Beginning January 1st, 2025 I am going to be embarking on, well, a bit of an insane endeavor; put simply a year-long, cross-country birding road trip. The purpose of this trip though isn’t just to go birding and it’s not a “Big Year”, but rather an adventure of exploration. My goal, as the name might suggest, is to explore and get to know as much as possible about the people, places, and birds of American birding – or, more specifically, the Lower-48. This adventure, especially due the challenges that come with it, will be largely a journey of personal growth, but it is also my goal to share the story of the year here on my blog as well as a retrospective book I am planning to write once the year is over. In this post, an “introduction” of sorts to my year in advance of its rapidly-approaching start, I plan to touch on what my goals and plans for the year are, talk about some of my expectations, and answer some of the questions I have frequently been asked.
Almost from the jump of getting into birding back in 2018 I was immediately welcomed into the Michigan Birding community, meeting and getting to know other birders. Throughout the next few years as I birded on-and-off I met more people, and by the time 2022 rolled around I knew quite a few other birders in the state and regularly conversed with a number of them either on Facebook or via text. Then in 2022 I embarked on an initially unplanned Michigan Big Year, throughout which I found myself crisscrossing the state and getting to know people all over Michigan. When the year ended it was these connections I made that ended up having a far more meaningful impact than all the birds I saw, and today some of my closest friends are people who I met while birding. Additionally, between the advent of the Michigan Birding Discord server and my discovery of several different birding-centric social media groups, the birding community has become a cornerstone of my social life. All of this has led me to two thoughts: first, obviously this community isn’t unique to Michigan; and second, I wonder what differences there are between birding communities throughout the US. These thoughts led to the first cornerstone of my People, Places, Birds adventure – the goal of meeting up with local birders in every state and getting to know them and learning about their local birding communities. My goal is to spend at least 5-7 days in every state throughout the year, and at least a few of those days will be spent birding with local birders.
First and foremost – what is a “Big Year”. Different people seem to define it differently, but the definition seems most prevalent and is the definition I myself follow is that a Big Year is a concerted effort to see as many species as possible in a specific region (County, State, Country, etc).
The goal of my adventure in 2025 might seem on the surface to some to be like a Big Year, and as I have talked with people both in person and on social media in the lead up to this year, I regularly get asked what my goal is for total species and things of that nature – and the truth is, I don’t have one. Don’t get me wrong I intend to pick up as many of the local specialty birds across the country as possible, and when in position to get some crazy mega-rarity I will probably do so, but while those two things are key components of a Big Year, unlike in a Big Year the latter of those two things is absolutely not the focus.
Make no mistake, I and a huge fan of Big Years – and have done two myself, one in which I broke the Michigan Big Year record (the first few months of which have been detailed in the Michigan 337 series of blog posts here on my website, which I intend to return to and finish up in the next couple weeks), and the second a Lapeer county (MI) Big Year in which I broke the county’s Big Year record. Perhaps someday I may do a Lower-48 or ABA area Big Year, but that is not what 2025 is going to be. For someone doing a Big Year there is little incentive to travel to most states unless a mega-rare vagrant happens to show up, with Big Year birders instead spending a massive amount of their time in states like Texas, Arizona, and Florida. While I am absolutely looking forward to my time in those typical birding destination states, I am equally looking forward to birding in states like the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, and all the other less-birded states. The goal of 2025 is, as I mentioned earlier, to explore and get to know as much about the people, places, and birds of American birding as I am able – but what exactly does that entail?
Birding has been a massive part of my life ever since my dad first bought me a pair of Vanguard Binoculars in 2018, and it became arguably the foremost part of my life in 2021 when my dad handed down his pair Nikon Monarchs. Now, with Donald at Vortex Optics having generously gifted me a pair of Vortex Razor HD 10X42s, the stage is set for yet another increase in the importance of birding in my life to accompany yet another upgrade in optics.
Now, while the parallel of the importance of the role of birding has played in my life going hand-in-hand with the quality of my optics is an amusing one, it can hardly be said that one is responsible for the other; no, the biggest reason why birding has been such a massive role in my life has far more to do with the people I’ve met while looking at birds through binoculars than the binoculars themselves.
Almost from the jump of getting into birding back in 2018 I was immediately welcomed into the Michigan Birding community, meeting and getting to know other birders. Throughout the next few years as I birded on-and-off I met more people, and by the time 2022 rolled around I knew quite a few other birders in the state and regularly conversed with a number of them either on Facebook or via text. Then in 2022 I embarked on an initially unplanned Michigan Big Year, throughout which I found myself crisscrossing the state and getting to know people all over Michigan. When the year ended it was these connections I made that ended up having a far more meaningful impact than all the birds I saw, and today some of my closest friends are people who I met while birding. Additionally, between the advent of the Michigan Birding Discord server and my discovery of several different birding-centric social media groups, the birding community has become a cornerstone of my social life. All of this has led me to two thoughts: first, obviously this community isn’t unique to Michigan; and second, I wonder what differences there are between birding communities throughout the US. These thoughts led to the first cornerstone of my People, Places, Birds adventure – the goal of meeting up with local birders in every state and getting to know them and learning about their local birding communities. My goal is to spend at least 5-7 days in every state throughout the year, and at least a few of those days will be spent birding with local birders.
While the people met during my many birding journeys have probably been the most impactful aspect of my becoming a birder, I also have become exposed to the many tremendous places for birding in Michigan. Spots like Whitefish Point, Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, Muskegon Wastewater, and Pointe Mouillee State Game have become homes-away-from-home, and as I have talked with birders across the country it has been made very clear that everywhere has their gems – some drawing great public acclaim and others being more hidden or “underbirded”. I am looking forward to visiting many these places on my adventure next year – places like Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico, Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska, Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia, and too many other places to name here. Soon (hopefully within a few days of this post) I will be releasing my “Roadmap”, which will include when I approximately plan to visit each state and some of the destinations I have in mind for my time there. If you have any suggestions of other places I should visit or are potentially interested in meeting up with me to go birding while I am in your state, please feel free to contact me via sending an email to [email protected] or by submitting a contact form on my contact page here.
Finally, there is the third pillar of my planned adventure – one that almost goes without saying, the birds. Growing up my dad constantly tried to instill in me his interest in birds, and constantly I resisted. I mean, birds were lame, right? When I finally gave in and started birding I realized how remarkably wrong I was in thinking that, and the more I learn about birds the more fascinated I become by them. Be it the funky dance of American Woodcocks, the stunning display of a male Spruce Grouse, or the pure attitude of a territorial House Wren, I’ve found that nearly every species has something about them to fascinate an observer. While I have spent ample time birding in Michigan over the past few years, I am sadly unfamiliar with nearly all birds not found here outside of some studying of field guides, and am looking forward to getting to know all of the other birds across the country that I haven’t yet had the privilege of getting to know. As the trips only real measurable goal, I am aiming to see 100 species of birds in every single one of the Lower-48 states (and maybe D.C, TBD) next year, with some focus being put on seeing some of the specialty birds in every state but no real focus on the overall species total for the year.
Okay, so, I want to get to know the People, Places, and Birds of American Birding – that’s all well and good and all, but how exactly am I going to make this work? Well, for the past few years, while working as an assistant store manager for ALDI, I have been saving pretty much every penny I have been able to with the goal of funding this adventure. Even with that saving, to make this trip a reality I am going to have to undergo a radical change in lifestyle. Admittedly I have never been the most frugal person, wasting more money than I care to admit on fast food and frivolous purchases, but throughout next year I am going to be forced to cut back every single unnecessary expense. Be it going out to eat, buying various amenities, or even sleeping in a hotel room – every expense that isn’t absolutely a requirement is now absolutely unaffordable.
Throughout my travels next year, my belongings will effectively be limited to what I can fit on the driver’s side of the back of my Subaru Crosstrek, with my passenger’s side being occupied by my travelling bedroom. My kitchen will be a pot and a Coleman camp stove, my pantry a storage crate and an electric cooler, my closet a single duffle bag. I am no stranger to spending the night in the back of my car – I spent upwards of 50 nights sleeping on my mattress pad in the back of my Crosstrek throughout my Michigan Big Year in 2022, but never have I done so for more than a week at a time. This radical change of lifestyle is absolutely going to prove to be the biggest hardship of the year, but it is an absolute necessity for me to make this half-baked and hair-brained idea into a reality. It is admittedly as terrifying a prospect as it is exciting, but I am looking forward to the hardships the year will bring.
Over the next two weeks leading up to the start of this adventure I will be posting quite a bit here: I still have 10 months to post for my Michigan 337 series that outline my Michigan 2022 Big Year, a post or two about my 2023 Lapeer County Big Year, and a handful of other posts about my upcoming People, Places, Birds journey including some detailing my preparations and plans as well as what I currently see myself doing when the year is over. Additionally my soon-to-be-released “Roadmap” will include more details about my plans in each state including when I plan to be there, places I intend to visit while there, and any key target birds or birding phenomena I hope to see while there. I am also currently working on making the site a bit more mobile-friendly, as right now it can be a bit of a nightmare to navigate on a phone or tablet.
I look forward to beginning this crazy endeavor in just two weeks, and am looking forward to sharing it here with all of you. To those of you who have already offered me support on this journey or have reached out about birding together, thank you! When I initially had this idea I never even considered the idea of others supporting me, but after a handful of people asked about how they could do so I decided to create a Patreon for those interested in supporting me. While there isn’t much posted there yet, I plan to post daily notes and occasionally other pieces on the birding over on Patreon once the year begins. I don’t plan to push it much here, and I probably won’t ever mention it in my posts again (though the link is at the bottom of the site), but I figured I would mention it at least once for those interested.
Happy Birding, everyone!
First and foremost - thank you to anyone who chooses to support me in this insane adventure of mine. When I initially had this idea and began planning I didn't even consider the possibility that others would want to support me, but I am extremely grateful to those who have reached out to do so. For those who are interested in supporting me, I have set up a Patreon, which can be accessed by clicking the logo to the left (or you can send me a message via the contact page). Again, thank you for your incredibly generous support!
All Patrons will receive my "Daily Notes" 12-36 hours after the end of each day, and Patrons subscribed to the "Sponsor" tier will receive monthly postcards, mailed out between the 25th and end of each month.
Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday at 5pm EST and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
