Hello Gary,
I suggest that the range of ways that people do or don't keep bird lists is
as varied as the people and places involved and probably largely reflect
their finances and ability to travel far. Because people vary in this latter
aspect it does not matter to me what the comparisons are. Knowing something
useful about the local birds and hopefully contributing that and being able
to inspire interest in others is also of value. Of course these things go
together.
For years I kept and analysed and eventually wrote and published books about
the Garden Bird Survey done in Canberra. That sure was a big task of many
lists and detailed statistical analysis by sites, years, species, recording
rates, trends in abundance of species, etc. So every outcome has numbers.
That suggests something about me. Ask me what species I have seen in
Australia and I would know yes or no. But ask me what is the number of
species I have seen in Australia or this year and I have no idea and it does
not concern me much. It must be 30 years or more since I did that tally. One
day I will again. Maybe because some people see that as important and that
is fine for them.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Gary Davidson
Sent: Tuesday, 12 August 2014 3:40 AM
To: birding-aus
Subject: Reluctant lister reports in
Hi Alan,
So you have passed 700, congrats! I recall a conversation we had last year
during my most recent visit to Australia, when you said you don't keep
lists. But clearly you have the records to produce one. So I got to
wondering what is a "lister"? The image that immediately springs to mind is
the birder who is constantly twitching rare birds and devoting his life to
"expanding the list". If that is the case, then neither you nor I are
listers. But I do keep lists. I think it might be my methodical,
mathematical background that drives me to creating spreadsheets for
everything imagineable. So I have several spreadsheet devoted to my bird
sightings in various geographical locations. I can find out almost instantly
that my Australian list stands at 571, (probably a pretty good total for a
non-resident), my Africa list at 508, my UK list at 149 and my ABA list at
651, etc. But I don't very often go chasing rare species; my lists are what
they are because I keep track of what I see whereever I am. So, does that
make me a lister? I don't know! But I'm keeping my spreadsheets, and as I
travel around those numbers will grow, and I'll always know where I stand.
Perhaps I'll just call myself a "spreadsheet birder". Gary Davidson, Nakusp,
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