We’re ready to fulfill a birder’s dream – sort of

One of the rewards of winter birding in the Kansas City area is catching sight of a Cedar Waxwing. Photo courtesy of Colin Andrews.

For at least the next year, I’ll be writing this blog in the first, rather than third, person. There are a few good reasons for this change. At least, I think they’re good. Most important, it’ll be easier.

With any luck, all the posts I write for the upcoming 13 to 14 months will be about a BIG YEAR. It’s an adventure my brother Phil and I are undertaking with the occasional and possibly reluctant participation of my wife Fran and Phil’s wife Susan.

Okay, so it’s not that BIG a year, but the spirit of the thing is there. We’ve decided to identify as many birds as we can between midnight, January 1, 2014, and midnight, December 31, 2014. This could be a huge challenge.

It could, that is, if we were doing a continental United States big year, dashing all over the country at a moment’s notice to pick up a Bananaquit in southern Florida or a White-faced Storm-Petrel off the coast of Massachusetts. But I for one can’t afford it.

So we’re doing our big year closer to home. Much closer. In and around Kansas City. Within a 15-county area: Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Lafayette, Platte, Ray, Bates and Caldwell in Missouri and Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, Franklin and Linn in Kansas. We probably won’t pick up 700 species, but that’s all right. It’ll get us out of the house and we won’t have to stay at a Comfort Inn.

The next few posts will cover our preparations for the odyssey we’re about to undertake. I’ll do my best to make them interesting and minimize discussion about handy breakfast spots and well-located bars.

Let the fun begin.