Kenn KaufmanReviews

My third time reading this. Fun, light, well-written but it didn't really excite me this time.

But I did learn more about the history of the American Birding Association and how print media played a huge role in expanding the Big Year/hyper-listing phenomenon.

Kenn successfully completes an item many experienced birders have high on their bucket lists and he does it on his own hitchhiking as a teenager with a miniscule budget. Nostalgic and inspiring and fun to read--a sure bet for any twitcher.

At first, I wasn't too excited about the illustrations, they seemed a bit crude and few in number. But the species descriptions are excellent. Also, an excellent selection of species on each page of plates, each with a catchy heading.½

I think that Strycker's big year bird list book, "Birding Without Borders," is much more interesting for a general reader, since Strycker interleaves vignettes from his trip with information about birds and birding. Kaufman's book is focused on the trip, except for a bit of romance and youthful angst. You can't help but learn something about birds and birding, and it is hard to resist looking up the species to learn more, but that's not a big focus. It is also an impressive story, hitchhiking across the country for a year to find birds. For a birder, at least, this is still a fun read.

> the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists’ Union. This group publishes the AOU Check-list of North American Birds … We were all happily using the 1957 list, and subconsciously we had come to regard it as permanent. But not anymore. Birders were now talking about the “great April massacre of 1973.” Since we counted only full species in our listing games, the action of the AOU had lowered everyone’s lists.

> The Myrtle Warbler had been lumped with the western Audubon’s Warbler under the uninspiring name of Yellow-rumped Warbler. Baltimore and Bullock’s orioles had been merged into Northern Oriole … Perhaps now the Cape Sable Sparrow would fall from the birders’ field of view and skulk back into the oblivion from which it had arisen in 1918. Whether it would count for my 1973 year list was unclear. The American Birding Association had no rules dealing with taxonomic changes made in midyear.

> Under the classification used then, the world’s total bird list was considered to be 8,600 species, and Stuart Keith had become the first person ever to see 4,300 of those in the wild

> We had scored 203 on that run, the first “official” 200-plus Big Day in Texas. But that was nowhere near the North American record of 227, set by Guy McCaskie’s team in California the year before.

> This phenomenon—of rare birds attracting more birders, who then find more rare birds, attracting more birders, and so on—was soon given a name: “The Patagonia Picnic Table Effect.”

> No prospects. That was true, wasn’t it? I was working so hard on my year list this year, but what was it going to bring me in the real world? Nothing. Even if I won the year-list “contest,” at year’s end I would still be an unemployed high-school dropout with no prospects for the future.

> I had broken the year-list record in late July, and now I was up to 630. Hardly forty species remained that I could reasonably hope to find before the year ended. But the five months ahead might not be enough time to find them all; those forty species were scattered all over the continent, mostly uncommon birds in out-of-the-way places.

> In short, Axtell’s conclusion was that this mystery shorebird, with its blackish feathers, odd-colored legs, and strange behavior, was merely a yellowlegs that had gotten into some oil. Standing there reading and rereading this bombshell, I was in shock. … the general conclusion was that Harold Axtell had been right and that all the dozens of other birders had been wrong. This episode had a profound impact on me—partly because I’d spent five days hitching in the rain, 2,500 miles out of my way.

> birders had accepted the American Ornithologists’ Union definition of “North America” as consisting of Canada, the United States, and three other nearby areas with similar birdlife: Greenland, Bermuda, and the peninsula of Baja California.

> Just because I had broken listing records, they expected me to be a top-notch birder—and I was not. They were comparing me to Ted Parker, who had set the record just two years before—but there was really no comparison.

> The totals amassed by Murdoch and me would be edged out in 1976, as a young ornithology student named Scott Robinson made a low-budget, high-knowledge run around the continent. But that would be the last time that any record could be set by a birder who focused on the normally occurring birds. … Floyd Murdoch won: in the region that would become the official checklist area of the American Birding Association, he tallied 669 species, three more than I. However, many birders in 1973 were still using the old checklist area of the American Ornithologists’ Union, which included Baja California; my five Baja birds brought my list up to 671.

I loved this book. I serendipitously got to go birding with Kaufman for a few hours earlier this year, and decided to read his memoir of his Big Year. But it is so much more than that.

Towards the end of his year, and of this book, he started to tire of the competitive listing he was doing. He just wanted to focus on the birds. Though I am nowhere near the level of birder he is, I reached the same conclusion late in Spring migration. I stopped caring about adding birds to my total, and just started focusing on the birds that were in front of me. Reading this book has made me more steadfast in my position about why I bird.

I think this book can be enjoyed by birders and non-birders alike, but it is essential reading if you are a birder.

Might have to book a trip to Ohio after reading this one. Good outdoor escapism for a birder stuck indoors.

In 1973, Kenn Kaufman's parents allowed him to drop out of high school and pursue his passion for birding. He undertook a Big Year, traveling all over the United States to see as many birds as possible. He hitchhiked everywhere, spent around $1,000 on his expenses for the entire year, and amassed a list of over 600 different species. Today, he is one of America's foremost birding experts. I'm a birder myself, but obviously not to the extent of this man. I would have been more interested in his story had he talked more about the birds rather than his traveling adventures getting to and from each of his stops. It was interesting, but also kind of boring at times.

I moved to Wisconsin in 2015 and this book was like a welcome to the state gift since it was published in the same year. When I lived in NH I had a similar guide to that area published by Audubon and I looked for one for my new home and didn't find one. Not sure why this book didn't come up, but I'm glad I eventually stumbled across it. If I have to bring one book into the field it will be this one since it will cover a lot of what I might see and is a great addition to my growing field guide collection.

“But in the early 1970s, we were not birdwatching. We were birding, and that made all the difference. We were out to seek, to discover, to chase, to learn, to find as many different kinds of birds as possible...”

Ken Kaufmann dropped out of high school and went on a quest, with a backpack, a pair of binoculars and virtually no money. Since this was the early 70s, his mode of transportation, the cheapest available, was hitchhiking.
Kaufmann's quest was to see as many different bird species, in North America, in one year, as he could, attempting to beat the old record. This is extreme birding at it's craziest, which makes for an entertaining journey.
This coming of age memoir, is his story. It also coincides with a time when birding in America really took off and it became a serious pursuit.
Obviously, this book is not for everyone, but if you like birds and nature and enjoy a good travel tale, you might want to give to give it a look.½

This is one of those more comprehensive bug books I was talking about and it's been great so far to help me with IDing white admirals and different checkerspots that hang out in the wildflowers that line my street. Butterflies are grouped together by type and color with handy little indicators on the side of the book so you can get to the right color. Similar species are shown side by side and the information includes a range map, where the butterfly lives and what it eats as a caterpillar. I'm happy to say that the pictures show the wings open and closed. Alas it does not include moths so that will probably be another book to add to the collection!

Collects photographs, range maps, and descriptive entries identifying the markings, habits, habitat, and voice of each species.

This compelling story generates fast-paced reading with (confirmed) appeal to birders and non-birders alike. Kaufman's story would probably be just another semi-interesting tale of a birder's Big Year if it weren't for the uniqueness of his approach and the single-minded depth of his passion. Highly recommended.

Helpful (to me) as a secondary source in identifying species

Kaufman's biography "Kingbird Highway" is a great companion read to Mark Obmaschik's "The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession." In January 1972 high school dropout and birding enthusiast, Kenn Kaufman, set out to chase the 626 record for identified bird species in a single year. Kaufman does find 666 birds that year, but his longer standing record is that he did his 'Big Year' on a budget less than $ 1,000. He hitchhiked back and forth across and up and down the continent, camping outside, living on thin rations, and staying with friends and acquaintances. His book highlights his most memorable locations and finds as well as the numerous birding colleagues encountered. It also identifies the evolution of the ABA's (American Birding Association) competition and reveals his change in perspective as the year progresses. He found the quest rewarding; however before the year ended, his interest changed from merely finding and checking off new bird species to learning and understanding more about the birds themselves - something that is often lost in simply building one's list. A great read! (lj)

This is one of the easier to use field guides for insects; I utilize it heavily in my Ecology class, because my students are able to figure it out quickly, and there is a large variety of insects included.½

This recentlypublished butterfly guide is very good. It has pretty thorough coverage of the butterfly species, good images, good binding, and the accompanying test is righ there on the same page as the image.

The only downside of having the text adjacent to the image is that it seems to have limitee both the text formatting and the detail fo the text itself.

However, still a very good guide.

I have three insect guides. This one has a lot of the common names and a lot of good pictures. It lacksalmost allreference to where each insect is found. A typical distrubution is listed as "in the east", so you may wish to have another book for a more precise range. It also has an annoying font format that splits the insects name as often as not at the right margin, so that half the name is on the other margin. This makes it difficult to scan rapidly the left text page to find information about an insect pictured on the right-hand page.

The abundance of insects covered, the many color photos, and the durable binding are strengths of this publication.

The author uses as a theme, telling stories to his bedridden mother. These stories are true happenings except for two of them. Kaufman is a very good storyteller and so the book makes for entertaining reading. One of the themes is the lack of forest birds at his mother's house. His mother though, thinks she has observed chickadees there before and Kaufman assures her they wouldn't be there. This comes up numerous times throughout the book so the readeer is sure to guess that at the end of the book it will come up again.

The stories are all pleasant. The two fictious ones are extremely funny.½

My favorite book for identifying birds.

Hundreds of pages are misplaced from the Table of Contents as the printer could not get roman numerals in proper order. The last half of the table of contents(roman numeral 7) comes after roman numeral 20 , by itself. Roman numeral 21, the continuation of roman numeral 20 discussion of migration was not printed at all. No telling what else the publisher botched.

Because the book tried to cover about all species, there isn't much room for each species to be discussed. There is also a range map and photo with each species which is totally irrelevant to a book on the bird's habits, since there is already so little space per bird. Kaufman's field guide has range maps and photos. They are appropriate there and contribute to a very good field guide, but they are not apropriate in a book on bird habits where space is at a premium.

What a book!

This is a great book which gets down to the nitty-gritty details about some of the more difficult species of North American birds. My only complaint is that he doesn't cover more birds/comnparisons. I found this book really helpful, though, for the species that it does cover, and my life list is more complete because of it.½

A great adventure book covering a birding big year. The twist here is that a young Kaufman does all the traveling with little funding.

#7, 2005

Another birding book, this one describing the adventures of the author as he hitchhiked his way across North America trying to beat the "Big Year" record (the record for the most birds seen in a single calendar year in North America). I really enjoyed reading this, although I think I enjoyed "The Big Year" a bit more - probably because it's more contemporary. I have met Kaufmann; I had lunch with him at a birding convention in Michigan about 10 years ago. Again, this is a book that maybe won't have a wide appeal to non-birders, but I really enjoyed it. 9/10. (Library)½

Hardcover, excellent condition, dust jacket fine