To See Every Bird on Earth A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession

by Koeppel, Dan

• ISBN13: 9781594630019
• ISBN10: 1594630011
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-05-05
• Publisher: Hudson Street Press

Summary

From a well-known outdoors and nature writer comes a narrative that explores a lifelong obsession with competitive birding. What drives a man to travel to sixty countries and spend a fortune to count birds? And what if that man is your father? Richard Koeppel's obsession began at the age of eleven, in Queens, New York, when he first spotted a Brown Thrasher and promptly jotted the sighting in a notebook. Several decades, one failed marriage, and two sons later, he added an astonishing 517 birds to that list on a single trip to Kenya. Soon after, he ended the last romantic relationship he would ever have, scaled down his medical practice, and decided to see every bird on earth, becoming a "Big Lister," a member of a subculture of competitive bird-watchers worldwide, all pursuing the same goal. Over twenty-five years, he collected more than 7,000 species (of a known 9,600), becoming one of about ten people ever to do so. To See Every Bird on Earthexplores the thrill of this chase, the all-absorbing crusade at the expense of all else, and travel, to places both dangerous and dull, for the sake of making a check mark in a notebook. It's also the story of obsession-answering the questions why list? and why birds?-and how it defines us. A riveting glimpse into a fascinating subculture, To See Every Bird on Earth traces the love, loss, and reconnection between a father and a son, and explains why birds are so critical to the human search for our place in the world.

Author Biography

Dan Koeppel is a well-known outdoors, nature, and adventure writer who's been published in The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Audubon, Popular Science, and in National Geographic Adventure, where he is a contributing editor. A former commentator for PRI's Marketplace, Koeppel has also appeared on CNN and Good Morning America.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Prologue	xiii
A Note on the Bird Stamps	xix
The Brown Thrasher	1	(20)
Why Birds?	21	(22)
The Greatest Year	43	(24)
Just a Hobby	67	(26)
A New Continent	93	(26)
How Big a List?	119	(18)
Minus One	137	(14)
How Many Birds Can There Be?	151	(18)
Into the Thousands	169	(16)
How to Count Birds	185	(20)
More and More	205	(18)
The Best Big Lister	223	(20)
Up and Over	243	(18)
Epilogue	261	(12)
Bibliography	273