The Trans-Canada Jay Highway

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-48vmx-1aeb729

A hardy welcome to summer birding and the return, after a break for migration, of The Big Year Podcast.  Seems silly of me to tell you the title of the show, since you must have known it when you clicked on the podcast to begin with. 

 

Today, we have two guests.  Our first guest is Tobin Brown, who did a Nebraska Big Year, and broke the previous record for birds seen in the state for a single year.  And our second guest, Brooke Showan will tell her story of having found, through serendipity, or just really good bird spotting skills, the Whooping Crane many of us drove to northern Ontario to see, just as I was finishing up the previous episode with Roberta Bondar, where we discussed her involvement with the Conservation efforts of the Whooping Cranes in North America.

 

As reported in my May 1 episode, I drove north to Bruce Mines to see the wayward bird, but did not have the chance to talk to the birder who initially found it, reported it to the International Crane Foundation, and became a bit of a local celebrity for her amazing discovery, less than an hour’s drive south of Dr. Bondar’s home in Sault Ste. Marie.  I was able to catch up with Brooke, early in May, and I think you’ll enjoy the story of her own Whooping Crane adventure.  

 

I had a good migration season, beginning with a little cheeky movie parody of 50 Shades of Gray, called 31 Shades of Yellow, and shared some of my favourite yellowish warblers and vireos each day of May on Instagram.  But it was May 2 when we had the first highlight of migration, when a White-faced Ibis showed up in my local patch, right here in Brant County.  It was species number 245 for my county list and a bird I never expected to show up locally.  It was the second Brant County Lifer of the year, the first being a Ross’s Goose in March.

 

On May 7, I was fortunate enough to see a Bell’s Vireo, another very rare bird for Ontario, not far from home at Lakeside Park in Kitchener.  A couple of days later a Western Cattle Egret showed up in Norfolk County, not far from the Long Point Bird Observatory, another fine place for birding during migration season.  That same day the first of many Summer Tanagers reported in May, landed on Woodstock Avenue just around the corner from Long Point.

 

At Point Pelee one of the most coveted warblers of spring migration, a Worm Eating Warbler, made an appearance on the Sanctuary Trail at the north end of the park.  Worm Eating Warblers are never guaranteed during any given migration season in Ontario, and in fact I missed seeing one during my own 2022 Big Year.  Worm Eating Warblers nest south of the Great Lakes and any seen in Ontario are what birders call “overshoots,” likely due to weather or just plain old navigation errors. 

 

What one might call the most unexpected bird of the season, was a Willow Ptarmigan that showed up at Rock Point Provincial Park. Too bad it, it being seen at Rock Point, that it wasn’t a Rock Ptarmigan, as I’ve never seen one of those. But for many of the people at Rock Point that day, it was either a Lifer or at least an Ontario Lifer.  For my friend, Andrew Keaveny, who has been on a previous episode, it was an Ontario Lifer.  He had been birding nearly all his life, had seen well over 400 species in Ontario, but was as excited for this bird as he was for the Whooping Crane.  And by the way, if you haven’t listened to Andrew’s episode, please load it up after this and have a listen.  Oh, and it would help a lot if you’d like, subscribe, leave glowing reviews and share this with your friends and family.  

 

So, now that we’re all up to date, please have a listen to the stories of Tobin Brown and Brooke Showan.

 

Here’s a bonus section for you to enjoy. I enjoy listening to the music from the movie, The Big Year.  The soundtrack album is nice, but does not include all the songs that we heard in the movie.  I was able to put together a playlist, including all the orchestral pieces from the movie, by Theodore Shapiro and all the songs that I could download from Apple Music.  I even tried to put them in order of when they appeared in the movie, more or less.

 

Track 1:   The Code Writer

Track 2:   Minor Swing performed by Django Reinhardt

Track 3:   Carpe Annum

Track 4:   Day One

Track 5:   The Devil Never sleeps performed by Iron & Wine

Track 6:   Bostick Sneaks a Peek/Bird Bait

Track 7:   Fallout

Track 8:   Let it Shine performed by Jeremy Fisher

Track 9:   Pitkin County Turnaround performed by Steve Martin himself on banjo

Track 10: The Shrike

Track 11: Welcome to Attu

Track 12: Rustic Bunting/Western Tanager

Track 13: Viva la Vida performed by Cold Play

Track 14: Attu/The Great Spotted Woodpecker

Track 15: Come Fly Away performed by Jeremy Fisher

Track 16: I like Birds by performed by the Eels

Track 17: Snowcocks

Track 18: Golden Plover/Ruby Alive/Freak Blizzard

Track 19: Ultrasound

Track 20: Great Gray Owl

Track 21: Final Stretch

Track 22: Face the Abyss

Track 23: A Very Big Year

Track 24: Coda

Track 25: This Could All Be Yours performed by Guster

Track 26: Ornithological Pursuits (Played over the final credits).

 

There are some incidental tracks throughout the movies that play mostly in the background, but are not a major part of the story, like Bing Crosby’s Silent Night or Auld Lang Syne performed by Guy Lombardo, plus some more obscure tracks that only an audiophile would be able to dig up.  You may also want to include Surfin’ Bird performed by The Trashmen.