GREENE CO., MO. — I’ve been working on my life list again, trying to get ready for all the lifers I’m going to rack up in PNG.

I had been using a database based on the AOU checklist, but now I’ve moved to a world database. I’m trying to follow Clements’ list, but I couldn’t find it available for download anywhere (at least not in a format I could do anything with). I found one that claimed to be similar but had to spend several days cleaning it up and reordering everything. For the sake of time, I left some sections untouched (like the babblers) and will have to work on them when and if I ever encounter representatives of those taxa.

Clements’ list is actually rather different from the AOU’s, especially in the sequence of families and sometimes species. I learned quite a bit going through it all, but with over 9800 records, it was a little difficult to absorb everything.

I built a little interface for my life list in Access.

So I’m sitting at a modest 415 species. It’s certainly nothing remarkable, but it’s not terrible either. If I weren’t so picky about what went on the list, it would probably be 15 or 20 species higher — maybe more.

But of course it’s not about the numbers. Life birds special, and a little mystical. I usually need to see a bird and get to know it pretty well before it goes on my list. I haven’t listed Western Screech-Owl, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Chuck-will’s-widow, or even Whip-poor-will because I’ve only heard them. I didn’t list the Green Kingfisher because it was a brief and horrible look from very far away, and I didn’t list Virginia’s Warbler because I was too sloppy in the field and didn’t really see what I needed to see.

I often ask myself, “If I never had a chance to see that species again, would I be satisfied?”

It took me a few years to get in the groove. For awhile, birds popped on and off my list faster than wedding rings from Elizabeth Taylor’s finger. The decisions weren’t cavalier, however. Certain additions and removals were accompanied by greater pangs of conscience than some people have probably experienced in their entire lives.

I look over my list from time to time, for it is filled with memories, thrills, and longings. There are holes, of course — embarrassing and inexplicable gaps like Philadelphia Vireo and Golden-winged Warbler. Some birds have been on my list since the first one I ever made (I must have been about six): robins, mockingbirds…. And of course there are the gems: Masked Duck, Lucy’s Warbler, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Great Gray Owl….

Here I am at 415: 415 birds of which I can say, “I have seen you; I have known you.”

What’s next? Hard to say. I read today in “Birds of New Guinea” that Raggiana Birds-of-paradise are “often encountered in most habitats in eastern NG.”

Maybe the best is yet to come.

My interest in birds actually goes back quite a ways.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed