Welcome to Big Year Birding a site devoted to Birds as seen through the eyes of Ethan and Ingrid Whitaker.  We are a Maine couple preparing for a 2024 Big Year across the continental United States!

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Our most recent Blog Posts:

The Odd Couple

https://youtu.be/rYwAh7CMEvo Those of us of a certain age remember a 1970s sitcom called "The Odd Couple."   The show was...
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Spotted Towhee in Maine

November is an interesting time for birding in Maine.  Virtually all of our summer birds have packed their bags and...
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Lobster Trap Birding

To quote from my favorite television show . . . "Winter is Coming!" In Maine - it has dropped into...
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Assateague Island National Seashore

Last week Ingrid and I visited my baby sister and her husband at their vacation home in Delaware.  It was...
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Purple Gallinule in Maine

January 2011, my son Bradley and I took a trip to southern Florida and the Everglades. This was a couple...
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Dickcissel in Maine

Ingrid filmed a Dickcissel this afternoon near a community garden in Brunswick, Maine.  This charming visitor from the Midwest  United...
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Cashes Ledge Pelagic

Cashes Ledge is an underwater mountain range, about 70 miles off the Maine coast, roughly halfway between Bar Harbor and...
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Ingrid gets a Hudsonian Godwit

Ingrid and I are approaching our 10th anniversary.  Her youngest daughter just had a beautiful baby boy.  Last month we...
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American Pipits in the Wrack

When most of us hear the term "Beach" we think of pristine sand . . . ideal for sun bathing...
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Swainson’s Hawk in Maine

Wedding Anniversaries come around once a year . . . thank God. Each year: I have to remember the Anniversary....
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European Non-Birding Vacation Continues

Day 3 of our two week European Holiday did not disappoint.  Today we visited the sights of London . ....
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Ravens of the Tower of London

Ingrid and I are in Europe on a non-birding vacation (gasp).   Our first stop was the Tower of London...
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Peregrine Falcon Shuffling the Deck

Yesterday, Ingrid and I visited Morse Mt (Seawall Beach), a nature preserve owned and managed by Bates College . ....
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Birds of Leah’s Rock

Ingrid and I live beside a saltwater river along the coast of Maine.  Even though we are a good ten...
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2024 Big Year Preview

Check out our Big Year Preview!!!!
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Marbled Godwit in Maine

Today Ingrid and I drove down to Hills Beach and Causeway in Biddeford Pool, Maine . . . one of...
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird Dogfights

Ingrid and I have five hummingbird feeders scattered around our yard . . . each one could easily accommodate a...
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Haikubox

In mid-June our Haikubox was delivered after what seemed like an eternal product backorder. I ripped open the box like...
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Shorebird Migration Has Begun

When I first started birding, I figured that birds migrated north in the Spring and migrated south in the Fall....
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White-winged Crossbill

Each winter, Ingrid and I hope to locate a White-winged Crossbill high up in Maine spruce trees.  Some years we...
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2024 Big Year Planning Continues

With our 2024 Continental USA Big Year now just 167 days away . . . Ingrid and I continue our...
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Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks – Ten Years Later

It was Wednesday May 30, 2013 and Ingrid and I were driving up to Bar Harbor for something called the...
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Philadelphia Vireo

PEOPLE STARING AT THEIR PHONES. PEOPLE STARING AT THEIR PHONES. PEOPLE STARING AT THEIR PHONES. If you are in a...
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Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Maine

Last night Ingrid were watching "Hijack", an Apple+ series that we highly recommend.  In the middle of a particularly dramatic...
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Loggerhead Shrike in Maine

This morning Ingrid and I were enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning, drinking coffee, reading the paper and complaining about politicians...
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Countdown to 2024 Big Year:
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Read about Ethan’s Maine Big Year in his Book: Every Bird in Maine

And Ingrid’s Children’s Bird Book: What’s That Bird? A Kid’s Guide to Backyard Bird of New England.

Big Year Birding Blog – for – 2023, 2022, 2021 (Maine Big Year), 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

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Go Birding!!!!!