N.B. birder celebrates seeing his 400th species
Some people collect stamps, books or maybe autographs.
Jim Wilson has painstakingly assembled his collection over 61 years. But instead of physical objects, the New Brunswicker collects bird sightings.
"It's been a long time coming, it feels really good," Wilson said in an interview with CBC's Information Morning to cap off his 400th bird sighting in the province.
His last sighting? An aptly named Wilson's Plover in Cormierville, just north of Shediac.
Wilson said the list of birds spotted in the province is maintained by the New Brunswick Museum, and is currently at 442. That's out of a total of 648 bird species seen across Canada.
"It's amazing how many birds we have in New Brunswick, so I'm lucky enough to have seen 400 over the last 60 years."
When he first started birding, Wilson said there were only about 300 birds on the New Brunswick list.
"And in those days, there were no cameras to speak of like there are today. There was no infrastructure, very few birders."
Wilson's 400th species was the perfectly-named Wilson's plover, photographed in Cormierville, N.S., by fellow birder Marbeth Wilson. (Submitted by Marbeth Wilson)
But to make the official sighting list, you can't just rely on word of mouth.
"Not only do you have to see these things, but you have to document them with photographs, with evidence that it can't be anything else and it definitely was seen here. So there's quite a process for that," Wilson said.
Known as the bird records committee, the group of five birders with the New Brunswick Museum takes a look over the evidence, then each member votes privately. The sighting must get four votes to pass, anything less doesn't count.
Wilson is on the committee, and jokes that maybe he's cheating. But nonetheless, he's racked up a dozen confirmed first sightings of a species in New Brunswick, something he's proud of.
One of his most memorable spots was during a 1983 trip to Grand Manan with a fellow birder.
A Steller's sea eagle was spotted on the Restigouche River in northern New Brunswick in 2021, and Wilson was lucky enough to count it as one of his 400 species. (Andrew Olive)
"We had no idea what this bird was, we had an idea of what it wasn't: it wasn't something that was common around here," Wilson said.
It turned out to be a Siberian stonechat.
"It was the first record ever for North America. Not just Canada, not just New Brunswick, but all of North America," Wilson said, recalling the sighting.
Another sighting that stands out was a Steller's sea eagle that Wilson spotted in New Brunswick. The same individual was then spotted in Newfoundland and then Massachusetts after his spotting.
"This is a bird that's found not in North America but in Siberia, in the remote posts of Siberia. And a few of them go down into northern Japan in the winter and that's when people see them, because they're so remote," he said.
"One ends up coming not only across the northern Pacific into Alaska, but all the way across the country and ends up in New Brunswick. Unheard of, unbelievable."
Wilson has a list of about 50 more species he believes can be spotted in New Brunswick in the coming years, but can't help reflecting on the 400 he's already seen.
"The longer you're at this birding game, the longer you realize you can never say never, because things show up that you would never imagine," Wilson said.
He encouraged people to consider birding, adding that it can be anything you make of it.
"It can be anything from looking out your window and seeing a robin hopping on the lawn or something coming to the bird feeder, or it can be travelling the world."
