Meet Tiffany Kersten: The Birder Who Just Broke the Lower 48 State Big Year Record
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 มี.ค. 2022
- Tiffany Kersten broke the Lower 48 Big Year Birding record with 726 species! Here all about her travels and experiences in this interview.
Link to Tiffany's Guide Service
tiffanykersten.blogspot.com/2...
Link To Tiffany's Go Fund Me with "She's Birdie"
www.gofundme.com/f/birdie-big...
Badgerland Birding Gear Links (As Amazon Associates we do earn from qualifying purchases)
Panasonic LUMIX FZ80 4K Digital Camera
Used for most bird videos) - check credits as we do source some photos/videos elsewhere which is noted in the description
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Cayer FP2450 Fluid Head Tripod, 75 inches Aluminium Tripod
Derek's lighter tripod
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Andoer Video Tripod Aluminum Alloy 67 Inch
Derek's heavier tripod
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Nikon D5300
Derek's vlogging and macro camera
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Rode VideoMicPro Compact Directional On-Camera Microphone
Derek's external microphone for Nikon D5300
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Credits
Photos at 4:11, 14:27, 46:50, and Bat Falcon, Gray Hawk and photo of Tiffany in cover photo provided by Tiffany Kersten.
Ryan Mandelbaum
Scaled Quail - www.flickr.com/photos/1448717...
PEHart
Western Spindalis and Yellow-faced Grassquit - www.flickr.com/photos/pehart/
Rab Lawrence
Northern Lapwing - www.flickr.com/photos/p300njb/
All other photos and videos by Derek and Ryan Sallmann
#Birding #BirdWatching #BadgerlandBirding
Great story - brings back lots of great memories. That book "The Big Year" came out the year I started birding and I enjoyed it so much that I read all the similar books I could find - Wild America, Kingbird Highway, etc. I learned that I would never have the fortitude for such an undertaking - at least not in such a short time frame! That didn't stop me from traveling all over and seeing lots of birds, I just took my time about it! Wonderful friends, beautiful places - birding has been good to me.
Goodness! In one year Tiffany saw more birds than are on my life list! I have been keeping track since 1983! Though it is true, I am mostly a backyard birder.
I learned Warbling Verio as "Receiver, receiver, receiver, receipt" From now on I'm going to listen for "If I see you, I will squeeze you, and I'll squeeze you 'til you squirt"
😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆 🤣 😂 squeeze me? Hahaha
Lol I see as many birds possible in my backyard as I'm old and cannot get out. I have seen so many beautiful birds as I live on a pond. I see water birds, country birds, and city birds. This afternoon after a blustery storm front went thru I was looking at a heron that weathered the hail and saw a huge flock of starlings in the midst of murmuration with a double rainbow backdrop. How magical This was the third time over the years I experienced this. But the first time with the rainbows 🌈 Sometimes I think the birds come to see me? Is that arrogant? Are my backyard buddies giving me a big year 😆 🤣 😂 😹. You guys rock and I l♡ve your uploads. Keep it up♡
Oh, wow! I had the pleasure of meeting her while birding in the Rio Grande Valley just last week (I was probably one of the people she mentioned as saying, "I know you!" -- as I remember it, I said "Oh, you're YOU!") She was very kind to let me take a picture with her. Such an accomplishment. And how cool to keep running into a birding hero -- both in person, and here!? Great interview!
Being that I've been down to Santa Ana I am so glad she partook in activities against that HORRIFIC monstrosity that was placed along the boarder.
I so enjoyed this. Have only been birding for a year and wish I started it years ago. Did not even know what a big year was till just recently. Congrats to Tiffany for what she has accomplished. She is a boss in the birding community. Kudos to her for what she brings to this enjoyable passion for many people of all ages.
Watch the movie Big Year you will enjoy it!
Great story for any birder. Kudos
Great story!
I spotted 6 Blue Winged Teals on my pond last week, April 2 I think! It was awesome as I had never seen them before! Oswego Illinois
Wow! I get the accomplishment, but I will politely and discretely avoid the Big Year blitz. Not my speed, but what a birding networking world there is. Congratulations!
How fun, I love that she overcame all the adversity she had in her way and found her future in the process...Birding helps me avoid real life pressures also...I get stressed, I go birding!
Great interview!
Congrats Tiffany woooooooooo woooooo. !🎉
Thanks!
I l♡ve how the birding community really supported her. It gives me hope for the future.
loved this!
Congratulations, Tiffany! Great show, guys! When I heard Tiffany mention Kaukauna, my ears perked up. A few years ago a friend of mine and I drove there from SE MN to meet some birder friends to see Snowy Owls north of there, near Freedom, WI. First Snowys I'd ever seen, and probably saw 7 individuals. Great experience!
I loved listening to this. I really want to do a Big Year, all be it likely a smaller one, at some point.
I really, really liked this interview! I'm setting my Prius up for camping for short birding trips, it was encouraging that she could see so many birds in a thrifty fashion. Ineresting to hear her perspective on women in birding.
Congrats on your accomplishment Ms. Kersten, and thank you guys for sharing her brave story. Takes a lot for anybody to embark on a mission like hers under any circumstances let alone the situation she'd found herself in late 2020. Her American Dipper in Arizona was not a state first as she may have alluded to...I got mine in 2015 at the Tonto Creek fish hatchery and that wasn't the first by a long shot. As for the Arizona "Thrasher Spot"...too bad she feels creeped out by it. It's rural west metro Phoenix. It's desert habitat. But it's a great spot for birding and I hope other visiting birders continue to give it a chance. As for the vandalism, it happens all over the place. Unfortunately it happened there too...that sucks big time. My truck was mildly vandalized in the "Tres Rios Wetlands" parking lot some years ago. People have had their cars vandalized at "Sweetwater Wetlands" near Tucson. Be careful and take precautions but in my humble opinion we can't let the bad guys control we do...high gas prices are contributing enough of that 😞
We just birded the thrasher spot and learned it is now going to become a solar farm.
I love this story!
I have to say I feel very comfortable miss Id-ing birds where I learned. I had people constantly encouraging me and being understanding. I think that may actually be to the benefit of a woman rather than a younger male birder. Maybe I’m wrong. What a wonderful video! Yay Tiffany! I hope to use her services in TX next year
Hey, great story! Way to be brave and go with the flow! It's amazing what happens when get let go of our plans enough to receive intuition and guidance.
I absolutely love this! It's a great inspiration to me.
What a great interview. Love it.
Great interview!!!!!
What a great interview! My wife and sister-in-law are both from Kaukauna, and I think my sister-in-law would have been in the same class. What a small world!
As a guy walking around the woods with a set of binoculars is there anything I can do differently to ease anxiety or make a woman feel more at ease? While walking downtown I have crossed the street so I didn't give the impression of following someone but I have little to no context (might be the wrong word) of what might actually help.
They say records are meant to be broken. This one lasted about seven months and has subsequently been crushed. So it goes!
Great idea and plot for a movie… 🤔😉
You should write that!
@@BadgerlandBirding But seriously The Big Year is my favorite movie of all time. So funny 😂
Hi Ryan and Derek. Great interview. I've got some questions about the ABA (lower 48 states) yearlist for some years now and maybe u could answer them:
- Do record breaking birders miss breeding birds in the area in a Big Year or is the outcome completely dependant on how many vagrants a yearlister sees?
- How many breeding birds are there (approximately) in het lower 48 states?
- Is there a website where I can see which code 5 (and code 4) birds are seen every year?
PS: still working on the March birding challenge: Eurasian Blackcap usually arrives in the beginning of April, but the first can be found in the end of March, so fingers crossed.
Do you have to get a picture of everything or is there trust within the community? This was a really cool story and I'm excited to have her coming to the nature center I work at in May!
There's usually no evidence of the bird spotted, sometimes they don't even see it but claim that they heard it. I can't take a record seriously if sponsor money bought it. Over 50 flights to go get a bird that was reported on the internet! Not the spirit of a big year at all. Go out and do a big year, travel to all the hotspots and hunt them down yourself, zero guides, zero internet spotter's and your total will honestly mean more than these bought records of the past 20 years.
The question is, who verifies your count on the big year competition? is it the honor system?
Honor system :)
Can confirm, the Thrasher Spot is super creepy.
I've been to three places named "thrasher spot." All equally depressing and sketchy! CATH, BRTH, LCTH.
We were just at the creepy thrasher spot(West of Buckeye) and learned they may be turning it into a solar farm.