Podcast appearances and mentions of mark obmascik

It's summer, and you might be pulling out your binoculars, filling your bird feeders, and looking up as you hear a melodious song. But for many birdwatchers, it's not just a simple pastime. Identifying bird calls, tracking rare breeds through marshes and waters, and watching our feathered friends as they watch you has turned into true love of birds — an avian obsession.Original Air Date: June 17, 2023Interviews In This Hour: 'Utterly unlike other birds': The inscrutable brilliance of owls — Mark Obmascik on Competitive Bird Watching — The Indelible Myth and Meaning of Ravens — Christopher Benfey on 'A Summer of Hummingbirds'Guests: Jennifer Ackerman, Mark Obmascik, Charles Monroe-Kane, Christopher BenfeyNever want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast.Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

This week we discuss the Rusty Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird is one of North America's most rapidly declining species. The population has dropped between 85-99 percent over the past forty years, and Amanda and RJ saw one a few weeks ago so we decided to talk about them. Join John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for Birds of a Feather Talk Together. We also answer a mailbag question on The Big Year (the movie with Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, and Jack Black, and also the book by Mark Obmascik.)Please send us your questions for us to answer as well! You can send them to podcast.birdsofafeather@gmail.comMake sure to follow us on instagram, Blue Sky Social and tik tok as well!!

Last month saw the passage of Sandy Komito, perhaps the ultimate Big Year birder. Not only did he set records twice, but his second attempt, along with Al Levantin and Greg Miller, was the subject of Mark Obmascik's book, The Big Year. That book because a movie of the same name, where an exagerated version of Komito was played by Owen Wilson. While a great deal of artistic license was taken in the underhanded behavior of Wilson's character, the drive, passion, and charisma was recognized by those who befriended Sandy over the years. In light of his passage, we bring you a series of interviews by the ABA's Greg Neise, where Sandy tells the stories of his Big Year and what it takes to put it all together not once, but twice, in his own words.  Thanks to our friends at FeatherSnap for sponsoring this episode. Feathersnap is a smart bird feeder with AI bird identification capabilities that send photos of the birds visiting your yard. Capture every moment with FeatherSnap. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to join the ABA to support this podcast and the many things we do for birds and birders!

It's summer, and you might be pulling out your binoculars, filling your bird feeders, and looking up as you hear a melodious song. But for many birdwatchers, it's not just a simple pastime. Identifying bird calls, tracking rare breeds through marshes and waters, and watching our feathered friends as they watch you has turned into true love of birds — an avian obsession.Original Air Date: June 17, 2023Interviews In This Hour: 'Utterly unlike other birds': The inscrutable brilliance of owls — Mark Obmascik on Competitive Bird Watching — The Indelible Myth and Meaning of Ravens — Christopher Benfey on 'A Summer of Hummingbirds'Guests: Jennifer Ackerman, Mark Obmascik, Charles Monroe-Kane, Christopher BenfeyNever want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast.Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

And a hearty welcome to episode 11 of the Big Year Podcast. I'm Robert. Baumander, and I'm your guide to the life of the big year birding experience. Late in the year 2011, which seems like a lifetime ago, I saw a little movie called, not surprisingly, The Big Year.      One of my favorite actors, Steve Martin, was starring in it. I was also a fan of Jack Black and remembered him from way back when I saw High Fidelity. And who doesn't love Owen Wilson? So I told Sue that I'd like to see it and from the previews I just thought it was a buddy movie.      Sue didn't let on that it was actually about birding or I may not have gone. But we did go, and I, like my guest, Kiah Jasper, was drawn into the prospect of doing a Big Year. Keep in mind, at the time, I was not a birder and had only ever used binoculars at the racetrack.  By the time the credits rolled with photos of all the birds and the Guster song, “This could all be yours someday,” I was pretty much hooked. I remembered that Sue had the book, The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik, from the library, and I really hadn't given it a second thought. Now, I had to read the book. Well, listen to the audiobook. Even while listening to the book, I was secretly planning a Big Year.      Not a full out ABA plus Attu, but a smaller Big Year, birding wherever I traveled across North America. I had a full time job with the Toronto Blue Jays,(oddly appropriate), that took up the majority of my year and my days. What could it hurt to do a little birding along the way? And maybe see, oh I don't know, 300 or so species as I learned how to bird and what it took to become a birder.      The trouble was, and I really didn't acknowledge it at the time, I was suffering, or perhaps gifted with, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. On a January trip to California, my guide Eddie Bartley told me that if I really wanted to call it a Big Year, I had to go to Arizona, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Alaska. How could I possibly do that while working full time and I really had zero spare dollars in my bank account?      Well, it turns out if you are obsessive and determined enough, you can make a good stab at it. At the end of 2012 I was thousands of dollars in debt but had seen 600 species. Last year I completed a Canada big year. I counted 457 species tying the all-time record.  And if that darn Limpkin had just flown far enough across the Niagara River into Canadian airspace, I would have had the all time record. Woe is me. But if “Ifs and buts…” as my mother used to say.  However, in Ontario in 2022, one young man did break a record.     Kiah Jasper, at the age of just 20 - I'm 63, so yeah, just 20 - broke the all time record for an Ontario big year. He traveled thousands of miles, sometimes in terrible weather and on roads no birder had ever been to in the farther northern regions of Ontario, which put it into perspective, has a larger area than Texas.      When it was all said and done, Kiah had seen 359 species, blowing by the previous record of 343 species set in 2017. So, it's not a coincidence that Kyah is the final guest on my five part series on the Birders of the Ontario 2022 Big Year.  I am grateful to Kiah for re-recording this episode after a couple of glitchy recordings, early in the year, made it nearly impossible to hear.  My fault entirely and perhaps I should have fired myself on the spot.  But, now it is finally finshed and this is the result of all that hard work and perseverance, just like, well, doing a Big Year.      Please.  Finally.  Enjoy. 

May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces were tirelessly fighting in a yearlong campaign, and both sides would suffer thousands of casualties.

May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces were tirelessly fighting in a yearlong campaign, and both sides would suffer thousands of casualties. Mark Obmascik’s new book “The Storm on Our Shores,” tells the heart-wrenching but ultimately redemptive story of two soldiers—a Japanese surgeon and an American sergeant—during that brutal battle in Alaska, in which the sergeant discovers the medic's revelatory and fascinating diary, which in turn changes our war-torn society’s perceptions of Japan. Mark Obmascik is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author of “The Big Year,” which was made into a movie, and “Halfway to Heaven.” He won the 2009 National Outdoor Book Award for outdoor literature, the 2003 National Press Club Award for environmental

This is an encore presentation.

This is an encore presentation. It’s May 1943. The Battle of Attu between American and Japanese forces was raging on the Aleutian island, with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. In this unlikely place, a Silver Star-winning American sergeant discovers a Japanese surgeon’s war diary, and finds solace for his own tortured soul.

Mark Obmascik, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author who wrote Halfway to Heaven: My White-Knuckled—And Knuckleheaded—Quest for the Rocky Mountain High, joined the Non-Standard 14er Podcast to chat about how, as a forty-four-year-old father of three, he climbed all of Colorado's 14ers in a single summer. We got to ask Mark all about his inspiration on writing the book and the adventures he had on the mountains and with the people he met climbing.  The best advice we got from Mark maybe his instructions on how to eat an elephant…hear all about it in our latest episode.

Episode 5 of The Birding Life Podcast with special guest Mark Obmascik author of 'The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession' The Birding Life is proudly associated with Birdlife Port Natal, the bird club covering the greater Durban area. The Birding Life Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/birdinglife.official Birdlife Port Natal Links blpn.org blpn.members@gmail.com Mark Obmascik Website http://www.markobmascik.com/ Royalty-Free Music sourced from freemusicarchive.org/ Artist Scott Holmes

Author and journalist Mark Obmascik helps us remember a forgotten battle of WWII, one fought on American soil. Megan Parker from Working Dogs for Conservation explains how they use rescue dogs to rescue the environment. Professional adventurer Victor Vascovo takes us to the bottom of the ocean. Author Leonard David describes the modern race to the moon.

Mark Obmascik shares the incredible story of two men fighting for opposing sides and tangled in the complexities of World War II. He exposes how our enemy isn’t as different as we think, the lasting effects of war and the process of finding forgiveness and peace.

Author and journalist Mark Obmascik helps us remember a forgotten battle of WWII, one fought on American soil. Megan Parker from Working Dogs for Conservation explains how they use rescue dogs to rescue the environment.

Mark Obmascik has written more than a war story.  Doctor Nobou Tatsuguchi and Dick Laird are the central characters of this story of duty, desperation, hurting and healing.  This is a heart-wrenching but ultimately redemptive story of two World War II soldiers – a Japanese surgeon and an American sergeant – during a brutal Alaskan battle in which the sergeant discovers the medic’s revelatory and fascinating diary that changed our war-torn society’s perceptions of Japan.  Obmascik, son of a Marine, discusses with host Jim Fausone a story he never expected to write.  

The heart-wrenching but ultimately redemptive story of two World War II soldiers—a Japanese surgeon and an American sergeant—during a brutal Alaskan battle in which the sergeant discovers the medic's revelatory and fascinating diary that changed our war-torn society’s perceptions of Japan. May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces were tirelessly fighting in a yearlong campaign, and both sides would suffer thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star-winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul. The doctor’s name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded—never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird. Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years. Tatsuguchi’s diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi’s daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik brings his journalistic acumen, sensitivity, and exemplary narrative skills to tell an extraordinarily moving story of two heroes, the war that pitted them against each other, and the quest to put their past to rest. Mark Obmascik is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author of The Big Year, which was made into a movie, and Halfway to Heaven. He won the 2009 National Outdoor Book Award for outdoor literature, the 2003 National Press Club Award for environmental journalism, and was the lead writer for the Denver Post team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Denver with his wife and their three sons. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/steve-richards/support

On the 6th of June 1942 Japanese troops invaded the island of Attu which is part of Alaska, it was the first time since 1812 that continental America had been invaded. In this episode we’re looking at the US attack to recapture the island, the fighting was bitter in a very hostile environment, and the discovery of a diary of a Japanese army surgeon who had been trained before the war in the USA. I’m joined by Mark Obmascik, author of The Storm on our Shoreswhich traces the story of the fighting on Attu, Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi and an American GI called Dick Laird.

Denver author Mark Obmascik explores a little-known WWII battle in “The Storm on Our Shores.” Then, a Coloradan remembers Notre Dame. Next, former employees say Anadarko has a culture of male "sexual gratification" and bullying. Also, state workers want the right to unionize. Then, how to improve the air conditioner. Finally, Holocaust survivors sing.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Mark Obmascik's newest book is "The Storm on our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War Two." The island in question was Attu, one of the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska - and Japan's takeover of this remote island was the first time a foreign power had seized American territory since the War of 1812. The book examines the island, Japan's invasion, and America's retaking of the island- coupled with the personal stories of two men caught on opposite sides of the conflict: an American soldier and a Japanese medical doctor.

May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces were tirelessly fighting in a yearlong campaign, and both sides would suffer thousands of casualties.

April 9th - Mark Obmascik, Ramy Romany

April 9th - Mark Obmascik, Ramy Romany

Bird Calls radio show featuring an interview with “The Big Year” author Mark Obmascik. He discusses the movie, the book, the characters in the book and his own passion for birdwatching.