14 replies to this topic

[fisherman1313]

I keep my lists as Word documents, which I have numbered so I can easily see my totals. To keep my list in the correct taxonomic order, I copied the official state list into a Word doc as well, then when I have something new to add I can look it up and put it in the right place.

[JimBob]

I would number it, so that when you reach 50, 75, 100, and other number of the sort, you can remember them. That was one mistake I wish I didn't do. I know my 150, and 175. . .

[triciav83]

I use eBird.org. At first, I was just ticking in the back of my field guide, but sometimes I would forget, or I would go back and look at pictures and find out that I thought it was one bird, but it was really another, so I had lots of whiteout.

The neat thing with eBird is that it will organize your list for you (where you saw the bird and what date you first saw it) and you can easily go back and edit a checklist. And they have an app so you can make and upload checklists from the field

[fisherman1313]

Like Tricia said eBird is good for keeping track of your lists, the one problem for me is that if I go on a field trip I enter "heard birds" which I don't count on my "official" life list, so I have birds on my eBird list that I have not counted on my own list. One thing I DO like about eBird is that it allows you to look at your list in several geographic catagories, i.e.: major region, country, state, county. As far as keeping records for other states is concerned, you can do it any way you want, unless you are submitting a list to the American Birding Association (ABA) there are no "rules". What most people do is keep a list for every state they've birded and a life list. If you've birded in more than one state you may want to download the ABA list as well. It is the list accepted by most birders as to what's "countable" in North America (the birder's definition of North America is from the US/Mexican border north, as well as adjacent islands and seas within 200 nautical miles).

I consider myself a bit obssessed with my lists (I keep county lists, year lists, Christmas count lists, lists for things like which Audubon group I've birded with, locations I most often bird in my county, I even keep a list of my lists so I can have all of my totals in one place and I've started making spreadsheets with pie charts that show the percentage of birds from my life list that I've seen with each group, in each county, etc., you get the idea), but I only put dates on my year lists so I can keep track of first sightings and I never put totals on my lists. In fact, most of the time I could not tell you totals for a given species seen on a birding trip if it were over five unless it was an unusual or unexpected species (I have a freind who says we count "like some Native American tribes, 1, 2, many"). I can, however, remember every lifer I've gotten since I "officially" started birding nearly three years ago, I don't remember dates or the people I was birding with but I do remember where I saw them, all 182. One of the first lists I made was what I call my "previous list", it's a list of the 104 species I saw before I started birding, so I can look at it and know the total number of birds I've seen since I started birding. I don't want to brag, but if I gave you my life list, you could ask me for details on any bird that is not on my previous list and could tell you exaclty where I got my lifer! I don't remember people's names but I remember every life bird, tells you where my priorities are, right?

[fisherman1313]

I can remember a few from before I started birding. I remember my first phalaropes because I was fishing near the dam of a local reservoir, the water was over 160 feet deep and six shorebirds swam by the boat. I did not know they could do that!

I've often said one of the great things about being a beginner is that you can get several lifers on almost every trip. The only thing that would compare is when you get older and start losing your memmory. Then every bird is a lifer and there is no such thing as a rerun.

[Ptitsa]

"The only thing that would compare is when you get older and start losing your memmory"

Hey, watch it! :-)

So I am joining the birding digital age and in totting up my digital tally from 30+ years ago
I come across lifers I have forgotten I have! A pleasant surprise to be sure.

[dklucius]

i was born on a farm and have lived all over mostly small towns and spent more time outdoors than inside. I always hunted and fished and explored and hiked and always looked at the wildlife and birds and insects and snakes and fish ect. i never kept ia bird life list. i retired 3 different times and this is the last time i think. the last 7 years i have kept a backyard list which is really a neighborhood life list. and most documented with photos. just out of curiousity i searched on bing and google and found lots of state and federal and north american lists of native birds i printed off a north american checklist and a usa checklist and checked the list with every bird i am sure i have seen and question marks by some not sure of. well over 300 on the usa list and over 100 in my state and an at 69 on my backyard list. not what most people have done but it works for me.

[fisherman1313]

When I started keeping a list I used a printed checklist and checked off the species as I saw them, but I got tired of having to go through the list and count every time I wanted to figure out my life total. With the numbered list on the computer it is so much easier to keep track of numbers. I've become a little obsessed with numbers lately, too! Not competative with others, just obsessed with my own numbers. I even saved some of my lists as PDFs and put them on my iPhone (using iBooks) so I can go over them when I can't remember if I've seen a particular species in a certain county or at a certain location, etc. My job is quite boring so I'll occasionally pull out the iPhone while I'm sitting in my car at work (I do security at car dealership) and go over my lists to help me decide where I should go birding on my day off and what I might see when I get there.

[creeker]

LOL! Fisherman's boss "Someone stole three cars last night!" Fisherman "Yah, but I got both my county and state life lists updated to pdf!"

[fisherman1313]

Nah, I would claim they must have been stolen while I was out checking the back gate.