The Intro

I am going to go out on a limb and say that there have been three things that have transformed my love of birding since my grandfather gave me a field guide nearly 35 years ago. The first was my Zoology Prof from Santa Barbara and the introduction of the life list. The second was the camera my Mom bought me for Christmas some years after, and the third was finding and using the fantastic site www.eBird.org. The attributes this site offers, to even the backyard birder, are amazing. The best part is that it allows each and every person that uses the site to be a citizen scientist, hold a life list and research birds around the world, for FREE. Every piece of information that is entered into the site is used for a multitude of reports that give insight into the health of birds, the environment and the earth, all entered by regular people just like you and me.   

When referred to in birding, a life list is a list of all the birds you have identified in your time as a bird watcher. Each bird on your list is considered a “lifer” and is the reason for "The Big Year" which I will discuss in an upcoming blog.  Some people have a list that represents the birds they’ve seen in their back yard and some have a list that encompasses all the birds they have seen worldwide. Some folks keep a journal by the window while others have a series of spreadsheets to track each location, region, and country they have visited. For most birders today, the truth lands somewhere in between where both electronic and hand written lists are used.  A great many people regret not having started their life list sooner for various reasons, some as simple as forgetting when or where birds were sighted.  The important thing is to START!

My list goes back to college in Santa Barbara when my zoology professor introduced me to the idea of a life list. I still have the entries from my first visit to Shoreline Park where the first bird to hit my list was a Brown Pelican, seen on Nov 4, 1989.  I enjoy the fact that 26 years later I can see the details of that first sighting.