Okay, so now you know a little about why I bird. For the next several posts, I'll show how I bird and what the tangible goal is for this hobby.
The name of the game is Listing. Originally there were Life List (all bird species you see in your lifetime), but when you have limited frequent flier miles, the Life List tends to plateau after a while. So the lists got more complicated: Hemisphere Lists, Continent Lists, Country Lists, State/Province List, County List. That makes sense, start with the world, and make smaller areas to find birds in. More fun to be had.
For instance, here are my lists that include my trip abroad to Ecuador two years ago, my two Florida Spring Break trips, and one sojourn to the West Coast:
Life List: 490
Country List (USA): 360
State List (PA): 215
County List (Huntingdon): 175
This is where you can get creative. After you list your birds by the spatial category, you can add birds seen this year, this month, this week, this day. So now we have temporally. These lists lead to many sleepless nights and long drives for the Big Year and Big Day goals. Doesn't sound creative enough? How about only counting birds that are seen on wires (telephone, barbed, cables, fence)? Ever seen a wild turkey on a telephone wire? Yeah, neither have I, but that's when I'd start a Wire List (really helpful list for the long drive through Kansas). Other lists include Dream List (birds of your dreams: I'm at 30 with a couple repeats), Roadkill List, Singing/Calling List, and No Fossil Fuel List (cannot use transportation fueled by fossil fuels to find birds).
No comments:
Post a Comment