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At a personal and professional crossroads , a man readjust his spirit and found sobriety , dearest , and 618 raspberry species , bike his way of life to a veryBig Year . unite him on his journeying as he recounts begin his Big Year on bicycle !
The pursuit is an excerption fromBirding Under the InfluencebyDorian Anderson . It has been adapted for the web .
Starting A Big Year of Birdwatching
Staring out the kitchen windowpane and into the predawn darkness , I recoiled when I glimpsed the outdoor thermometer .
Twenty - nine degrees ? Sure . Nineteen degree ? peradventure . But nine degrees ? vote out me now .
Incredulous , I shuffled toward the back door and stuck my bedhead out . Mother Nature satisfy my oddment with an icy , backhanded slap across my human face , and I slammed the portal shut before she could exsert her sub - freezing shellacking .
Nine degree it is . Damn .
A Chilly Beginning
I have a go at it starting my wheel Big Year in Massachusetts could expose me to disabling cold , but mild temperature through November and much of December had sowed hope of a around the bend beginning . That optimism on the spur of the moment frozen solid , I gobbled a bowl of oatmeal and prepared to confront my meteoric misfortune .
I layered long underwear , fleece thermals , and canvass lading knickers before put on an insulated singlet , a fleece cap , and an expedition- weight down parka . I protect my hands with mountaineer gloves and stuffed my feet into duncish wool windsock and stout winter boots .
With a neoprene fount masque exit only my eyes exposed , I looked ready for a polar savings bank robbery , my wheel lam to be the slowest in heist history .
Making Final Adjustments
In the garage , I made final adjustments to my four crimson panniers and attached them to metal racks on the front and rear of my bicycle . Functional over flashy , my maroon Surly Disc Trucker was the two - wheel around equivalent of a Hyundai Elantra ; featuringbasic change over levers , low - technical school derailleurs , and generic parts , the steel - framed touring workhorse would be comfortable to maintain and quicken as I moved around the land .
I deform at the knee , gripped the physique , and run up my loaded transport . Accounting for tools , binoculars , photographic camera , spotting scope , tripod , fowl Word of God , apparel , food and water system , first aid kit , toiletries , laptop , chargers , and other supplies , it matter nearly eighty pounds . I had n’t pedaled an inch , but my legs were already aching .
Taking On the Bike
My cycling experience at the time I left Salisbury was laughable . I ’d bike the fifteen round - trip mile from my apartment to Mass General through the summer and fall of 2013 , but that minimum breeding was halted in October , when I was stricken by tendonitis in my knees .
Unsure if I ’d rehabilitate before January , I delayed purchasing my bike and gear mechanism until early December , when physical therapy alleviated my throbbing painful sensation . Holiday hoopla occupy precedence over ride at the end of the year , and I realized I had n’t practiced ride the in full debase beast by the fourth dimension I campaign it out of my lodgement on that inaugural morning . I toss on my bike light and bestride up , the frigid air stabbing at my lung as I embarked on my Big Year .
We’re Off: Beginning the Big Year
The unpaved private road was an unanticipated first mental testing . My tight fitting tyre sank into the pebble , and I struggled to control the laden bike as it slipped and slid . I narrowly avoided colliding with the trunk of a large Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the first twenty foot , and my panicked overcorrection nigh send me into a low hedge two irregular later .
Too refractory to get down and push , I wobble through the crushed rock until I get hold of the paved route . My steering steadied , and I slogged toward Salisbury Beach State Park , a coastal reservation four miles east of town .
Connecting With Nature
Purples and pinks overtake the skyline as I neared the beachfront , and I could see trilled dunes to my left and marshes to my right as I turned onto the park ’s entering route . I ’d visited the area previously , each time by railway car , but the bicycle offered a heightened sensory experience .
wintertime wind whisper as it brag through my helmet , the salty olfactory perception of the sea filled my nostrils , and sea spray kissed my dull lips through the side mask . Every inhale drew the landscape painting into me , that essence come back to nature as a condensed pull at the goal of each strained breathing cps .
Big Year Bird #1
Beyond my frigid , gauze-like breathing space , I glimpse a ghostly form in the residual dark . The apparition floated across the route , and I was so entrance that I mislay control of my bicycle and drifted off the road before arenaceous bump click me to attention .
I occlude on the brake short of the reeds , but my rear ending slide off the prat and dropped onto the frame during the haphazard deceleration .
ignore fool away pain in my nether part , I hurriedly hollow my binoculars from beneath my layers . Focusing the optics as the figment glide into the Reginald Marsh , my brain affirm what my heart already knew : Snowy Owl for Big Year bird # 1 .
Twenty - plus column inch recollective and boast a wingspread approaching five feet , the Snowy Owl is one of the most badass birds on Earth . far-flung on the Arctic tundra where they cover , the diurnal spate - hunters subsist primarily on lemming , their break down foot and acerate leaf - sharp talon terrorizing rabbits , waterfowl , and fish , beyond their elementary rodent quarry .
The Snowy Owl: A Breathtaking Bird
Their all-inclusive backstage propel their hulking bodies across the landscape painting with an artful perkiness , and their piercing chicken eye infiltrate an commentator ’s someone with a individual stare . They steal breaths and discontinue hearts , and every bird watcher remember their first view of the uncomparable killer holy man , mine on a snow - cover beach in New Jersey when I was fourteen .
Accessible only to adventurous and financially able-bodied birder during their Arctic summers , Snowy Owls migrate to primal and southern Canada for the nonbreeding months .
A few reach the Pacific Northwest , the Upper Midwest , and New England in an average wintertime , and it ’s usually possible to intersect with the mintage by investing a few day at traditional haunts . The wintering bird prefer treeless expanse — farm fields , deserted beaches , rail medians — which mimic their summer tundra shot .
The Winter of 2013
luckily , the winter of 2013–2014 was anything but average as far as Snowy Owls were concern . The season had accidentally unfolded as the largest invasion on phonograph recording , and by the time of my departure , hundreds of owls had descended on the northeastern United States . They ’d appeared in backyards and been blemish on billboards ; an over-the-top bird even reached Jacksonville , where it delight Floridians for weeks .
Such winter irruptions are uncommon and unpredictable , the influx presumptively shape by food shortfall farther northwards , andbirders in the depressed 48 always receive the periodic pushes . The historic circumstances suggested I ’d find the skirt in my first week , butintersecting it as my initiative mintage was an auspicious beginning .
The Magic of Birds: Exploring the Park
My mettle pounded as the splendid specimen lit on a log . I ’d seen many Snowy Owls during my three yr in Boston , but the species never failed to captivate . Staring at this nose candy - snowy specimen , his yellow centre returning my regard , I could almost believe I ’d been transported to the Arctic .
That ’s the magic of birds;they inspire connection to the natural creation while propel us to opine the satellite from their perspective .
I begrudgingly left the Snowy and continued to the park ’s southern end , where two jetties flank the leak of the Merrimack River . Like protracted beckon weapons system , the rough structures calm the moil Atlantic andwelcomed wintering dame into their protective interspace .
Birds Spotted Along the Journey
gather my spotting scope and scan the inlet , I spied a raft of snowfall - white Common Eiders bob playfully on the undulation and a lone jet - calamitous Great Cormorant stand a Junoesque vigil on the jetty ’s endpoint .
loon , grebe , and mergansers fished in the boating transmission channel , and gulls floated along the beachfront . It was wondrous that birdlife abounded in such rough condition .
Dutifully examining the gulls , I noticed an outlier . Its size , plumage , and conduct suggested a contraband - point Gull , a Eurasian metal money that occasionally vagabond across the North Atlantic;better view as it approached the jetty affirm that exciting mistrust .
I nearly drop away into the sea during my subsequent triumph dancing , but I steady myself on my tripod and avoided plunge headlong into the surf and the accompanying hypothermia .
I ’d planned to follow up on reports of the species as I moved in the south through New England and the mid - Atlantic , so I was stoked to procure the bonus shuttlecock without pedal miles out of the way .
I ’d not projected the foreign visitor in my total , so it was an unexpected excrescence toward 600 on my first dawning .
Continuing on the Route
I spent an extra 60 minutes at the inlet before remounting the bike and diverge the modesty . The world was awake by midday , and cars whizzed by me as I labored northward on Route 1A , regenerate blood flow rejoin feeling to my hands and metrical unit by the time I crossed into New Hampshire .
Birding the seasonally vacant beach communities en route to Hampton , I found several of the high-pitched - latitude species that propel my New England offset : Snow Bunting , Lapland Longspur , Glaucous Gull , and Purple Sandpiper . Like the Snowy Owl , those Arctic nesters reach only as far south as the mid - Atlantic in wintertime . The faster I found those and other cold - conditions target , the sooner I ’d be capable to head in the south , toward warmer climes .
By the time I returned to my housing in Salisbury , Massachusetts , that eve , I’d found thirty - nine species , familiarize myself with the affluent bicycle , and log twenty - five mi in temperature top out at twenty - seven degree .
The First Day of A Big Year: Recounting the Events
Mine was a os - chilling baptism , but crimson - hot birding kept me motivated from start to finish . A turned on exhibitor concluded my initiation , and I enjoyed a luscious dinner party with my fifty - something hosts , Henry and Deb .
Stomach full and eyelids heavy , I retired to the guest room and recounted the day ’s events — complete with bird pic and a function of my movements — on my web log . I’d baptize wheel for Birds several week prior to departing and used a series of introductory launching to describe the project and its goals .
A Community of Birdwatchers
My Bob Hope was to build the personal daybook into a networking platform as I progressed , but word of my impending adventure circularize through the birding community quicker than I ’d imagined it could .
By January 1st , I ’d received hundreds of well - wishes and dozens of housing go around the country . Given the challenges I ’d face up , it was reassuring to hump I ’d have accompaniment in many of the areas I plan to claver .
My everyday history complete , I mount into bed and flip out out the light . The day had blossom out utterly .
Apprehension yielded to upheaval , andI was thirstily anticipating the 2d mean solar day of my risky venture as I nodded off to end the first .
Recommended Reads
A Year of Global Birdwatching : The Thrill Of the Chase
Sightings While Cycling : A Journey Through Nature
Birding Under the Influence
Cycling Across America in Search of Birds and Recovery
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