New year kicks off fresh bird quests

McALLEN - Fort Worth attorney Lynn Barber started last year with a common loon on the Texas Gulf Coast and ended with a rufous-capped warbler in Arizona.

In between, Barber identified 721 other bird species in the United States and Canada as part of her "Big Year" - a self-imposed birding challenge to spot as many feathered friends as possible. With the start of 2009, many other die-hard birders are fanning out with binoculars at the ready, and they say no serious Big Year try can bypass South Texas.

"You could easily get 100 species in a day down there," said Jon McIntyre, a 27-year-old Corpus Christi winter birding guide who identified 497 birds in Texas in 2005 and was beginning his 2009 tally Friday in the Rio Grande Valley. The Rio Grande Valley lies in an important migratory path and is the northern limit for many birds from Mexico and Central America not seen elsewhere in the United States.

"When you do these, it really isn't casual birding," said Richard Payne, chief executive of the American Birding Association. "It borders on the obsessive, I suppose."

Payne said the challenges revealed the competitive aspect of birding and joked that they also provide "evidence that we're crazy."

Consider Barber's year in 2008.

She hit 20 states and a couple Canadian provinces, many multiple times. She reached her initial goal of 650 species by Aug. 1. More than once Barber heard about a bird she wanted while on her way to the other side of the country.

Last month, Barber was alerted while en route to Newfoundland, Canada, that a black-tailed gull was spotted on Vancouver Island and a rare swan was taking a dip in a lake in Idaho. She flew to Seattle - not before bagging three other gulls and a northern lapwing in eastern Canada - but missed the Vancouver Island gull. Then she drove across Washington state in a snowstorm through the night to Idaho only to discover the swan was gone too.

That's a problem with chasing birds, Barber said Wednesday while on her way to the Texas Gulf Coast for a long-awaited vacation with her husband: "They keep flying away."

From Seattle, Barber headed home to Fort Worth just in time to hear about a blue bunting spotted in the Rio Grande Valley. Away she went in her Toyota RAV4 (with the license plate STRYX, which is Greek for owl).

She racked up 39,000 miles on her car last year but hasn't had time to add up her total miles traveled or money spent.

"I'm in big-time debt right now," said Barber, who's self-employed so was able to keep working with the help of her laptop but still maxed out credit cards.

Father Tom Pincelli, pastor at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Harlingen and chairman of the American Birding Association board of directors, bumped into Barber in the Valley in December. Pincelli does not hear of as many birders attempting similar feats these days.

"One reason now is the travel costs," he said.

Barber, the incoming president of the Texas Ornithological Society, ended her hunt Dec. 27 with the warbler in Arizona - No. 723 of the year. She hasn't officially registered her count yet, but she thinks it should put her at second all time for the ABA-approved area of the 49 states - Hawaii is excluded - Canada and a pair of tiny French islands off the coast of Newfoundland. The list compiled by Barber, who set the Texas record of 522 in 2005, can be found at lynnbarber.com.

The fact she stopped a few days before 2008 ended wasn't due to exhaustion, funds or just being sick of birds, though.

"I can't think of any other birds I can get to," she said.

Barber planned to start 2009 the same way she started 2008, with a bird count with four women around Rockport. Last year she scored 101 species on the first big day.

This time, she'll just be enjoying busy opening day in a year of more casual birding.

That is, unless she wins the lottery and decides to start another Big Year.

"I loved it," she said.