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PODCAST

The Big Year Podcast

Robert Baumander

Welcome to the Big Year Podcast, a show devoted to birders who do Big Years. A Big Year is a 365 day commitment to see as many birds as possible in a defined area, including the ABA Area, states, provinces or counties in the US and Canada.

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All Episodes

63:47

Season 3, Episode 7: Liam Ragan’s Victoria Island, BC...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2025/10/31

It’s a rainy day in Birderland. It’s October 30, 2025 and I am writing this on night before Halloween. I won’t claim that this is going to be a spooky episode, but there are one or two scary birding stories from our guest Liam Ragan. Liam broke the record for a Vancouver Island, British Columbia Big Year, but beyond that, he does a lot of fine conservation work out west, for the Rocky Point Bird Observatory. His job gave him the freedom to travel around the island while also allowing him to go

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38:25

Season 3, Episode 6: On the Road, Again

The Big Year Podcast ·

2025/09/01

It was the perfect way to begin The Big Year Podcast On the Road, Again, with discovery of a very rare bird, right here in my backyard, near Cambridge, Ontario. A young birder by the name of Nathan Hood found a Spotted Redshank, a rare visitor lost on its way back from Eurasia. Almost every birder I know in Ontario, from within 2 to 3 hours drive, has shown up to see this amazing rarity. It’s September 1, 2025 and I t's hard to believe summer's nearly over and that fall migration is really

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58:56

Season 3, Episode 5: 2012 Ontario Big Year with...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2025/08/01

Welcome all to The Big Year Podcast. I’m Robert Baumander and you’re, well, you. It’s the end of July, 2025, and you know what that means? Certainly an all new episode of the Big Year podcast, naturally, but mostly, we’re smack-dab in the heat of the summer and the lack-of-birds blues. In July and August, it's more about the butterflies and bees than the birds in the trees. It's hot, humid, and clammy. You get soaked with sweat and barely see or hear any birds. Nothing makes you look forward

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38:17

Season 3, Episode 3: Alberta Bider and Guide, Gavin...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2025/06/01

Well, thank you once again for joining me on the Big Year podcast. As May turns to June, spring migration is coming to a close. I've been busy all the merry month of May, birding in Long Point Provincial Park, where we got to see a Summer Tanager, Rondeau Provincial Parks for a Mourning Warbler, and Point Pelee National Park for Prothonotary Warblers and a Yellow-breasted Chat and Hillman Marsh for a Neotropic Cormorant and American Avocets. I’ve taken trips to Toronto where I just saw a Western

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59:23

Season 3, Episode 2: Natasza Fontaine and Robert...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2025/04/15

Happy Podcast day, one and all! Welcome to back to The Big Year Podcast. Thank you once again for joining me. It’s April 15, 2025 and spring migration is well underway here in southwestern Ontario. It’s actually a bit of a miracle that I finished this episode on time because the last 2 weeks have been very busy for me and my fellow birders. It started with a Western Grebe in Port Credit, a Black-headed Gull, at Port Colborne, followed by a Long-billed Dowitcher right here in Brant County. The

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47:01

Season 2, Episode 8: Josh Gant, 2020 Ocean County, NJ...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2024/11/08

Well, it's Friday, November 7, 2024.I'm now five weeks late for my latest podcast, this episode with Joshua Gant, which was supposed to have appeared on October 1st. Well, I got busy in October, actually in September as well, and I started a project that kept me pretty busy. Not only was I building a set of cat shelves in the living room for the cats to play on this winter, I was building a dream project of mine. I was born in 1960, and in 1966, the TV show Star Trek appeared, and by the time I was

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43:43

Season 2 Episode 7: Danny Bernard and his Accidental...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2024/09/01

Well, it’s September 1, 2024, the Dog Days of Birding are behind us and fall migration is underway, signalling the end of the summer breeding season and birds booking their flights south for the winter. Happily for birders, there are no direct flights from the breeding grounds in the north to the wintering grounds in the south, which means we are graced by the presence of southern migrants. When the wind is just right, shorebirds and seabirds pass through, many of them stopping to refuel at

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37:25

Season 2, Episode 6: Marcus Legzdins and his 2023 HSA...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2024/08/02

Welcome, birders and non birders who have to put up with the birders in their lives, to the Big Year Podcast, with me, the one, the only,(thankfully), Robert Baumander. As I sit and type this introduction, it is August 1, 2024 and the unofficial start of The Dog Days of Summer. Actually, for birders in Ontario, at least, the birding really begins to slow down near the beginning of July. But even so, there have been a few rare birds to chase, including a Brown Booby and a Ruff. Boobies are quite

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39:57

Season 2, Episode 4: Brett Forsyth's 2022 Human...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2024/06/02

Well, happy birding to everyone who has chosen to join me here today. It is Saturday, June 1st, 2024, as I type. I'm Robert Baumander and this is The Big Year Podcast. My guest is Brett Forsyth, who, in 2022, did a self-powered Big Year, which means he never got in the car to go to see any bird, only walking or cycling from home. So that was a grind of a Big Year because he cycled nearly every day, in every type of weather, sometimes 150 to 300 kilometres and in single day. And I can safely say

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40:34

Episode 14: Kelly-Sue O’Connor and Birding with...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/12/15

Hello birders, and other non-feathered friends, and welcome to Episode 14 and the final episode of Season 1 of The Big Year Podcast. I am thrilled to have Kelly-Sue O’Conner, who runs Birder Brains, who along with myself and many other birders, live with various mental health issues, including Attention Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Post-concussion Syndrome. In my case all three plus a few other, including Social Anxiety Disorder. Boy, do I hate the word

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25:18

Episode 13: Tiffany Kersten’s 2021 Lower 48 Big Year,...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/11/16

We are back. Welcome once again to the show about birders and their Big Years. I had the pleasure of speaking with Tiffany a while back and in a previous episode we were discussing the life changing events that accidentally pushed her into doing a Big Year in the Lower 48 states. And today as we continue with our discussion we shall see how life changing doing a Big Year was for Tiffany. At a crossroads in her life, during the pandemic and as a single, unemployed new home owner, she threw caution

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32:50

Episode 12: Tiffany Kersten‘s Record Breaking Lower...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/10/31

Welcome to Episode 12 of The Big Year Podcast.For those of you here for the first time, my name is Robert Baumander, but I spent 41 years as Captain Video for the Toronto Blue Jays. Along the way I performed as a magician and Escape Artist, managed the computer system for Pizza Pizza, volunteered in elementary schools and The Hospital for Sick children doing magic and story telling and science classes. I have done a variety of Big Years in North America since I became a birder in 2012, and now

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40:30

Episode 11: Kiah Jasper’s Record Breaking Ontario Big...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/10/06

And a hearty welcome to episode 11 of the Big Year Podcast. I'm Robert. Baumander, and I'm your guide to the life of the big year birding experience. Late in the year 2011, which seems like a lifetime ago, I saw a little movie called, not surprisingly, The Big Year. One of my favorite actors, Steve Martin, was starring in it. I was also a fan of Jack Black and remembered him from way back when I saw High Fidelity. And who doesn't love Owen Wilson? So I told Sue that I'd like to see it and from

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36:46

Episode X: Ezra Campanelli’s 2022 Ontario Big Year

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/08/18

Welcome to Part 4 of my 5 part series on the Birders of the Ontario 2022 Big Year. Today I will be talking to Ezra Campanelli who was one of the 3 birders that broke the all time record for species in an Ontario Big Year with 357 species seen. He is one of a crop of young birders who are taking Ontario and the birding world by storm. These young birders are so knowledgeable that they are teaching some of the veteran birders a thing or two along the way. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode

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29:35

Episode 9: William Konze’s Ontario Big Year 2022

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/08/02

Welcome to Part 3 of my 5 episode series on the birders of the 2022 Ontario Big Year. Three birders broke the all time record, including William Konze, who didn't even set out to do a Big Year, let alone break the record. Though he didn't end up on top, his accomplishment is still a testament to his dedication and hard work. Travel in Ontario, which is even bigger than Texas, can be exhausting, sometimes chasing birds hundreds of miles away, driving 6 to 8 hours and in severe winer weather. If

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37:12

Episode 8: Andy Nguyen’s Ontario Big Year, 2022

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/07/18

A long time ago in an era known as the Covid-19 Lockdowns, I met Andy Nguyen on a berm above the Grand River in Brantford, Ontario. We were looking or a California Gull and before finding it, I ran off to look for a Yellow-browed Warbler in Oakville. Because Andy was wearing a mask, as it was back in Covid times, I did not recognize him the next time we met. But after a while, we got to know each other and became good birding buddies here in Southwestern Ontario. We birded many weekends and

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33:43

Episode 7: Susan Nagy’s Ontario Big Year

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/07/02

Welcome to another episode of the Big Year Podcast! My journey across North America to talk to and see what makes Big Year Birders Tick. It’s July 2, 2023 as I broadcast from my Secret Big Year recording location, deep in the basement of my Brantford home. It’s a rainy day so I am stuck indoors, not willing to brave the elements for anything but the rarest birds sighting. A far cry from what I or anyone else doing a big Year would do. Big Year birders brave the weather and more in quest of

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33:44

Episode 6: What Was Your Spark Bird?

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/06/02

The month of May in Southwestern Ontario is all about songbird migration and seeing as many warblers as possible. I knew I wasn't going to have time to edit previous podcasts and, naturally, no birders were going to have time to do sit down interviews that may cost them a Big Year Bird or Lifer, or just a skulking Mourning or Worm Eating Warbler. So, instead, I took my recording device on the road to Point Pelee National Park, Long Point and Rondeau Provincial Parks and City View Park in

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44:19

Episode 5: Laura Keene 2016 Record Breaking...

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/05/01

Today is May 1, 2023 and it is the official start of Spring Migration here in Southern Ontario. Birders from far and wide, some doing their own Big Years, are beginning their own migration to Canada’s spring birding hotspot, Point Pelee National Park to welcome the songbirds home. Down in Ohio, many birders will be making their way to The Biggest Week in American Birding. Sue and I had to cancel our last trip there, as the Covid Pandemic Lockdowns were just being felt in the spring of 2020

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40:19

Episode 4: Karen Miller 2017 New Brunswick

The Big Year Podcast ·

2023/04/03

I met Karen Miller on Canada Day in 2022. I was running out of options to get close enough to Bill's Island, off of Grand Manan, New Brunswick, so I could see American Oystercatchers. If the ferry had not been late, I'd have never met Karen and her husband Bill, who had been ferrying birders out to the island all day, to see these rare visitors to Canada. Then, on December 21 I was given an early Christmas present, in the form of a Green-tailed Towhee, another crazy-rare bird to show up in New

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