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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ColinD" data-source="post: 1425976" data-attributes="member: 55409">I feel as though this thread is going off track. The question was asked "is 191 a respectable total after three years birding?".It's too easy to think that lists and twitching go together. However, I know twitchers who don't keep serious lists, they just chase new birds because they've never seen them before, and they enjoy the experience of the chase. Not interested in lists, they couldn't tell you their UK list, because they don't know it.Equally, I know plenty of non-twitchers who keep garden lists, local patch lists and year lists. Many of these people wouldn't dream of twitching.Listing is something which lots of different types of birders do, in fact it's a personality trait, and it tells you nothing about a persons hobby. It does not mean that you're a twitcher just because you keep a list, and it does not prove that you're particularly competative. It just means that you like keeping lists. Some people are like that. I keep a yearly local patch list so that I can compare one year with the next, not because I'm trying to compete with somebody else. It's easy to say just enjoy your birding and forget about lists, but that doesn't answer the question. On the face of it, 191 species over three years doesn't prove anything, because we don't know how much time the person has available to go birding, we don't know how much effort they're prepared to put into birding (e.g. will they get up at 4am for the dawn chorus?), we don't know where they go birding or how far they are prepared to travel, we don't know what type of transport they use, we don't know what type of optics they use, we don't know how physically mobile they are and we don't know how good their birding skills are. All kinds of reasons why 191 may or may not be a good total.But for an average birder in the UK, who makes birding his or her number 1 pastime, and who is prepared to travel at least locally during the year, 191 species over three years is below average I would say. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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