Birder’s Big Year

FAYETTEVILLE - Mitchell Pruitt may have accomplished what no other Arkansas high school student has done.

During his junior and senior years, Mitchell criss-crossed the state in a relentless pursuit of birds. His mission: To record as many bird species as he could see in Arkansas in 365 days.

In the birding world, it’s called a Big Year.

“There are maybe eight or 10 people in Arkansas who have done a Big Year,” said Joe Neal of Fayetteville, who’s a friend of Pruitt and the author of several birding books. “All are adults and most are retired. None have had their parents fully engaged.”

Now a freshman at the University of Arkansas, Pruitt looked at waterfowl through his spotting scope at Lake Fayetteville on March 7 and recalled his Big Year, when he tallied 311 bird species during 2011.

“The unofficial goal you want to reach is 300,” said Pruitt, a business-marketing major.

Bird No. 1 was a woodpecker, a northern flicker, he saw on Jan. 1, 2011.

The bird was a good omen. “I hadn’t seen a northern flicker in three years,” Pruitt said.

No. 311 was a golden eagle he spotted near Jonesboro, where he went to high school, on Dec.

30, 2011.

ARKANSAS TRAVELS

Birders who embark on a Big Year dedicate as much time as possible to seeing as many species as possible. It can be a full-time pursuit. Pruitt had to juggle his Big Year with classes at Valley View High School in Jonesboro.

Not only that, Pruitt was 17 and a new driver. His parents, Ken and Kathleen Pruitt, didn’t want their son gallivanting all over Arkansas alone on his mission. So they drove him, racking up 14,850 miles on birding expeditions that year.

Most of the trips were on weekends, but Pruitt said he was allowed to skip class once or twice for travel to document a bird he needed.

“The first 100 species are easy. The easy birds will come to you. The rare ones you have to chase,” Pruitt said. “You can’t get to 300 without traveling.”

Word spread through the Arkansas birding community about the teenager’s Big Year. Now and then a fellow birder would call or email him about a bird they’d seen and where.

Pruitt and one or both parents would jump in the car posthaste and travel, sometimes for hours, not sure if they’d see the bird they were after. Most trips were a success. A bird in the bush is worth one on the list.

One trip they drove more than three hours to Lake Dardanelle to see a redneck grebe someone had contacted him about. Technology is an advantage in going for a Big Year.

“We got there and didn’t see it, so we left,” Pruitt recalled. “Ten minutes later I got a text saying where the bird was. We went back and saw it.”

The Pruitts visited every region, every nook and cranny of Arkansas, in a quest for birds.

SEE AND PHOTOGRAPH

Like any sport or pastime, some bird enthusiasts have natural talent. Pruitt is one of those, author Neal said.

“It’s like anything. Some people have the quickness of the eye and have that particular interest. When those things come together, a birder is born,” Neal said.

Pruitt also photographed most of the birds on his list, Neal mentioned.

The freshman’s curiosity about birds began in fifth grade when he attended an Audubon Society camp in Hot Springs. One of the classes he took was ornithology.

“That got me paying attention to them,” Pruitt said. His fervor grew from there.

Some may be surprised that Pruitt is majoring in business marketing and not biology or some other science.

“Mitchell will be as successful in business as he is in birding,” Neal predicted.

He noted one of Arkansas’ most accomplished birders, Bill Beall of Fort Smith, is an accountant, not a wildlife professional.

Success during Pruitt’s Big Year meant maintaining his enthusiasm for the goal. He admits to a dip or two inhis excitement.

“When it’s 100 degrees from June through August, it can be diff cult,” Pruitt said.

It may be easier to notch a Big Year in Arkansas than some other states.

“It’s amazing the diversity of birds here. You can go from seeing a flock of 10,000 snow geese in a fi eld to seeing a golden eagle,” he said.

Some birders make the entire United States their territory to do a Big Year. Most do it within one state, Pruitt said.

It’s all on the honor system, he noted. There are no Big Year referees, no Big Year umpires looking at your list.

This is a big year for Pruitt in that it’s his first year of college. Studies at UA prevent him from birding as much as he’d like. He squeezes in time on the weekends and goes on Northwest Arkansas Audubon Society field trips when he can.

Another Big Year for birds, someday, isn’t out of the question, Pruitt said.