January 1st, 2015 (16h50) - Dirk Human: "So John Kinghorn, what are you doing today??". The answer was quite simple, nothing, but I couldn't help but find myself driving around my suburb looking for House Sparrow, Rock Martin, Crested Barbet, Grey Go Away Bird, Black Collared Barbet, Speckled Mousebird and any other unsuspecting garden bird which I could add to my newly born 2015 year list.
The year 2014 was a big year for me, not because it was the Soccer World Cup or the Sochi Winter Olympics, or even because it was my first year out of school but instead because it was literally that, a Big Year! The year prior saw me make a very rash, bold and quite frankly stupid (in some regards), decision to tackle a Southern African Birding Big Year and attempt to break the record for the youngest person to do so. Now what is a Southern African Birding Big Year you may ask, well I shall elaborate: Come January 1st of any calendar year a birder, whether it be a he or she, will set out to record as many avian species as they possibly can within the southern African sub-region in the space of a calendar year, but the real challenge comes in when birders aim for the magical 800 mark, a number seen only by extreme, dedicated, tough, experienced birders who have pretty much been birding from the womb. Now to record 800 species within a calender year was previously unheard of until the Southern African Big Year took off a good few years back and to date six individuals have managed to record the magical 800 milestone within the space of a calendar year (Ian Sinclair, Mark Kirk, Alisha Kirk, Trevor Hardaker, Niall Perrins and most recently, myself).
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| Bohms Bee-eater, Villa de Sena, Mozambique |
My year was spent traversing the corners of the sub-region targeting species I only ever dream't of adding to my life list and here I was actually doing it!- Basra Reed Warbler, Bohms Bee-eater, Pacific and American Golden Plovers, Spotted Creeper, Red-faced Crimsonwing, Buff-spotted Flufftail, Green Headed Oriole, Racket-tailed Roller and the list goes on and on, but all of which are species which were ticked, and this time not in my dreams. I spent roughly 300 out of the 365 days of the year enveloped in intense day-to-day birding and a state of determination and what some would call, pure madness, but to me it became the norm, especially when it involved trashing months of planning in order to chase one rarity on the opposite side of the country. Completely normal.
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| Fiery Necked Nightjar, Gorongosa, Mozambique |
My year ended on December 31st 2014 at 11:59 just before the clock struck twelve and champagne started to flow. 803 species later, thousands upon thousands of kilometers and my year was over in a blink of an eye and a burst of fire works. So what would 2015 hold? To be honest I hadn't the slightest clue having been caught up in birding non-stop for a calendar year I hadn't had time to focus on any other birding plans other than those at hand, but first things first I would be able to sleep in on new years day and not find myself chasing birds in north-western Gauteng. However sitting back and seeing fellow birders log their totals for the start of their year lists ignited the flame inside (yet again) and there I was hanging outside my bedroom window at a few minutes past eight ticking off Cape Sparrow and Laughing Dove...Completely normal.
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