How do you keep your lifelist, and what is included? (1 Viewer)

[abirdingguy]

Thanks for this. I didn't realize it existed. I will have a play to see what it can do, but from a quick squint I think it looks like the analysis is 'in app' without any obvious export function.

As I say, I think it would be great to have a tool which dumped filtered data in RTF format, to form the basis of a report, which could then be edited in a word processor. This could be very useful, particularly for individual or organisations creating reports for publishing - for me, it would simplify generating the systematic list for the trip reports I occasionally produce (and for the long lapsed year reports that I used to try and create).

You could import your ebird records into the scythebill software. It provides many ways to slice and dice your records and then export them in various formats. It doesn't do everything that one could dream up or that you might want to do, but it has some nice features. It is also much easier and less time consuming that creating and updating your own code and database.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

It is also much easier and less time consuming that creating and updating your own code and database.

Wise words. I have always enjoyed coding, but my project is turning into a labour of love - and it would probably be better for my health to spend the time out in the field birding!

 

[Leafbringer]

I hadn't thought about keeping a lifelist until recently, so mine is currently kept on paper. It's ok since my list is short, but if it gets long enough, I might use a spreadsheet.

 

[earthdragon64]

I keep all my wildlife sightings on a spreadsheet with different species groups on different tabs, with life lists on a different spreadsheet. Everything also gets copied over onto MapMate so I can use the data analysis bits on that, and make maps which is especially useful as I'm the VC95 butterfly recorder. The maps can highlight recording gaps so I can target my recording more effectively.

Those in the UK who use BirdTrack can now also add butterfly, odonata and mammal records, the butterfly records get sent across to iRecord for verification from those VC recorders set up to do that.

My personal life lists are butterflies, moths, odonata, birds and plants and are all UK based, mostly Scotland.

 

[MiddleRiver]

Anyone using the Sibley 'diary'?

The Sibley Birder’s Life List and Field Diary – Sibley Guides

www.sibleyguides.com

 

[Mysticete]

Anyone using the Sibley 'diary'?

The Sibley Birder’s Life List and Field Diary – Sibley Guides

www.sibleyguides.com

I would think a big problem with this particular book is simply that many of the birders here have birded heavily outside of the ABA area (hell, most don't even live in North America).

 

[raymie]

Anyone using the Sibley 'diary'?

The Sibley Birder’s Life List and Field Diary – Sibley Guides

www.sibleyguides.com

I use to keep my ABA and Wisconsin lists. Currently my ABA list and my life list are the same, but if all goes according to plan that won't be the case by the end of the year.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Yes, forgot about that, too - I am currently counting one species that's an escapee according to eBird but is very clearly established (Red Junglefowl of the Tampa population).

They took two PA species from me. Ring-necked Pheasant and Monk Parakeet.

 

[Ian Lewis]

I used to keep mine on paper sheets but as the list grew keeping track of splits and lumps became difficult and untidy.

I bought my 1st laptop in 1995 and immediately purchased the Wildlife Recorder program, it took two years of work lunch breaks to enter all the sightings (there are over 220,000 individual records on it now) but now that's done I have a record of every time I've been birding since the mid-70s. Making any type of list, be it geographical or over a specific time is child's play.

I used to use the Clements (now Cornell/eBird) World list but in the late 90s there was a lot of controversy about species limits and for a short while I edited the Wildlife Recorder list to take account of all those PSC splits that Dutch Birding and others used (and still use) but after James Clement's death his checklist was taken over by Cornell. They adopted an 'America first' policy so that the taxonomy of birds that were generally split in the Old World but had occured in the New World as vagrants eg Stonechat would follow the AOS taxonomy despite the fact that they were merely vagrants to the New World.

At this time the IOC list was starting up and although I don't always agree with the taxonomic changes I follow it to the letter

Recent collaboration between the various committees will mean that there will be far fewer difference between the IOC and Cornell list in the future.

 

[BenjiS]

I use a mixture
I have a list on Ebird because I often upload what I see on there
I also have a list on BUBO listing, and I then manually transfer that to an Excel doc!

 

[Andy Adcock]

I keep all my wildlife sightings on a spreadsheet with different species groups on different tabs, with life lists on a different spreadsheet. Everything also gets copied over onto MapMate so I can use the data analysis bits on that, and make maps which is especially useful as I'm the VC95 butterfly recorder. The maps can highlight recording gaps so I can target my recording more effectively.

Those in the UK who use BirdTrack can now also add butterfly, odonata and mammal records, the butterfly records get sent across to iRecord for verification from those VC recorders set up to do that.

My personal life lists are butterflies, moths, odonata, birds and plants and are all UK based, mostly Scotland.

You can do this on Scythebill too.

 

[Andy Adcock]

At this time the IOC list was starting up and although I don't always agree with the taxonomic changes I follow it to the letter

Recent collaboration between the various committees will mean that there will be far fewer difference between the IOC and Cornell list in the future.

Me too, I don't even look at what other lists are doing, I decided to follow the IOC and stick to that, rigidly.

 

[Strontium Dog]

BUBO IOC world list is all I actively use.

I do have an eBird account but never recorded anything there, it seems like hard work. Pity, because the species map stuff is very useful.

 

[KC Foggin]

I've got a few that I haven't added to my list because I didn't get a picture of it.

 

[Farnboro John]

I've got a few that I haven't added to my list because I didn't get a picture of it.

We've probably discussed that elsewhere but are you saying it didn't register on your retina and go into your memory? That's probably a more durable store than the cloud.... If you saw it, tick it, don't deny the validity of your own senses.

Cheers

John

 

[pbjosh]

I just use eBird because I'm more interested in seeing birds than listing them and it's the most useful tool for finding where to see birds even if it has some minor limitations / drawbacks on the listing side. My list in eBird is kind of sloppy and has plenty of heard only and poorly seen birds but I keep track of those separately. I generally know anyways if I'm going somewhere what I need to clean up.

 

[Mike Crawley]

I asked some birding friends something similar to this a few months ago.
It mainly concerned our British list and unanimously we follow BOU (which follows IOC).
As for recording that list, a couple use BUBO, a couple use Scythebill and the remainder use an excel spreadsheet and keep their list private. I understand that e-bird is popular in some places but none of the friends I asked use it

 

[qwerty5]

I avidly use eBird, so all my lists are on there. It's incredibly useful since it creates pretty much any list you could ever want with no effort (all the way from world life list to a specific location day list). I count heard only's (because why not?), so I don't have that problem with eBird like others do.

 

[Paul Chapman]

eBird, for example, has it sorted this way:
A + B = Native (no mark)
C = Naturalised (white circle with a star)
D = Provisional (light orange circle with a star)
E = Escapee (orange circle with a star)

All are shown on the list, but only categories A, B, C & D count for the personal totals (although I think all five count on hotspot range maps?).

So it looks like I have to input all sightings of each of my 498 species at independent locations for it to generate an accurate life list.

No: Enter your pre-eBird Life List

I thought that this exchange could happily sit here albeit from a thread in Rare Bird Information. I use eBird but am pretty relaxed over numbers so I didn't really know what my number was before recent taxonomic changes or indeed, what they have added... Pretty sure a Chaffinch or two was involved for me. (Not relaxed about missing stuff or indeed failing to maximise what I record when opportunities arise. But relaxed about the actual number.)

Of course, it is the add on capabilities with eBird that I find useful so for instance it synchronises with the Merlin birdpacks allowing me to access what I have seen and reminding me of potential new species when looking at bird packs for upcoming trips & it also breaks down the sightings to more geographical areas than any sane person would desire...

All the best

Paul

 

[jurek]

I use Excel sheet with one column for whether seen, another first date, third for remarks (e.g. distinctive subspecies), and every foreign trip has 1-2 own columns. Another Excel sheet for mammals, and a separate sheet for other remarkable wildlife (I don't count much and rarely make effort to identify e.g. small lizards or frogs).

I should switch taxonomy at some point, but never have time to do it and wonder if it makes sense. Does my old experience in the field, seeing a bird, changes to any better just because it turned to be a different species now?