Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 11:00:22 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tyler Bell Subject: Greg Miller and his fowl obsession (long) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline For those of you who know Greg Miller, you might be interested in this = articel in The Cleveland Plains Dealer. If not, hit the delete key now! = Every time I picture him stuck in the muck of the Everglades I have to = laugh. Rare bird obsessed with all things fowl=20 02/05/04 Stephen Hudak=20 Plain Dealer Reporter Thigh-deep and still sinking in a skunky goo in the Everglades, Greg = Miller fretted not about the fading Florida sun, the swarming mosquitoes = or lurking alligators.=20 Where are the flamingos? he thought.=20 =20 Miller, 46, who lives in Sugarcreek in Ohio's Amish country, is admittedly = an odd duck, an obsessed bird-watcher who takes wing for a chance to see a = rare species.=20 He hadn't seen a real flamingo.=20 Birders like him catalog their sightings, a pastime that traces its origin = to 1829 and painter John James Audubon, namesake of the bird conservancy = the Audubon Society.=20 Outside the flock, the obsession is difficult to understand.=20 "It's a really hard thing to explain," Miller said. "People ask, 'You = don't go to take pictures? You just go to add it to your list? Say you saw = it?=20 " 'And this is fun?' "=20 Miller is one of three birders featured in a new book about the sport of = bird-watching in 1998, "The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl = Obsession."=20 A Big Year is an annual, 12-month quest for birds and is loosely monitored = by the American Birding Association, which sets the few rules birders = follow.=20 The object is to chase fowl all over the continental United States, Alaska = and Canada, a grueling competition that requires time, money and grit. = Whoever sees the most wins. Miller's two rivals were retired, wealthy men. = Miller had grit.=20 Aided by the winds of El Nino, which pushed rare Asian birds into the = Western Hemisphere, the three birders each saw more than 700 species.=20 Nobody has done it since.=20 Newly divorced, Miller, a computer programmer, maxed out five credit cards = in pursuit of North America's 918 bird species during his Big Year.=20 He traveled 130,000 miles from the edge of Alaska to the shores of the = Atlantic, chasing curve-billed thrashers, chachalacas and prairie = chickens.=20 It cost him $31,159 to see 715, the second-most ever in a year.=20 Once, he was so broke he sustained himself for three days in the Great = Plains on a jar of Jiffy peanut butter and a bag of Mister Salty = pretzels.=20 The chase brought him closer to his father, Bruce, a farm vet who had = taught him to recognize birds first by their songs and then by their = colors.=20 "I think he lived that year vicariously through me," Miller said of his = father, who died in 2000. "It's something deep down he wished he'd had a = chance to do, too."=20 The author of "The Big Year," Mark Obmascik, said Miller used his year not = only to feed his obsession but also to heal himself after the divorce.=20 "As a birder, what he did is remarkable," Obmascik said.=20 According to the American Birding Association, there are 305 people who = have seen 700 or more species of North American fowl in their lifetime.=20 "Most of us live our lives with the brakes on," Obmascik said. "He just = went for it. How often do you have a chance to chase your passion for a = year?"=20 Birder Dan Sanders, a retired biology teacher in Columbus, met Miller in = 1998 on Attu, a barren island in the Aleutian chain about 1,100 miles from = Alaska's mainland and a rugged harbor for some of the rarest birds ever to = land in North America. They became friends of a feather.=20 Five years have passed since Miller's Big Year, but his passion for = birding may be greater now.=20 He birds Ohio while fighting leukemia.=20 Sanders accompanied Miller last year on a "Big January," a monthlong = birding tour of the state during which his driven companion saw 130 = species, a record.=20 And twice, they interrupted "Big January" because Miller got a twitch, an = uncontrollable need to chase a rare bird he had never seen before.=20 They sped to Rochester, N.Y., through a blizzard to see a Ross' gull, then = turned around and drove to Texas to see a golden-crowned warbler and a = blue mockingbird.=20 "It's bird 'til you drop," Sanders said.=20 Miller keeps lists not only of all the species he has seen in his lifetime = but of species he sees each year, each month and in each Ohio county.=20 He has not seen it all. Some birds elude him.=20 During his Big Year, Miller jetted to Tulsa, Okla., for a glimpse of a = lesser prairie chicken but, after he arrived, he found a more intriguing = rare-bird alert on the Internet.=20 A northern jacana, a bright-billed, high-stepping, long-toed marsh = chicken, had been spotted in southeastern Arizona, a 1,200-mile, one-way = drive.=20 Miller rented a car and took off.=20 "The bird was there eight days," he said. "I arrived on the ninth."=20 He also missed a snowy owl, which sometimes shows up in Ohio; a Swainson's = warbler; and, of course, the lesser prairie chicken he forsook for the = jacana.=20 He shrugged off the failures.=20 "If I got everything I ever went after, I think birding would lose some of = its appeal," Miller said. "It's the misses that make the gets so = special."=20 To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:=20 shudak@plaind.com, 1-800-683-7348=20 =A9 2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.=20 Tyler Bell bell@acnatsci.org California, Maryland Wave that flag...wave it wide and high! Grateful Dead, U.S. Blues =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================