PelomyLemony
Member

I fear this is a topic somewhat fraught with different opinions and why not, everybody keeps different kinds of lists.
I have kept a casual bird list over the last few years and want to organize it into lists for separate years and an overall life list of every bird observed to date. Reading online people typically exclude recording sub species and hybrids. This is where i get into a muddle (probably overthinking). Firstly do you record hybrids and sub-species? I feel with sub-species there is a chance they may one day get categorised as a distinct species and if not recorded now then they may not make it back onto the list at a later date if not seen again.
I recently spotted a 'blue-headed wagtail' as this is a subspecies of yellow wagtail would you record this just as 'Yellow Wagtail' , i am happy to do this but don't want to lose the record of seeing the 'blue-headed' variety.
Do you record your sub-species and hybrids on a separate list?
I have kind of organized an excel spreadsheet which does solve a lot of problems as you can use the sort and filter tools to show exactly what you want but after having a computer failure i lost two years of lists which was gutting! I wish to produce my lists in a notebook as this cannot get deleted and is a nice tactile object. Problem with notebooks is the limit on space and needing to be clever in how it is laid out.
Any thoughts?
Thanks! Ben
I have kept a casual bird list over the last few years and want to organize it into lists for separate years and an overall life list of every bird observed to date. Reading online people typically exclude recording sub species and hybrids. This is where i get into a muddle (probably overthinking). Firstly do you record hybrids and sub-species? I feel with sub-species there is a chance they may one day get categorised as a distinct species and if not recorded now then they may not make it back onto the list at a later date if not seen again.
I recently spotted a 'blue-headed wagtail' as this is a subspecies of yellow wagtail would you record this just as 'Yellow Wagtail' , i am happy to do this but don't want to lose the record of seeing the 'blue-headed' variety.
Do you record your sub-species and hybrids on a separate list?
I have kind of organized an excel spreadsheet which does solve a lot of problems as you can use the sort and filter tools to show exactly what you want but after having a computer failure i lost two years of lists which was gutting! I wish to produce my lists in a notebook as this cannot get deleted and is a nice tactile object. Problem with notebooks is the limit on space and needing to be clever in how it is laid out.
Any thoughts?
Thanks! Ben