09-38: A Dirtbag Big Year with Owen Reiser
The American Birding Podcast
naswick
4.7 • 677 Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A Big Year is maybe the ultimate expression of birding obsession, with all the drama inherent to the effort. Brothers Quentin and Owen Reiser's attempt at a Big Year maybe most of all. It's the subject of their documentary, Listers, an attempt to throw themselves into the birding world through perhaps the most extreme expression of the hobby. It's profane, it's funny, it's honest, and it covers all aspects of the birding world, warts and all. Owen joins us to talk about the film and his experience undertaking what he calls a "fully dirtbag Big Year". Plus there's a companion book!
Also, check out the ABA's biweekly What's This Bird show on YouTube!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Celebrate community and conservation at this year's Great Midwest Crane Fest as thousands of Sand Hill cranes gather near the Wisconsin River before flying south for the winter. |
| 0:10.4 | Registration is now open for the festival. It's in Baraboo, Wisconsin on November 15th and 16th. |
| 0:16.4 | It'll have speakers, workshops, food, art, and tours of each organization's world-class attractions. |
| 0:22.2 | For more information, visit www.g.g.midw.midwest cranefest.org. This event is brought to you |
| 0:28.7 | by the International Crane Foundation and the Aldo Leopold Foundation. |
| 0:41.2 | Hello and welcome to the American Birding Podcast from the American Birding Association. |
| 0:43.2 | I'm your host, Nate Swick. |
| 0:53.7 | We have done this podcast for nearly 10 years now, which is hard to believe, but it's not the only long-running free birding resource that the ABA provides. We're also on YouTube. |
| 0:55.9 | My ABA colleague, Greg Neese and I, host a biweekly live bird identification show, I guess. |
| 1:03.8 | Never sure what to call these new media stuff. |
| 1:06.3 | Anyway, the ABA maintains a couple of Facebook groups, one of which is called What's |
| 1:09.9 | This Bird? |
| 1:11.0 | And it's basically a place where people can post photos of mystery birds in the community. |
| 1:16.0 | Helps to identify them. |
| 1:17.7 | It's a pretty basic concept. |
| 1:19.1 | We're not reinventing any wheels here. |
| 1:21.2 | But anyway, every couple weeks, Greg grabs some photos that are particularly interesting or germane for the season, |
| 1:28.7 | and we walk through the identification live on Facebook and on YouTube. |
| 1:33.9 | We love interacting with people. |
| 1:35.6 | We've done it pretty much regularly since COVID. |
| 1:38.4 | The viewership isn't huge, but it's growing. |
| 1:41.6 | There are a handful of podcast listeners in the comments every time. |
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