We have met the Big Year birder’s enemy, and it’s a warm bed

(In which are recorded the adventures and misadventures of Christopher, his wife Fran, brother Phil and sister-in-law Susan as they pursue a birding Big Year, working together because it’s the only chance they have of making a decent showing.)

Mute Swans are the easiest of the swans to identify because of their orange bill.

Clearly we are not the dedicated, relentless birders who accumulate lists of 700+ species during their Big Year. So far, after 14 days of the new year, Phil and I, even with the help of our wives, have managed a pathetic 42 species. And this, in spite of Phil’s trip to Florida, which has accounted for 13 new birds.

At this rate, we’ll be lucky to list 150 species all year, especially as finding new ones gets harder. Picking up an American Goldfinch (which we haven’t yet) is a lot easier than seeing an Ovenbird.

Of course, there are compensations and distractions (and they might have a lot to do with why the list is so skimpy). For example, on January 10, Fran and I decided to venture out to Smithville Lake near Smithville, Mo., a haven for rare birds some 20 miles north of our home. We were up and out of the house by 11:00 a.m., stopped for a delicious breakfast at Chubby’s on Broadway in Kansas City, Mo., and made it to the lake about 1:00 p.m.

You can see the problem.

We also had shopping to do, and we wanted to be home in time to watch the Kansas City Chiefs lose to the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL playoffs at 3:30. That meant we had to be on our way to the store and then home by 2:00, giving us just about an hour of birding.

Still, we managed to pick up a Mute Swan, Hooded and Common Merganser, Snow Goose, Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagle and Cooper’s Hawk among several other species. It was a fairly productive hour, even though we didn’t see the White-winged Scoter and a few other rarities that had been reported there. It’s clear that time management is going to be an issue.

There’s also the little problem of early rising. My wife hates it, and I’m not all that crazy about it, either. But we all know that birds like to get up at the crack of pre-dawn, especially as the weather gets warmer and they start thinking about getting on the nest.

For the first time in my life, I think I’m dreading spring.