Extreme Birder

One Woman's Big Year

By: Lynn E. Barber

Narrated by: Pamela Wolken

One woman, one year, 723 species of birds.

In 2008, Lynn Barber's passion for birding led her to drive, fly, sail, walk, stalk, and sit in search of birds in 25 states and three provinces. Traveling more than 175,000 miles, she set a 21st century record at the time, second to only one other person in history. Over 272 days, Barber observed 723 species of birds in North America north of Mexico, recording a remarkable 333 new species in January but, with the dwindling returns typical to Big Year birding, only eight in December, a month that found her crisscrossing the continent from Texas to Newfoundland, from Washington to Ontario. In the months between, she felt every extreme of climate, wellbeing, and emotion. Barber's journal from her American Birding Association-sanctioned Big Year covers the highlights of her treks to forests, canyons, mountain ranges, deserts, oceans, lakes, and numerous spots in between. Written in the informal style of a diary, it captures the detail, humor, challenges, and fun of a good adventure travelogue and also conveys the remarkable diversity of North American birds and habitat.

The book is published by Texas A&M University Press.

©2011 Lynn E. Barber (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

Great story and very Good narrator

The adventure of a big year is always exciting to read about. Lynn Barber was a trailblazer when it came to women doing Big Years. I was fortunate to have Lynn on The Big Year Podcast. You can find it right here on Audible: https://www.audible.com/podcast/The-Big-Year-Podcast/B0BT2Q884N?qid=1738771786&sr=1-4&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=CHR7NRSM1ADGK8Z98D7P&plink=0OS7wvZb3plwUhuc&pageLoadId=BVkso8uE33bGnu7F&creativeId=0d6f6720-f41c-457e-a42b-8c8dceb62f2c&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_4