• Jack Stevens
  • 8 Jan 2021 10:30 PM
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A list of... birdwatching lists?

  • Jack Stevens
    Wow, thanks everyone - there are some really great comments here

    It's great to see people talking about how they categorise their photos, too. I don't carry a camera out with me so rely more on the lists, but I see how the principle is the same.

    Ultimately, I agree with what Mike B and Clare started discussing - it can definitely go too far the other way and people can become too fixated on lists. It can certainly reach a point where it takes the pleasure away from a hobby. I'm certainly mindful of this when tallying up my sightings. At the end of the day, it's just good to get out and have some fresh air - even if I've 'only seen' two woodpigeons that day

    It sounds like I share 's philosophy, about using it for memories. I also use the journal to draw little maps, make a note of my packed lunch, etc. Just so it's not all about the bird data.

    Great thoughts, people. Keep them coming!
  • Clare

    I've got a bit of a soft spot for wood pigeons:

    As well as these public displays of affection they are also very good at sitting on trees in a way that fools my husband into thinking 'is that a sparrowhawk'!

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Gardenbirder

    In reply to Clare:

    Lovely photo, Clare--thanks!

    Kind regards, 

    Ann

  • i love robins

    In reply to Clare:

    Clare, they don’t look like wood pigeons to me, more like love birds ? But I am no expert on that matter Lol
  • seymouraves
    Hi

    I thought I'd just add here that I keep a log ( my longtime birding buddy refers to his as a journal) of all my birding going
    back to 1976 : It's gone through a lot of changes in appearance- lists of wildfowl counts when I watched a group of reservoirs, double page spreads colour coded for first trips to Minsmere or Benacre or Cley or Portland,
    several pages covering a single day when staying at bird observatories for weeks during college holidays, photocopied field sketches of new birds- like my first Glaucous Gull at my local gravel pit, and detailed write-ups of rarities.

    It's great for checking occurrences and trips and brings the sightings straight back- better than just a list of numbers:

    S

    For advice about Birding, Identification,field guides,  binoculars, scopes, tripods,  etc - put 'Birding Tips'   into the search box

  • Mike B

    In reply to i love robins:

    i love robins said:
    Hi Mike, A good point you make, although my records are my memories for instance, I was only looking back at the folder of all the different birds I had seen and noticed a couple of birds that I had named were not the species I had thought. This was when I had just started bird watching and photographing birds and any other wildlife I had seen. You may have seen on here recently I had identified a rock pipit as a dunnock and a house sparrow as a brambling so by looking back does have its merits. I also date my trips out and name the location which helps myself when looking back from last year at the birds that I had seen and the venue I had been to. Good memories


    For me. It also is a guide to how rubbish I was at photographing birds when I first started, I have since seen a vast improvement firstly when I upgraded my lens and learned more about my camera and settings.

    You're welcome ILR.

    However, in hindsight, I feel my response was probably a tad harsh, because if the truth is known, without lists, we wouldn't know how species are surviving, and the ultimate failure of an endangered species, is not something any of us want to see, including me. And sadly, I feel these days, and more so in the future, we as a species will want to squeeze (a squeeze that gets tighter than a mangle or iron press as the years go by) that last drop of blood from a stone, just to justify our greedy existence!

    But I'll shut up before I upset anyone.

    I would also add, I guess indirectly I do keep lists, but photographic lists online. My photos are stored in albums, for quick reference and ease of locating....

    Am I eating humble pie! LOL

    Mike

    Flickr Peak Rambler

  • i love robins

    In reply to Mike B:

    Life is too short Mike, Enjoy what you do and do what you like, keep happy, and in these troubled times take care of yourself.
  • seymouraves

    Hi

    bird lists and logs-

    here's a couple of pages from a more innocent time :)

    S

    For advice about Birding, Identification,field guides,  binoculars, scopes, tripods,  etc - put 'Birding Tips'   into the search box

  • Mike B

    In reply to i love robins:

    i love robins said:
    Life is too short Mike, Enjoy what you do and do what you like, keep happy, and in these troubled times take care of yourself.

    Absolutely. 

    Mike

    Flickr Peak Rambler

  • Jack Stevens
    Oh seymouraves these are great! I love looking at people's tallies and sketches.

    I recently read the J.A. Baker biography ('My House of Sky') by Hetty Saunders. It was a great book, and contained loads of photocopies of his journals, and they looked much like yours. They also had photographs of other items in the Baker archive, like his old telescopes, magazine article cuttings and the like.