Category Archives: Uncategorized

Weird Predictions For Travel In The Future, Including Eco-tourism

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Skyscanner published the last part of their series on travel in the future while we were overseas so I forgot this was sitting in my “to-do” folder.  They have already made predictions on how people will research travel and book flights which I am overall not thrilled with.  Some of their ideas are just too invasive and take all the fun out of trip planning.

The final installment addressed hotels of the future which I don’t like at all!  Once again, they just seem too intrusive.  Seriously, the shower will flash a green light once it determines I am “clean enough”?

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Space travel will probably be a huge hit with the sort of people who currently like to fly just for the sake of flying, particularly in first class.  I can’t see spending a fortune to sit in a metal box and looking at basically nothing just to brag about it.

The future of eco-tourism if it goes according to the article doesn’t sound all that great.  We can look forward to Mr & Mrs Gotbucks going to remote wildlife and birding habitats just so they can brag to their friends they were the first to get there or the last to see a species before it goes extinct. Ummmmmm………………..what about trying to SAVE the species from going extinct?  I have been to see some highly endangered bird species such as Orange-bellied Parrots and Echo Parakeets and I would be devastated if I was among the last to see them in the wild.  I want them to breed, multiply and never be endangered again!

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I do agree with this statement below because eco-tourism is what gets local people to stop capturing their wild animals and birds but I disagree that it should be only for very wealthy people.  The whole reason I am writing this blog is so ordinary people can learn to do eco-traveling for less by using miles and points and cutting out the middle-men tour operators and booking direct with the locals.

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The one thing that did sound interesting is the Undersea hotels if they can build them without damaging the reef.  It would be pretty cool to be able to see the sea life around the clock without having to put on scuba tanks.

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Click here to see the full article.

2015 – A Year To Rest & Replenish

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After a hectic but fulfilling 2014 in which I brought forward two trips I had originally earmarked for 2015; I now find myself with decimated mileage accounts and a need to rebuild.  I’d say that I not only met but I exceeded last year’s goals!  Those trips were also extremely stressful as you saw in my 2014 in Review post so I need a trip that won’t be mentally stressful.  I also need to pay off the credit cards which made it possible to bring those trips forward a whole year and do some home renovations so this year needs to be cheap & cheerful.

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TRAVEL PLANS

This year, we need to be more economical but I don’t want to give up on travel for birding altogether.  I used the last of my United miles (with an infusion from Ultimate Rewards) to book a fantastic itinerary that will allow some fantastic birding in Thailand & Malaysia and a week in Rarotonga so my husband can visit friends and family.  This 4 week trip is already booked for the first half of 2015.

Trip #1

Brisbane – Bangkok – Chiang Mai on Thai Y class:  Birding in Doi Inthanon & Doi Lang

Chiang Mai – Bangkok (morning birding in Khao Yai) – Koh Samui:  A couple days for R&R

Koh Samui – Surat Thani by boat, then to Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia since I found a super-cheap flight during their birthday sale last month.  Then bus to Taiping.  Birding in Taiping Lake Gardens.

Taiping – Cameron Highlands – Taman Negara by bus or taxi:  Birding in Taman Negara.

Taman Negara – Kuala Lumpur by bus:  Visit KL Bird Park.

Kuala Lumpur – Bangkok – Shanghai on Thai; layover for a quickie peek at Shanghai.

Shanghai – Auckland – Rarotonga:  R&R for me, family visits for my husband.

Rarotonga – Auckland – Brisbane on Virgin Australia

This will be a much more relaxed trip than the frantic pace of especially the Europe and Africa trips of last year.  It will also be a lot cheaper!  We will be looking for some great Asiatic bird species in the parks highlighted.

Trip #2

I also want to start doing at least one annual domestic birding trip to start building my expertise with Australian species.  This year (bearing in mind our budget) it will be a road trip to Lake Coolmunda.  I saw an article on the Birdlife Australia Warbler e-mag and it looks amazing!  We may stop off at Girraween for a day or two on the way back.  This trip will probably be in Sept or Oct-ish.

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MILES & POINTS GOALS

You can’t really set your goals unless you have a bucket list of some sort.  I have a couple of posts on how to do that HERE & HERE.  So what’s on my bucket list?  And how do I prioritize it?

Since I met some goals early by bringing the French Polynesia & Africa trips forward, I had to redo the bucket list.

A – NEXT 3 TRIPS

2016 – Peru, Bolivia, Puerto Rico & USA

2017 – Indonesia, probably Seram, Buru, Tanimbar, Bali for R&R

2018 – Next World Parrot conference in Loro Parque.  Maybe a day stop-over or layover in Dubai for shopping enroute then fly to Tenerife for conference, then fly to Caracas Venezuela for birding, maybe also some Caribbean Islands such as Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent, then home via Chile.

We also plan for one domestic Aussie trip per year which can either be a road trip from Brisbane or fly somewhere using Avios, Qantas, Virgin or AA miles.

B – OTHER POTENTIAL SHORT-HAUL FROM AUSTRALIA

It would be easy to get the miles using our Aussie credit cards for trips to these places.  Even cash fares can be cheap if there is a good promo running.  In the case of PNG, we will need to save a fair amount of cash as it is expensive to travel there.  Princess has cruises to some PNG places from Brisbane so that’s another option.

  • Papua New Guinea
  • Fiji & Samoa
  • Vanuatu
  • New Caledonia
  • New Zealand & Norfolk Island
  • Indonesia – Halmahera, Sulawesi, Sangihe
  • Rarotonga every 3 or 4 years

C – OTHER POTENTIAL LONG-HAUL FROM AUSTRALIA

This is where I REALLY start dreaming!  Most of these won’t be possible unless we win Lotto or have some kind of windfall.  MAYBE I can get enough miles for one of these trips with 4 years of saving and that’s IF mileage programs continue in their present form.  But since you never know when dreams may come true it doesn’t hurt to have SOMETHING prepared!

  • 1.  Brazil – Lears Macaws, other birding areas in Eastern Brazil
  • 2.  Colombia & Ecuador
  • 3.  Mexico (paired with a visit to the USA)
  • 4.  Africa – Namibia, Zambia, Congo, Ethiopia (depending on political and safety situations)

PRIORITIZING THE NEXT 3 TRIPS

In 2016 I want to do a major trip to Peru (Manu & Heath River), Bolivia (Blue-throated Macaws, Red-fronted Macaws) and Puerto Rico (Puerto Rican Amazon Parrot), then visit family in the USA.  Here’s what I need:

  • 1.  Brisbane to Cuzco (where the Manu trip begins).  I have enough AA miles to do this using Oneworld airlines such as LAN or Qantas.  CHECK!
  • 2.  Puerto Maldonado to La Paz or Santa Cruz, Bolivia (after the Heath River trip).  Can be done on either Avianca using Lifemiles or LAN using Avios and I have enough miles for either one.  CHECK!
  • 3.  La Paz or Santa Cruz to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Best done on COPA using either United or Avianca Lifeliles.  CHECK!
  • 4.  San Juan to Vegas.  Oddly enough, this will be the hardest one since my practice runs indicate availability can be an issue no matter which airline I use.  I would have enough miles for United or American but can I get the flights?  I am toying with using SouthWest for this leg.  I can source Ultimate Rewards or get the credit card.  Not ready to give this leg a CHECK yet.
  • 5.  Rental car Vegas – Mom’s house – LAX, no problem to get deals online.  CHECK!
  • 6.  LAX to Brisbane.  I have enough AA miles to do this in economy but I would prefer business as we will be doing major shopping in the USA.  Qantas can be stingy with award seats, might need to look at Fiji, Hawaiian or Air Tahiti Nui as options.  But I do have the miles so CHECK!

In 2017 we will do another birding trip to Indonesia.  We have loads of options and plenty of miles in Qantas & Virgin for the short-haul to DPS.  We can then use Aussie Amex to SPG to Flying Blue for domestic Garuda flights.  I have sufficient points banked so this is a CHECK!

In 2018 we have:

  • Brisbane to Dubai, preferably on Emirates, Etihad or Qatar in business class.  Or if we have to do it in economy then preferably a day flight so Emirates is the only option.  Need to build up Aussie Amex points.
  • Dubai to Tenerife will have to be OneWorld with Iberia on the final legs.  Need AA miles, Avios or SPG.
  • Tenerife to Caracas can be done on Iberia so once again need AA, Avios or SPG.
  • Caracas to Caribbean will probably have to be cash flights on small airlines like LIAT.
  • Trinidad to Santiago is probably easiest on COPA so need either Lifemiles or United/Ultimate Rewards.
  • Santiago to Puerto Montt is best done using Avios on LAN.
  • Santiago – Sydney – Brisbane needs to be LAN or Qantas best booked on AA.

So now I can see what the priorities are.  I need to concentrate on Ultimate Rewards and SPG (via my Aussie Amex).  I also need to find the best option from Brisbane to Dubai and start saving for it.

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CREDIT CARD GOALS

I am running out of cards I can get for bonuses although maybe my Chase cards can be churned in a year or two.  I already have a Freedom, CSP and Ink.  I could try for a United business card or wait until 2016 and try for a repeat bonus on the United Explorer.

I could get a SouthWest card if the bonus is good, that would cover the SJU – LAS leg with leftover points.  But what do I do with the leftovers when I live in Australia?  Here is what I think I will do.

1.  Wait for CSP annual 7% bonus posts, then apply for either SouthWest or United Business card.  Use CSP as leverage if needed, then cancel it so I can try to get it again in 2017.

2.  Apply for either SPG business or AMEX BRG if there is a good bonus.  I can use USA AMEX points for Flying Blue or Avios.  Cancel current SPG personal as it doesn’t have any category bonuses I can use.

3.  LAN Visa from US Bank only if they have a good bonus deal.

4.  Grab any Aussie credit card that has a good bonus and annual fee waived for both myself and my husband.

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BLOG GOALS

1.  Do technical upgrades I have been putting off as I didn’t want to deal with any potential issues coming up while I was traveling.

2.  Finish blogging all trips that we have done since this blog began in 2012.  Still to do:  Africa, Queensland.

3.  Start blogging trips we did prior to opening the blog:  Pantanal, Cristalino, Philippines, Singapore, Cruise ship Birding

4.  Merge Feathered and Free to this site and get rid of GoDaddy site which I never update anymore as I hate their platform.  Feathered and Free will remain focused on conservation and worthy causes that involve birds.

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Whew, that’s a lot of goals!  Maybe I should re-think the “Rest” part of this post’s subject!  What are YOUR travel-related and birding goals for this year?

 

2014 Travel Year In Review – The Year Of Traveling Dangerously

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It’s time for my annual tradition, a review of my year in travel.  Here’s the 2013 edition.  Although I had thought this would be a relatively quiet travel year, at least on the personal level, it turned out to be anything but!  Read on to see how we braved road trains, kamikaze kangaroos, the Gaza War, hectic airline schedules and Ebola to complete some epic birding trips!

JANUARY

One quiet month, just needed to finalize the bookings for the Aussie birding trip.  No credit card apps this time, I needed to let the dust settle after going strong last year.  Wyndham devalued their conversion to airline miles rate.

FEBRUARY

We flew to Perth and picked up a rental car from Hertz for a 2 week trip around Western Australia.  The birds were amazing!  The trip was not without risks as we dodged humongous road trains and dodged kangaroos on the road who kept jumping out in front of us.  Thankfully we completed the trip without injury to us or the car!

MARCH

Continuing on, we had a brief layover in Melbourne and saw several nice birds, then spent a week in Tasmania.  The highlight was Melaleuca where we saw highly endangered Orange-bellied Parrots and flushed a Ground Parrot while walking to the boat excursion.  Then we had a week’s excursion to Outback Queensland where we visited Bowra Station and Girraween National Park for more birds like Budgerigars, Cockatiels, Major Mitchells and several Rosellas.  More kangaroos played “chicken” with my rental car but I managed to avoid them again. (trip not blogged yet)

Garuda joins Skyteam, most welcome as now we can use Flying Blue to book one way domestic awards!

Towards the end of March, US Airways and TAM officially joined OneWorld.

APRIL

Shock-horror in the miles & points community as AA eliminates North American gateway stopovers and does away with the OneWorld Explorer ticket – a popular way to travel around the world.  And NO notice given so people couldn’t even squeeze in their last tickets!

Every airline and their brother was doing some kind of buy miles get bonus miles promo.  Americans weren’t biting as they can manufacture spend but they proved popular with Aussies and other travelers around the world.

MAY

Sri Lankan Airlines officially join OneWorld.  The annual Daily Getaways promo is announced but no bargains to be had since Wyndham points no longer transfer to airlines at an attractive rate.  In the face of devaluations and airlines changing their programs with no notice, I decided to bring forward the two trips planned for 2015 which would become impossible if the programs changed.

The French Polynesia trip relies on Air Tahiti Nui remaining a partner of the “new American” since Air New Zealand doesn’t release seats between AKL & BNE and very rare seats between AKL & PPT.  I brought the planned Feb 2015 trip forward to June 2014.

The Africa trip relies on no more United devaluations and the use of stop-overs and open jaws and would be way more expensive if these perks went away.  I bring the trip forward from Aug/Sept 2015 to Nov 2014.

JUNE

We travel to the Marquesas and Rimatara to see some of the most beautiful lorikeets in the world.  Meanwhile Daily Getaways tanks with most point packages going begging due to devaluations.  Information about the AA/US merger starts trickling out.

JULY

Dramas with the award tickets booked on US Airways/Star Alliance for the upcoming trip to the World Parrot Conference at Loro Parque.  Our planned stopover in Israel is in jeopardy when airlines pull out of TLV because of the Gaza War.  I’m stressing big time when Turkish Airlines also pulls out.  They later reinstate the flights but cut back the schedules.  Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines cancels our PEK-SIN segment and rebooks us on an earlier flight that kills our quickie trip to the Great Wall.  More stressing since US is no longer partnering with SQ since they changed to OneWorld.  I manage to get the tickets reissued and communicated to all airlines involved after several hours on Skype.

Air India joins Star Alliance.

On the bright side, ANZ finally does a good deal on the Qantas card and I pick up 50k QF points with no annual fee!  I scramble to meet the minimum spend domestically before the Israel/Europe trip as the card has a hefty forex fee.  Bills are prepaid through December, one less thing to stress over!

AUGUST

The war in Gaza continues and I have to plan an alternate stopover in Turkey just in case things get worse by Sept when we will be there and we can’t go to Israel.  I am not worried about the war as we won’t be anywhere near Gaza but the war could either spread or cause airlines to pull out again or leave us stranded in Israel if it happens while we are there.  Ceasefire is declared on 26 Aug, less than 3 weeks before our trip.  People on Trip Advisor advise that Israel is safe for tourists.  The damage to the tourist industry is done and TK cancels the morning flight we are on and rebooks us on an afternoon flight so we now will arrive late into Jerusalem and miss a valuable sightseeing time.  Once again, we need to have our tickets revalidated, more time on the phone and more time to make sure all airlines got the memo.

I send our passports to the Ghana Embassy in Canberra for the visas for the Nov trip and stress about them getting back in time and not getting lost.  Thankfully they come back with visas in good time.  Now I get to stress over the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia possibly spreading to Ghana.

In my spare time I have to pre-write 80 blog posts (mostly birding trip reports and bird profiles) to cover my one-per-day schedule while we are in Europe and Africa!  I bet no one even noticed I was gone!

SEPTEMBER

Because of Ebola, Ethiopian Airlines pulls out of Monrovia and Conakry, both of which were routed via Accra.  They cut back Accra to one flight a day and of course it is OUR flight that gets cancelled and rebooked to the other flight.  I guess I should be glad they rebooked us!  So yet another round of ticket reissuing and calling airlines to make sure they all get the new ticket numbers.

We fly to TLV via BKK and IST (fantastic lounge) and get the suites between BKK-IST on the wetleased plane!  Mini-first class experience.  Once we finally arrived in TLV, we found that one bag had gotten lost.  We waste time filling out forms and stressing out as our evening clothes for the gala party at Loro Parque and the cruise are in the lost bag.  The prodigal suitcase is delivered the next day to the Crowne Plaza Jerusalem while we are at Masada much to our relief.  We enjoy the rest of our visit in Israel (which was perfectly safe), the stopover in Nice and the conference.

After the conference, we fly to Venice and boarded an NCL ship for a Grand Mediterranean cruise.  This cruise won’t be blogged since it doesn’t fit the eco-tourism theme but it was the worst cruise I have ever taken.  Incompetent service, cancelled Mykonos port, live animals in the magician act and lack of activities during sea days.

OCTOBER

Cruise continues, ports were great but we were exhausted as we DIY’d everything to save money.  We did get to see most of the European sights we targeted.  The stress doesn’t end with the cruise.  Swiss Air has two late flights and we barely make it in time for the Air China flight FCO-PEK, huffing and puffing and praying the bags are on board.  We stay in the Air China lounge since now we don’t have enough time to go to the Great Wall.  SQ flight in J on the A380 is fantastic!  We finally catch a break when the SQ transit desk lady manages to swap us onto the red-eye to BNE, sparing us an overnight in the albeit wonderful Changi Airport.

Avianca Lifemiles devalues their awards.

No rest for the wicked as I bite my nails and watch Ebola reports online.  So far Ghana remains Ebola-free as does the rest of Africa.  With shortened nails, I breathe a sigh of relief.  I have 3 weeks to catch up on everything that happened while we were traveling and then we set off again for JNB via TPE & PEK.  I have noticed the declining availability of J class awards lately so am relieved we are doing this epic journey in biz.

NOVEMBER

The African trip is amazing!  I’ve only started blogging about it and am up through Port Elizabeth but in the New Year will finish blogs on the rest of South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar, Ghana, Addis Ababa (layover) and Tanzania!

DECEMBER

Realizing that we need to cool it on the long-haul trips next year since I have burned most of our miles squeezing in French Polynesia and Africa I cut back next year’s travel to only one overseas trip – South-east Asia and a week in Rarotonga so my husband can see his family and friends.  I burn the last United miles we have to book a killer itinerary that totally maximizes the United routing rules – 2 open jaws and a stopover!  BNE-BKK-CNX-BKK-USM /-KUL-BKK-PVG-AKL-RAR.  I use Virgin Velocity to close the circle with RAR-AKL-BNE.

Air New Zealand announces service to Buenos Aires late next year.  I am not holding my breath for award seats!

So there it is!  We survived a stressful but fulfilling year of travel and birding!

How was YOUR year?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please Ban Animal Acts On Cruise Ships

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Imagine spending your whole life in a tiny room the size of a bathroom.  You are given food and water and share this room with a couple other people.  There is no natural light and you have no mental stimulation.  Twice a week you are taken out of the room, put in a small box and carried to a large theatre with bright spotlights shining on the stage.  You and your friends are shoved into a large creature’s pockets or up his sleeves.  After a burst of flame or violent shake, you are thrust out of the sleeve or pocket into the large creature’s hand.  You flutter your wings trying to get your bearings and are promptly put into another small cage.  One by one, your friends join you.  Once the small cage is full, it suddenly shrinks to the size of a coffin and goes completely dark.  Meanwhile another large creature climbs on top of the small cage and is unveiled to an applauding audience.

Not much of a life?  But what else can a magician’s white dove expect?  Oh and by the way, you are actually “lucky”, in the old days you would have been squashed to death in the small coffin-like cage according to the movie “The Prestige“.

When I booked the Norwegian Spirit for our Mediterranean cruise, live animal acts were the last thing I was expecting given the small cabins even high-paying guests stay in, let alone the employees!  Yet I was horrified to see the resident magician do a dove act in the grand opening variety show the ship puts on to give passengers a taste of what to expect for entertainment.

IMG_2037The cruiseline has a daily announcement prohibiting photography, audio and video recording so I didn’t get any photos or video.  I did Google the magician “Sander” who performs with his wife, Alison.  They have some pics on their website but I prefer not to link it and give them any clicks.  You can also find a promotional video for Sander and Alison on YouTube by doing a search.  Since I couldn’t get my own photos and videos, I also Googled “dove magic acts” to get more information.

 

Here’s an article from Buzzfeed about a magician, Darcy Oakes who performs this trick and a YouTube video explaining how the trick is done.  This article and the comments below say how birds can be accidentally killed during this trick.  Now remember, I am not praising the magicians who do this, I am criticizing the inhumanity that these doves have to endure.

HOW SHOULD DOVES ACTUALLY LIVE?

Here are some websites with more information about these beautiful, peaceful birds who deserve so much better than a life of exploitation.

Wikipedia

Dove Bird Facts

Animal Photos

Article about inhumane treatment of performing animals

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Before that cruise on the Norwegian Spirit, it never crossed my mind that anyone would be dumb enough to keep performing animals on a cruise ship.  Besides the doves (one of which was DYED RED), there was also at least one rabbit and one large snake.  In the case of the snake, not only do you have to question the treatment of the creature but also the reaction of people who suffer from Ophidiophobia (I happen to be one).  Fear of snakes is one of the top ten phobias in the world and the unexpected proximity to a snake can terrify people or even cause a heart attack in the case of certain people.

In Sander’s act, he does one trick where he puts his wife into a cage and “turns” her into a snake.  He then takes this huge snake and walks down the stairs from the stage and approaches the front row of the audience.  He is less than 2 meters away from the audience at this point and anyone who is ophidiophobic is going to freak out.  I happened to be one of the unlucky ones in the front row when he did this and I literally ran for my life as he approached me.  Whether he intended to scare me/audience members or not doesn’t matter.  In this case he followed me up my escape route (going up the stairs).  This is part of his normal act and can be seen on his YouTube video which I referenced above.  Yes, there are some people who like snakes and wanted a closer look.  This also had to be pretty uncomfortable for the snake, being poked at by curious audience members.

Red line shows path used by Sander to carry the snake over his head, off the stage up into the audience. I was in the seat with the green dot, my husband was in the blue dot seat. I took this photo while the theatre was filling up before another performance.

NCL gave the audience no warning that a snake was involved in the magic show.  Given that ophidiophobia is a top ten phobia, this should surely have been anticipated by the management and a warning given that people who are afraid of snakes should move to a back row.  I would have still been angry and upset over the plight of the doves but at least I wouldn’t have hurt my back running up the stairs!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Just as we use eco-tourism to encourage poachers to leave poaching and take up new jobs as guides or other eco-tourism posistions, we can also discourage cruise ships from allowing animal acts.  To find out if your potential cruise has an animal act, either call the cruise line and ask them specifically or post a question on Cruise Critic.  Cruise Critic is to ships & cruising what Flyertalk is to planes and flying and would probably get a quicker reply as people there love to talk about their cruises.

If you find out that your cruise has an animal act, please don’t book it and let the cruiseline know why.  If you are already booked, cancel if you can without incurring a penalty.  If you are stuck, wait until you have boarded and speak to the cruise director and express your disapproval of animal acts.  If enough people speak up, the cruise lines will stop booking animal acts.

The only animals on a ship should be service/guide dogs and these guys!

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Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year In The Life Of An Extreme Birder

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Some of you may have seen the movie “The Big Year”, if you haven’t I highly recommend it!  While I am not into list counting or being competitive, it still makes a fascinating story!

Now revered as one of North America’s top birders, Kenn Kaufman hit the road at age sixteen and spent a year crisscrossing the country to see as many birds as he could, in a birding competition known as a “big year.” In what has become a classic among birders, this memoir chronicles the subculture of birding in the 1970s and a teenager’s search for his place in the world. In a new afterword, Kaufman looks at the evolution of bird-listing since his own big year.

 

In case you haven’t seen the movie………………………

This is my affiliate link, if you use it to purchase this book or any other on Amazon I will get a small commission at no added cost to you.  Thank you for your support!

This Blog When I Travel Overseas

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This will mostly make sense to my readers coming from the miles & points community as they are used to seeing some of their favourite bloggers blogging live from planes, hotels and airport lounges.  I have never been able to figure out why they aren’t worried about their home security, especially as many of them are very well known and publish their full names.  I am a lot more paranoid about home security.

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You will never see me posting details and dates of upcoming trips.  You will also see a post appear every day on this blog whether I am at home or not as I pre-write them and schedule them to appear on a certain day.  I am lucky that since I don’t have a time sensitive “deals” blog and that my subject of travel for birding is pretty timeless so I can get away with pre-blogging!  It does mean that I won’t be able to answer comments until I get back in most cases since I travel to places where there is no internet or the internet is extremely expensive.

I am not traveling now but when I am, you won’t know until I get home and start blogging about it!  Until then, sit back, relax and enjoy the post of the day which will always be appropriate to the topics of travel, birding or both!