Listing!

I talked a bit yesterday about my 2011 World Year List still standing at 141.  I have to confess I like lists not in a twitching way but just to amuse myself and motivate my birding.  Before modern technology I kept manual lists of all the holidays I had.  I also kept a British List and of course a Suffolk List.

Adding birds to a relevant list can be red letter days, and I still have almost emotional memories of adding birds like Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Little Curlew etc to my British List and more recently adding Emerald Toucanet (after missing it on 2 previous visits) and Oriental Pied Hornbill to my World List.  The latter were in my son Jeremy's garden in Brunei and were included on his list for that property.

In recent years and since the discovery of a wonderful website called Bubo Listing http://www.bubo.org/ my listing had become quite feverish.  Bubo allows you to create lists online and the ability to update and manage them.  If you are competitive you can compere yourself to other birders' efforts.  You can create World Lists, Country Lists, County Lists, Site lists and even Garden Lists.  It is just a lot of fun and should not be taken too seriously.  It is better to undertake such a pastime for your own satisfaction and not really give a damn about what others might think.

On Bubo there is minimum of rules but if for instance if you want to create a British List then you will have to quote the date and site for any British Birds rarities.  For a World List you are better of using the IOC criteria because they have more splits hence a bigger list.  Fun isn't it?

Bubo Listing has certainly added fun to rainy days so why not give it a try?