ABC was privileged to host Blair Bernson on his inaugural presentation of his 50-50-50 Project, a presentation he intends to exhibit at many venues over the coming months and perhaps incorporate into a book. With his excellent photos and his insights into the people and places he’s experienced, we believe this would be an excellent contribution to this growing genre of birding adventures. He has enough material already just by culling his really great blog: https://blairbirding.com/2020/02/20/fotos-friends-and-fabulous-weather/#like-23601

Title of the presentation was, “50/50/50 – A Passionate BIrding Adventure,” and Blair turned out to be passionate about not just the birds, but the adventure and all that means. It was a way to become optimistic about the world for him, and he communicated that very well.

A whirlwind of activity filled every month over a couple of years, birding every month except July last year. As any birder knows, May is BUSY! He had a 15-state marathon in May 2019! His modus operandi was to plan 2 days at the minimum wherever he went, one day for birding and one day for travel. His “rule” was to see 50 birds in ONE DAY, and he never had to break that rule.

He called “coordinating with others” a logistical complaint, but it was also a highlight for him, getting to know people all over and following up leads on who to contact. He has a bunch of new lifelong friends now that he’ll continue to follow. His local birding companions numbered 300!

To sum up, he saw 491 birds on his 50 project days and 660 on project trips. Whew!

He did take a few plane trips, but managed a lot of his travel with rental cars, having planned to do the “next state” next door to where he was.

Blair Bernson is not “Just a Birder,” as he claims, but someone we are happy to know. He was also willing to move up his presentation for us when we had a cancellation, which is why we happened to see it before anyone else! So we’re all lucky that way, too1

Thanks, Blair!