Better take my pills!

[dennis]

Yikes!!

I just was reviewing my life list. 843 species in the past 11 years. That is an average of about 77 per year. There are about 9700 species worldwide. At 77 per year it would take 126 years to see them all. Since I started "listing" at age 36, I will have to make it to 162!!

Off to take my vitamins,
dennis

[Charles Harper]

Don't get me doing this calculation, Dennis, I'm depressed enough already!

[James]

What about the law of diminishing returns. If you plot your life ticks they probably get less every year or certainly will do!
Extrapolate that graph and you probably need to live to about 300!!!!!!

James

p.s. You will be helped by extinctions no doubt! How sad is that?

[Beverlybaynes]

I"m not sure I'd want to live that long, Dennis LOL!

But your efforts will surely make you KING of the American Listing Association!

[Alastair Rae]

I think that graph of lifers looks like a series of steps. You visit a new area and it rises steeply then tails off and goes back to being nearly flat when you get home. The longer you keep at it, the lower the steps become and the shallower the bits between.

As a mathematican, I would say that all the world's species would be an asymptote. Your list can always approach it but never reach it!

[Andrew]

Bev, how well into the US bird list are you as I was reading Ken Kauffamn's book and he easily did over 100 birds on some days with one 200+ day in Texas. If you have pretty much covered the US birds then that will be hard to maintain unless you travel and as you know we all need a winning ticket for that to happen!

I was discussing what we would do if we won the lottery today with Peter Hayes and I said I would try to do each state in the US!

[Beverlybaynes]

Ah, Andrew, I'm 'way down on the curve: 203, last I checked.

In numbers only, that gives me close to 2/3 of the list for Indiana, which I think is around 322. But since a few of them are western birds I picked up in California, even that 2/3 is not a true estimation.

I've a LONG way to go!

I can't wait for you and Peter to win that jackpot and head this way. I'll happily show you around Indiana as much as I can --- maybe even the southwest part, where I've spent very little time at all, but where it's becoming more and more possible to pick up some 'southern' birds (Mississippi Kite, Fish Crow) that we'd never find up here!

Wouldn't we have a good 'ol time, tho! LOL!

Now, run about and buy that ticket -- I don't have that much vacation left this year!

[Beverlybaynes]

And further to that 100 species in a day: it's certainly possible, even in Indiana. Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis runs a bird walk every Sunday from their nature center, and during spring migration it's not unheard of for them to clock 125 species or better within the park (which is huge, by the way, the 4th largest urban park in the country).

I think my personal best single day total is in the mid-high 60s, which was a May day with the local Audubon group on a trip up to Crane Creek SP on Lake Erie in Ohio. That entire area is a staging ground for migratory flights to Point Pelee, and thanks to the 'birding gods' I was with that day, I picked up 29 lifers on that day alone!

[dennis]

Hi Andrew.

Beverly will take care of Indiana and I would love showing you around eastern Pennsylvania. I'm thinking, at this rate, you could end up with quite a North American list. You need to "nail down" some Forum guides in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California for an incredible list.

Have you read "Wild America"? We offer a great deal of scenery with our birds.

dennis

[ArnelGuanlao]

I've currently got 357 birds on my list, all of them in North
America. So I've got a bit under 50% of the birds in North
America, and around 50% for California. Still, as much as
I enjoy listing, I would rather spend time enjoying the birds
than just ticking them off. Listing is only *part* of the fun.

That said, I think my best biring day was 90+ at Palo Alto
Baylands (just down the road from where I live) - a great spot,
since it's used by a large percentage of the birds that use the
Pacific Flyway. I've come close to that at Point Reyes and south
Texas.

[phyllosc]

I'm talking generally here and not about anyone in particular. The motivation to keep birding has to be the enjoyment of watching birds. The more species you see the bigger the time lapses between lifers. If the gaining of lifers is the sole motivation then surely the interest would disolve as the rate of new birds diminishes.

We are find our enjoyment in different ways of course, whether it be year listing, county listing, patchworking, bird photography etc. The arrivial of a lifer becomes the drop of Tabasco on your favourite dish!

Live to bird, bird to live!

Dave

[Malvolio]

Quite right, anyone with sufficient funds can quite quickly reach a life list of about 4000, just visit a selection of the richest habitats on each continent. Then the going gets tougher and you need to be particularly focussed to continue to make reasonable progress. Fot me though it's about what you remember clearly rather than what it says you've seen in your notebook.

I know people who have no recollection of seeing many of the birds on their list - can't see the point of that at all.

MV

[Andrew]

Beverley, I get the lottery ticket twice a week and the best I have done is forty quid three times! Grr.

Bev & Dennis, wonder if I could 'see' Rowlett's Owlet? :t:

Phyllosc, absolutely right. The lifers get less frequent until you try a different angle like seawatching or patch listing and other ways like photography.