Your life list

[Chris]

I am just curious to see other people's life list. My life list is 132. This year I started at 128 and my goal before the end of the year is to have my life list at 150. All the birds I have seen are recorded in B.C.

I have been interested in birds for all of my life but just 2 years ago I really started to pay attention and record what I have seen.

[tmanson]

Hi Bundy: It's great to keep track of the birds that you see, and " listing ", can greatly add to the enjoyment of birding.
It's also pretty amazing to see how many different categories of life lists are actually out there in published form. In the publication, Canadian Listers' Corner, I see they actually have a category of how many birds you see on t.v. over the course of a year!! I'd like to think that this a tongue-in-cheek category, but I am not 100 percent sure.
In any event, you may find that some birders are a little shy about answering your question, at least in a direct way.
However, as I said there are a number of ways you can access this kind of information.
For free, you can look up www.surfbirds.com/rankings.html. There you can see the submissions from birders all over the world, including B.C.
You can submit a list to Neily's World Canadian Lister's Corner, and will receive an annual journal of all the birdlists submitted to this organization.
For B.C., you can joiin the British Columbia Field Ornithologists, who also publish the annual lists of birders who submit their counts.
You can also join the American Birders Assoication, who do the same thing.
Cheers, Thor

Thor Manson
Hope, B.C.

[Gord]

I enjoy recording species and seeing new species. It does certainly add an aspect of fun and challenge to the hobby.

Last fall I made 300 species for B.C. Rusty Blackbird was 300 for B.C. even though I had seen it in Alberta. Since then, I'm up to 303 (I think, Im behind on my AviSys) with a 'World' list of 306. I have only birded the Lower Mainland the most in my birding career and have only been to Alberta for a week in which I did not see much as it was early winter. Im very keen on getting around more and doing some pelagic birding and of course, poking around the northeast of the Province.

Good info there Thor!

[Wetlander]

Hey Bundy,
I've been a "a stay at home birder" for five years, and have over the last 2 years started to get out and about. I'm at 159.
Kev

[Dave]

Hi Bundy:

I was raised in a home with bird-watching parents, so have been exposed to birding for years. However, I have only recently (past 3 years) taken a renewed interest in birds. Since I never listed anything that I saw during my youth, for the purpose of keeping records, I started over from scratch. Thanks to a trip across Canada and a couple down the coast, my North America list is at 396 species. I have seen some more before I began listing them, but now I get to have the joy of finding them as "life-birds" again!

I keep my list in my Sibley guide and Microsoft Excel. Excel works great, as I have additional columns for the date and location of my first sighting. I also keep my more local sightings in ebird, and probably would never have used Excel if I would have known about ebird right off the bat!

If you want to see the list, let me know. I can 'cut and paste' it here

Dave

[Chris]

First, thanks for the links Thor. That's great information.

Second, that's an impressive list you have Gord considering that's only in B.C. Just to touch on something you said, seeing a new species is a rewarding and fun experience.

Third, wetlander that's also good list considering you stayed at home and have only been birding for 2 years. Nice job on the bluebird hopefully you can see it again. I have never seen a mountain or a western. Last summer I went up to Manning and I was told whether it's true or not there's Mountain bluebirds up there. Never did see one but had an amazing time.

Lastly, Dave that's a lot of bird species. I keep my list on a works spreadsheet. However, I am going to have to change it somehow because I want to record the dates how many I saw and where I saw a certain bird. All I have now is just the species and I would like to expand it.

[oldfulica]

Hi
As I stated a few weeks back, if I was going to start a list again, like Dave, I would use ebird. ebird.org/content/ebird/index.html
It keeps track of your life list, area list, graphs etc. and it also adds to the world wide information on birds. Also, like Dave, I use a homemade version of Excel. I input the date and location and add up the columns. I just have too much info in it to change over but I am now using ebird for many of my observations.
It may interest some to know I start a new BC list every year and usually get 235-250. I know a few people who get over 300 a year for BC. One year when I went to Tumbler Ridge I got around 285. If you can hit the interior and get a pelagic trip you can really increase your total.
There are a few people in Canada that have over 500 (515?) birds for their Canada total. Competition can get interesting at that level : > ). I know of 4 in BC and there are probably more.