Saturday, March 20, 2010

Birdwatching: Keeping a Year List

I've never been much of a "lister" in my birdwatching, but I thought it would be fun to keep a running list this year, just to see how that goes. I'll add recent sightings in my sidebar, but at the top of the sidebar or via this link you can take a look at the full list for the year. Birds are listed alphabetically by their common names, and first (or only) sighting date is noted where I can. For common, nonmigratory species I haven't bothered to do that. The sightings can be assumed to be in or near Northfield unless otherwise noted.

Birding friends: do you keep year lists? Life lists? Birding journals?

9 comments:

Dawn Fine said...

Howdee...
I am not a lister..too lazy ..jeff keeps a life list.
I am hoping when ebird comes out for an app for the iphone, or itouch..i can check birds in the field and upload the list to ebird after.
Happy birding to you!

Chautauqua said...

I keep an extensive detailed list, going on three years now. Only trouble is, the only bird on it is the Eastern Bluebird. This is what happens when you volunteer to monitor bluebird boxes. Still, I do enjoy it. And you can leave your identification guide at home...

Richard said...

Penny...Have you seen this blog? He lives in Northfield also.

http://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Richard - I hadn't, so thanks for pointing it out!

Dan Tallman said...

If you are interested, here is a MS Excel file that makes keeping track of your various year lists really easy. It is free to download: https://www3.northern.edu/tallmand/northamerica.xls

Unknown said...

Thanks, Dan - that is very handy!

RuthieJ said...

Hi Penny,
I keep several lists: a backyard list, a Minnesota list and a life list. It's a good record for me to see how many more birds I can add to the lists each year.

RuthieJ said...

Almost forgot....I keep a birding/nature journal on the kitchen counter too. Don't always write in it every day, but started it back in 2002. It's fun to read what the weather was on a particular day, plus I keep track of first arrivals of spring migrants so I know when to start looking for them each year.

Kay Baughman said...

Hi, Penny--On Jan. 1 this year I replaced my yard-watching journal (too easy to misplace!) with a blog. I really like it--I can add photos and share my thoughts and birding observations with my family. I had also resolved to report yard birds to ebird--but haven't kept up with that.
I enjoy your blog, which I just found today!