quite a time. I appreciate you sharing the experience.