Does anyone not keep a life list? (2 Viewers)

[spoonily]

I feel like a majority of birders have a life list of some sort, including myself, but there are also still those who choose not to keep a life list. Recently I've been curious about those who don't keep a life list, and wondering why that is. I've been thinking about this a lot because I'm also considering no longer keeping track of my life list, mostly due to how it's shifted how I enjoy bird watching.

It feels like nowadays I don't pick bird watching locations because I want to visit and explore them, but because I saw on eBird that there are lifers there waiting for me. This means either I leave the trip disappointed I couldn't find them, or I do find them, but the excitement is a bit muted since it was expected. I'm curious if others have felt the same way or if there's some other reason people do or don't keep life lists.

I have nothing against keeping or not keeping a list, I'm just curious how other people feel about it. Maybe I'm just not a numbers and lists kind of guy. 😅

 

[Mono]

I don't keep a life list. I have a very good memory and could flick through a field guide and tell you what I had seen, but I don't have a complied list. To me birding is part of a wider appreciation and understanding of nature. I don't see it as an exercise of collecting. If there is a rare bird somewhere local I will go and see it out of curiosity just to see it not to add it to a list and if I don't see it I don't see it.

I will keep a list when off on holiday mostly as an aide-memoire, but the list just sits in a notebook alongside other memories of the holidays. When out with old friends we may do a bit of fun competitive listing to see who can see the most species. But that is the extent of my listing.

 

[Farnboro John]

My mother died of dementia and my lists give me a slightly longer hedge against failing memory (no sign of it ye- err..... what?

John

 

[Jos Stratford]

I don't keep a life list. I have a very good memory and could flick through a field guide and tell you what I had seen, but I don't have a complied list. To me birding is part of a wider appreciation and understanding of nature. I don't see it as an exercise of collecting. If there is a rare bird somewhere local I will go and see it out of curiosity just to see it not to add it to a list and if I don't see it I don't see it.

I will keep a list when off on holiday mostly as an aide-memoire, but the list just sits in a notebook alongside other memories of the holidays. When out with old friends we may do a bit of fun competitive listing to see who can see the most species. But that is the extent of my listing.

I am almost identical in all respects.

Additionally, I do a keep a list/year list of species on my land ...but this is more to aid full record keeping.

 

[A2GG]

I had a paperback book life list which I threw out last year. ebird stores my life species list anyway so I figured I didn't really need to record new species in the little book anymore. I really don't miss it and don't care so much about lists. I'm just happy to get outdoors and continue to learn about wildlife.

 

[Lisa W]

I don’t really keep one, I’ve started a few times but have never kept it up.

 

[Amber01]

I feel like a majority of birders have a life list of some sort, including myself, but there are also still those who choose not to keep a life list. Recently I've been curious about those who don't keep a life list, and wondering why that is. I've been thinking about this a lot because I'm also considering no longer keeping track of my life list, mostly due to how it's shifted how I enjoy bird watching.

It feels like nowadays I don't pick bird watching locations because I want to visit and explore them, but because I saw on eBird that there are lifers there waiting for me. This means either I leave the trip disappointed I couldn't find them, or I do find them, but the excitement is a bit muted since it was expected. I'm curious if others have felt the same way or if there's some other reason people do or don't keep life lists.

I have nothing against keeping or not keeping a list, I'm just curious how other people feel about it. Maybe I'm just not a numbers and lists kind of guy. 😅

Hi there, is eBird the same thing as Merlin? If not would you mind telling me what ebird is? Wondering if it’s worth me getting.

 

[Jim M.]

I don't "keep" a list, but enter all my birding results in eBird, and eBird can compile pretty much any kind of list that you want based on locality or time period from those observations. So it is there whenever I want it or get interested in it, but I also can forget about it when the mood strikes me.

 

[Jim M.]

Hi there, is eBird the same thing as Merlin? If not would you mind telling me what ebird is? Wondering if it’s worth me getting.

No. Merlin is an ID app created by the people at eBird; eBird is a free online citizen science database to which you can contribute your bird observations from anywhere in the world and also view the observation data from other birders. There is also a free eBird app, that will allow you to enter your observations from your smart phone. But you can also just enter them through the eBird website. eBird was started in 2002 and it's database now contains hundreds of millions of observations from birders around the world.

eBird introduction page

getting started with eBird

 

[LittleBitOfBreadNoCheese]

Hi there, is eBird the same thing as Merlin? If not would you mind telling me what ebird is? Wondering if it’s worth me getting.

ebird is a US database run out of Cornell University in New York. In Britain there is BirdTrack run by the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) and backed by the RSPB and (in Scotlland) the SOC. Of course you can be on both if you want.

 

[delia todd]

I don’t really keep one, I’ve started a few times but have never kept it up.

Same thing happens to me Lisa LOL

I do try to keep a list when I go on holiday, especially somewhere special.

 

[ApusApus]

Back to the OP subject, no I don't have a life list and like Mono I can go through a field guide and tell you what I have or have not seen. In addition, I have never "chased" a bird sighting in my life but rather just go to the places I enjoy and know and if I find something special then great, if not no big deal!


Shane

 

[tenex]

For what it's worth (since I surely have less birding experience and never started a life list) I too feel just the way the OP described. I enjoy watching the behavior of even local birds far more than trying to tick off species on a list, especially more than failing to. Occasionally I'll make an exception, like last winter when we had an irruption of Bohemian Waxwings and I would have felt stupid not trying to see them... but even there (this is telling) several deliberate attempts failed in a frustrating way, and then we just stumbled upon some one day and I was thrilled. I feel that birding is about putting oneself out there and seeing what happens, more than having specific expectations.

 

[BogBean]

No. Merlin is an ID app created by the people at eBird; eBird is a free online citizen science database to which you can contribute your bird observations from anywhere in the world and also view the observation data from other birders. There is also a free eBird app, that will allow you to enter your observations from your smart phone. But you can also just enter them through the eBird website. eBird was started in 2002 and it's database now contains hundreds of millions of observations from birders around the world.

eBird introduction page

getting started with eBird

We should all be putting data on ebird, or bird track or the equivalent for the good of science and conservation.

So we should all have a life list, as a bi product of using the citizen science databases!

 

[Mysticete]

Just for a difference of opinion, but I am practically obsessive about keeping my life list, which is kept in a custom excel file organized via my own taxonomic system I have developed based on reading the scientific literature. I keep a life list of birds, as well as lists for every state I have lived in and a general ABA list. I also do the same for herps (amphibians and reptiles) and mammals.

I also use ebird but I've never gone back and added species from before I started ebirding

 

[Richard D]

I tried in the past, but decided it was pretty meaningless to me. If I'm feeling good I'll sometimes do a site count for the local ornithological society, but I don't consistently do that.

 

[KenM]

The only list I keep…is to starboard when I exit the pub.🤣

 

[Pinewood]

Hello,

I keep a daily list with an asterisk for the first seasonal appearance of a species but no life list.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur

 

[Lerxst]

My wife is a Wildlife Biologist and has been birding her entire life, and has never kept a life list and has zero interest in ever doing so. She knows she has over 5,000 species only because I'm a lister and that is where I am, and she gets more birds than I do because her vision is good. But she absolutely does not care that she is at 5,000 as opposed to, say, 1,000. Good for her. She understands implicitly that nobody, absolutely nobody, cares about one's birding "accomplishments" except oneself.

I'm trying to move to her approach to birding going forward, but it isn't easy. I like making lists on the one hand, but I no longer have any interest in supporting eBird, even though I did in the past. Any new species I get I will likely add there via a minimal submission, only because if there is one purpose it serves for me, it is in maintaining my list.

I'd like to find some alternative database where sightings can be made useful, but have yet to find anything I like. I've looked at iNaturalist and iGoTerra and don't care for either of them. At least there is xeno-canto for recordings, and I like the fact that it has no phone app to be worried about in the field.

Yesterday was the first time I heard of something called "Birda" but based on what I have seen, it looks to be equally enamored with making birding even more competitive, and I have no interest in it's cutesy "challenges."

 

[spoonily]

I don't keep a life list. I have a very good memory and could flick through a field guide and tell you what I had seen, but I don't have a complied list. To me birding is part of a wider appreciation and understanding of nature. I don't see it as an exercise of collecting. If there is a rare bird somewhere local I will go and see it out of curiosity just to see it not to add it to a list and if I don't see it I don't see it.

Back to the OP subject, no I don't have a life list and like Mono I can go through a field guide and tell you what I have or have not seen. In addition, I have never "chased" a bird sighting in my life but rather just go to the places I enjoy and know and if I find something special then great, if not no big deal!

Agreed and agreed! When I started bird watching, it was really just an excuse for my wife and I to go outside, basically hiking with extra steps, but once I started submitting checklists on eBird, my competitive side started to obsess a bit over the numbers. Suddenly it was about getting one more bird for the checklist and chasing lifers/rarities, and picking places to visit based on maximizing sightings. Once I have a goal in mind I have a hard time letting go 😅

For what it's worth (since I surely have less birding experience and never started a life list) I too feel just the way the OP described. I enjoy watching the behavior of even local birds far more than trying to tick off species on a list, especially more than failing to. Occasionally I'll make an exception, like last winter when we had an irruption of Bohemian Waxwings and I would have felt stupid not trying to see them... but even there (this is telling) several deliberate attempts failed in a frustrating way, and then we just stumbled upon some one day and I was thrilled. I feel that birding is about putting oneself out there and seeing what happens, more than having specific expectations.

Two of my (many) favorites, the Belted Kingfisher and the Black-throated Blue Warbler, were both birds I saw for the first time when I was not expecting them or actively searching for them. The experience of finding them was made that much more special by the fact that I wasn't expecting them! I noticed that when I do set expectations and really want to find one bird, suddenly surprises are less surprising and missing the bird feel much worse.

I've also been rewarded for watching some of the birds I've already seen, I remember one time my wife and I were walking towards a Belted Kingfisher, a bird we've seen plenty of times already by that point, when on the way we found our first ever Pileated Woodpecker! I still have the Merlin recording where you can hear us freaking out about it

We should all be putting data on ebird, or bird track or the equivalent for the good of science and conservation.

So we should all have a life list, as a bi product of using the citizen science databases!

I also care a lot about conservation, so while I don't use eBird to submit checklists like I used to, I do donate to the team at eBird monthly as a way to give back for the incredible database of bird knowledge they provide!