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Key Points
nPosted on June 9, 2019
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nShe set a world record…
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n…for spotting birds?
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nSerious birdwatchers, or birders, need patience, good walking shoes, binoculars, and knowledge. Phoebe Snetsinger, born on this date in 1931, had all of those – and she also had a strong motivation:
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She had, she was told, terminal cancer.
She had, she was told, terminal cancer.n
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n“Terminal” means that she was expected to die from the cancer. However, when amateur-birder Snetsinger was given this diagnosis, at age 50, she decided to take a trip to Alaska to add birds to her list of species she’d seen and identified. And when she came back from that trip, she discovered that her cancer was in remission!
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nBirdwatchers have this thing called a Life List – a long, probably computerized list on which they list the various species and sub-species that they have spotted, along with dates and places. You can guess from the phrase “Life List” that the list includes all the species of birds spotted over the entire course of your life. If you hit 600 birds, you’re doing great!
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nWell, Phoebe Snetsinger saw more than 8,000 different bird species!!!
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nThat’s about 85% of all bird species! Impressive!
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nSnetsinger’s cancer came back several times, but it also went into remission again, over and over. Snetsinger fought back with at least one surgery, probably some other treatments, and by gallivanting all over the world in defiance of her death sentence. She even wrote a book called Birding on Borrowed Time.
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nSnetsinger had an adventurous spirit and enough money to travel all over the world. Thanks to her inheritance from her father, Snetsinger traveled to all seven continents in order to see all those different kinds of birds!
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nSnetsinger became the first person ever to break 8,000 on her Life List, and when she died at age 68 – in a car accident, while birdwatching, by the way – NOT from cancer! – she had 8,398 different species on her list.
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Since then, her world record has been broken a few times, and right now there is one bird watcher, British birder Tom Gullick, who has reached 9,000 different species of birds on his Life List!
Since then, her world record has been broken a few times, and right now there is one bird watcher, British birder Tom Gullick, who has reached 9,000 different species of birds on his Life List!n
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nIt took him until he was 81 years old to see that many – very nearly all of the bird species that exist! – and so I can revise my original list of what bird watchers need to succeed:
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patience,
patience, n
ngood walking shoes,
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nbinoculars,
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nknowledge,
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nan adventurous spirit,
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nenough money to travel,
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nand luck – to live a long life!
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nAlso on this date:
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nPioneering female doctor, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
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nAnniversary of Captain Blood’s attempt to steal the crown jewels
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nAnniversary of the burning of Alexandra Palace
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nNational Heroes’ Day in Uganda
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nBirthday of comedian / magician Piff
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nBirthday of actor and activist Michael J. Fox
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nPlan ahead:
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Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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Check out my Pinterest boards for:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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nJune holidays
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nJune birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in June
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJuly holidays
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nJuly birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in July
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