The world has seldom seen birders with the dedication displayed by Phoebe Snetsinger. In her single-minded march to one of the longest life lists on Earth, she hit the trail day after day, season after season, year after year. Olivia Gentile’s book Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds recounts Snetsinger’s adventures clearly and compellingly, allowing the Big Lister’s deed to speak for themselves.
Few of us are as instilled with the burning desire to see new birds every day that kept Phoebe Snetsinger going. When we asked you to channel the spirit of Snetsinger and go seek out a new bird species, during the summer doldrums no less, few of you answered the call. One of you that did, however, will receive a free copy of Life List!
Shannon Caruso wrote:
As part of my thesis for my Master’s degree in Environmental Studies, I went on a survey to count Southwestern Willow Flycatchers and their nests. I went with a biologist from Bureau of Reclamation on Friday, July 10th. This was a riparian area along the Rio Grande River. It wasn’t until near the end of the survey that I actually got a good look at the bird. I could hear them quite a bit before that. But this was the first time I had seen this endangered bird! I am enclosing two photos I took. I was honored to see him/her!
Shannon even included cool photos. However, since Shannon didn’t blog about this excursion as required in the rules, it doesn’t qualify.
Lindsey Duval did blog about her hike through birding hell, saying:
Hello! I think I may have walked one too many miles in her shoes today, but actually did see a life list bird that has eluded me for the year I’ve been birding (I have about 120 species on my list already).
Kirk Mona made the best of his trip to South Dakota, saying:
Here’s my blog post about searching out new lifers. I had a list of 16 possible species but only saw 3. Birding while at the inlaws family reunion has to be done on the side.
The NBN Team and author Olivia Gentile liked all the entries but selected Kirk’s as most Snetsingeresque. Congrats to Kirk and thanks to everyone who participated. Thank you as well to Olivia Gentile and the good folks at Bloomsbury USA. If you still don’t have a copy of Life List, pick one up. I recommend it highly.
If you remember, four copies of Life List were up for grabs. Find out who earned the other three over at 10,000 Birds!
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[...] Aren’t they cool, like haikus for the 21st century? Don’t you wish you had tweeted one too? We (meaning Charlie, Corey, myself, and the talented author Olivia) loved all of them but selected Christopher and John to receive free copies of Life List. Also receiving a copy for his exceptional outreach efforts is Chip Clouse. That accounts for three of four copies. To learn where the fourth went, visit the Nature Blog Network! [...]