“List, list, O, list!”*
Confessions of a reformed transgressor
*the ghost in Hamlet 1:5:758
Birders, once addicted, almost inevitably become hoarders. In the old
days, they shot and stuffed birds, then installed them in the parlor in
bell-jars. Now, lists—-of birds envisioned, birds sought and found,
birds missed and yearned for—-have become the fruits of birding. Lists
occupy the landscape of the past as well as the horizons of imagined
days to come, sparking memories of luck and derring-do as well as the
comforting rhythms of the seasons.
Building significant personal lists for the whole world, or a
continent, or a taxonomic category like hummingbirds or seabirds,
requires leisure time and money that few possess, but most of us can
hope to amass respectable local lists, lists we can reasonably hope to
add to fairly regularly. At least for a while. Nothing encourages
listing elsewhere more than a seemingly stalled Ohio list. If you have
390 for Ohio, new additions will come as often to your list as
lightning-strikes, even if you go out and chase thunderstorms.
Eventually, so rare will new local species be that you are more likely
to find yourself adding—-or losing—-ticks for Ohio as you sit in your
living room, studying the noodlings of the AOU’s Committee on
Classification and Nomenclature. You will likely soon develop new
interests in building lists of birds seen at your yearly vacation spot
in the U.P., or during Florida trips. Soon enough you will contemplate
vacations in Arizona, California, Alaska, or, yes, January in
Minnesota--planned with at least some listing in mind, and you will be
truly addicted.
A bird-list record must record, at a minimum, a species name, a date,
and a place. To the evidentiary requirements of what/when/where,
addicted listers may add more---birds seen with one's husband, birds
photographed, birds heard vocalizing, et cetera. These additional
requirements personalize listing, increase its difficulty, and
additionally—and sometimes significantly--make one’s list harder to
compare with those of others. The latter consideration is worth
thinking about. My experience is that the birders with truly long lists
are willing to share their numbers if asked, but that only the wannabees
add their names to lists of listers’ lists.
For many, the need to put a check-mark next to a bird name is an
addictive behavior. To accumulate ticks, an addict will improvise by
tallying county lists, or year lists, or county year lists. Soon you
might have as many ticks as a two-dollar dog. Some have imagined having
their cars emblazoned with an oil company’s logo in return for coupon
savings on fuel. I should add that there is exactly zero evidence that
listers selfishly want to keep their sightings to themselves; indeed,
electronic communications such as this one are constantly used to
announce finds, and flash mobs may result for the rarest of them. These
gatherings may puzzle the public at large, but listers listen.
Bill Whan
Columbus
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