Once Upon a Checklist
Once Upon a Checklist
Episode 1: The Saddest Checklist In The World
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Episode 1: The Saddest Checklist In The World

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On August 29th 1978, Don Roberson drove in a rental car up to a scrubby limestone forest on the North end of Guam. Using a hand-made guidebook he’d drawn himself with coloured pencils, Don managed to find and identify two of Guam’s rare endemic birds: The Guam Rail and the Guam Flycatcher.

He didn’t know it at the time, but both of those birds would go extinct in the next five years.

In this episode, I talk to Don about that day in Guam, to find out what it was like to catch a last glimpse of a bird that no longer exists.

Special thanks this episode to Don Roberson and Paul Sweet. The aaaamazing Once Upon a Checklist cover art was made by Alex Tomlinson. If you like it as much as I do… there are t-shirts!

I made a super-special risograph print for this episode which will be released later in the week, if you’re getting this message, you’ll get a preview of it in a couple of days.

Here’s something I’m going to say a lot over the next year: I’d love to hear from you. If you have an idea for the podcast, or if you’d just like to say hello, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

And finally… of course I’d be forever indebted to you if you shared this first episode far and wide.

Jer

@UponAChecklist

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Once Upon a Checklist
Once Upon a Checklist
Writer and National Geographic Explorer Jer Thorp takes listeners on fact-filled, far-flung journeys to flush out the human stories behind some of birding's most unusual checklists. Absorbing for birders and non-birders alike, Once Upon a Checklist will change the way you think about birds and the people who love (and count) them.
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Jer Thorp