To List or not to List - THAT is the question

Monday 4th January................... and a Happy New Year to my self-confessed reader!

Before I start my field journal/diary of my birding experiences, it occurs to me that some people will say, why keep records? Fair question.

In a straw poll yesterday of 19 people, 18 said that they keep records of their sightings. Reasons varied from for their own interest and a record of what they have seen, to compiling sightings data for birding organisations for research, conservation and ornithological history.

Several people knew that sighting information is gathered in the annual RSPB Big garden Bird watch, in the BTO Garden Birdwatch, and by the local Ornithological Society, in my case Derbyshire (DOS) and funds to run that society partly derives from selling bird habitation (sighting) data to Property Developers etc, to ensure developments do not disturb important bird conservation areas.

But an aspect of bird watching that I firmly believe in, is that, to get to know whether your birding knowledge is improving or not, you need to keep comparison records. And that is exactly what I do.

I have a spread sheet that starts with a column listing all the different UK bird species I have seen since I started bird watching. This is followed by 17 columns, one for each calendar year from 1999 to 2015.  A sample section look like this:-

	First Seen	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Arctic Skua	9.03		10.9			6.9
Arctic Tern	5.98	11.5	17.9	24.4		20.6	25.7
Avocet	4.87	16.2	8.3	20.3	5.3	22.1	4.3
Barn owl	5.99	15.2	13.1	11.7	26.6
..and at the end
YEAR TOTAL		206	193	180	179	197	170

This sample shows that in 2010 I saw 206 species (happened to be my best year ever!!), following which my year totals declined to 179, a recovery to 197, and then due to 3 months non-birding after falling off a ladder, my lowest year count since 2004, a lowly 170. Sadly, this (factual-) sample also reveals that I have not seen a Barn owl for 2 years.

Spotting 200 different species in a year is very satisfying albeit a long way from the skills of the UK bird expert Lee Evans who has seen 386 species in one year. 386!! When was he ever at home?

I encourage people on my bird walks to keep sighting records, for their own interest and as a guide as to how their identifications skills are improving. Of course, increases may be due to more birding trips, more guided walks and loads of other explanations, but an upward trend can indicate better identification skills. Downward?? = Must try harder.

65 years ago, I used to collect train numbers (Remember the Ian Allan books), and would stand at the end of platform 6 at Bristol Temple Meads watching the engines in the sheds. I then graduated to Clapham Junction for Southern Region trains travelling in all directions.

Now I stand on the platforms at Willington Gravel Pits, watching Swallows travelling in all directions.   Nothing changes that much. Except that the platform ticket 60 years ago was 1d. Willington platform - FREE.

So that’s the why... next edition will be some of the what!

So.... Keeeeep Birding (Sorry - Tess and Claude)