What It’s All About

(The dates on some images are the first time I ever saw the species, not when the photo was taken)

I read an article on a plane recently which stated  “Most birders, are just hunters, who didn’t like the kill!”

Wow, did that every hit home.

In 2004, I started my personal quest to photograph all 699 birds in my first bird book ” A Field Guide to Birds of North America” by Golden Books, published in 1966.  I really didn’t think that far ahead to a time when the easy birds were out of the way and each life bird would get tougher and tougher to see, let alone photograph.

At first it was fairly easy, local birds helped me get to 200 in the first year, then with a few trips Arizona, Texas, West Coast and Florida up to 500 by 2007.

From 500 to 600 took almost 3 years, due to the fact, all of these birds required some travel.

Slowly in the past year I have managed to get to 674 species photographed from the Golden Guide (of which 635 are in the ABA area) but it seems each bird now requires further travel afield.

It will be slow but I have the rest of my life…

2012 wasn’t the best year, Ango-grams, Angio-plasty, heart disease and the fact that no one will insure you for travel outside and inside Canada…limited my movements but 2013 was great.  With trips to Vancouver, Alaska, East Coast and West Central USA, I really improved on,  photos and life list. Lets hope 2014 takes me over the top.

Paul Lagasi

“I consider myself to have been the bridge between the shotgun and the binoculars in bird watching. Before I came along, the primary way to observe birds was to shoot them and stuff them”

Roger Tory Peterson