Review: New Zealand’s Biggest Year: The biggest birding year in New Zealand history. Two birders set out to break the all-time record of species seen in 365 days but there can only be one winner…
Reviewed by Alex Eagles
Author:
Harry Boorman with Felicity Boorman
Publisher:
John Beaufoy Publishing
ISBN:
9781913679392
Date published:
05 October 2023
Pages:
264
Format:
Paperback
RRP:
$39.99
If you are a twitcher just twitching to tick off a few more species of birds found in Aotearoa or a budding birder beginning your journey, then New Zealand's Biggest Year would be a useful book for your bibliography. The softcover edition is part birding handbook with tips on how and where to find some of Aotearoa's more elusive as well as rare avian species and includes 30 maps and 100 colour photos. The book is also an autobiographical account of Harry Boorman's year-long avian adventure to become the 'Ultimate New Zealand Birder' by busting the existing record (220 birds in one year).
Boorman writes in an easy-to-read chatty style as though he is telling you all about his escapades over a cup of tea and bikkies. Reading my way through the book I couldn't help but get caught up in his enthusiasm and found myself willing him to succeed in frequently madcap missions to add another tick to his 'been there, seen that bird' list.
Although not a twitcher myself, bird-spotting is something I love to do wherever I am in the world, and I thought I knew a thing or two about it; however, I confess the title of this book had me a little bit perplexed. The subtitle - The biggest birding year in New Zealand history. Two birders set out to break the record of species seen in 365 days, but there can only be one winner… - elucidates what the book is about, but I still wondered why the title was not 'Biggest Birding Year'? Boorman explains in the very first sentence that doing a 'Big Year' is the term twitchers use to describe a competition to identify and list as many different species of birds as possible in one country within one calendar year.
The rules for how to conduct a 'Big Year' differ depending on where in the world the birding is taking place. While just hearing a bird can enable you to tick a bird off your list in most parts of the world, the rules for Aotearoa stipulate that the species must be seen clearly enough in the wild to enable a positive identification.
Boorman went one step further and tried to take a photo of each species to allow verification by bird experts wherever possible. This was particularly important when the bird sighted was a rarely seen species. Most of the photos in the book are relatively amateur, but this somehow adds to the authenticity of Boorman's story.
The quest to break the birding record took him all around the North and South Islands (Te Ika a Maui and Te Wai Pounamu) to island sanctuaries such as Tiritiri Matangi, mainland islands like Zealandia, well-known bird-spotting locations including Pūkorokoro Miranda and Foxton but also some areas I had never even heard of. Accounts of trips to remote offshore islands - the Kermadec Islands to the north of Aotearoa and Subantarctic Islands to the south - are particularly nail-biting as you wonder, 'Will he/won't he see the bird?’ with Boorman’s descriptions of his ensuing emotions often brutally honest.
Halfway through the book, the tension really begins to mount as Boorman suspects that a fellow birder (although he denies it) is also doing a 'Big Year.’ The race to the competition’s conclusion will keep readers on the edge of their seats right to the end of the book to find out who will take out the title of New Zealand's Ultimate Birder.
WARNING: This book may be contagious and result in readers being bitten by the birding and even the 'Big Year' bug. My last words are to report the sad news that my husband has become infected and is planning his own ‘Big Year’ as I write…
Reviewed by Alex Eagles
