Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time-A True Story about Birdwatching by Sean Dooley

From Barnes & Noble

Birder Sean Dooley is a self-proclaimed twitcher. For the uninitiated, "twitcher" is jargon for a birdwatching extremist who is willing to travel any distance to visually "bag" a new species for his or her list. In this lighthearted travelogue/memoir, Dooley relives his marathon attempt to glimpse 700 bird species in a single year.

From the Publisher

As a self-proclaimed twitcher—a birdwatching extremist who travels around the country trying to catch a glimpse of as many species of birds as possible—the author took a year off in 2002 with the goal of seeing 700 birds and thereby breaking the national record for most birds seen in one year. In this amusing memoir, he recounts his quest, including how he spent all of his inheritance from the untimely death of his parents to make his dream a reality. Populated by unusual characters and interesting species of birds, this part confessional–part travelogue for both bird nerds and the general population follows the author as he works out what it means to be normal despite his unusually avid compulsion toward twitching.

Booklist

"His hilarious commentary on his own sanity will keep even the non-birding reader in stitches. Prepare to laugh out loud."

Publishers Weekly

Dooley makes his living in Australia writing television comedy scripts, but his real passion is bird-watching-in fact, he'll frequently "twitch," dropping whatever he's doing to travel hundreds of miles for a brief glimpse of a recently sighted rare species. In 2002, he set out to break the record for the most birds spotted throughout the Australian territories in a single year. The effort to track down more than 700 species takes him from a sooty owl sitting on a tree branch in the early hours of New Year's Day to a blue-faced parrot finch climbing a blade of grass on Christmas Eve. Stories about frustrated efforts to spot various birds show a winning humor, but without any pictures of birds or their habitats, all the locations start to blur together. The amiable, conversational tone keeps the story from getting dull, and the Aussie cultural references are easily deciphered, but Dooley's accomplishment in the end feels anticlimactic. (Aug. ) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Dooley, a vastly entertaining and energetic young television comedy writer, spent 2002 traveling all over Australia. His goal was to set a record for the most bird species seen there in a year. Dooley smashed the old record, tallying an astounding 703 species. What it cost him was 150,000 kilometers of travel, total exhaustion, most of his inheritance, and a limited social life. However, his lively, witty book well describes the satisfaction, happiness, sense of self-reliance, and peace that can be realized by achieving one's goal, especially if, as in Dooley's case, the goal is a difficult one. Full of easily digested and interesting explanations for nonbirders, this tale of Dooley's epic year should appeal to a wide audience. His glossary (here called "glossowary," a play on the name of the ostrichlike Australian cassowary) defines the titular "twitch" as "the act of chasing after a rare bird." Much of the book's humor derives from the author's relations with nonbirders, especially his difficulties securing girlfriends, who are usually put off by his avocation. A fine, picaresque adventure, well told; highly recommended for larger public libraries and natural history collections. [For another tale of obsessive birding, see Dan Koeppel's To See Every Bird on Earth.-Ed.]-Henry T. Armistead, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

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Table of Contents