New Year, New list

Have you ever wondered what it is that drives some birdwatchers to year after year compile lists of their sightings and is there a useful product at the end of their often dedicated endeavours?

Being a 'lister' myself, the initiation of the cycle is of course the approach to New Year's Day when I begin to look forward to starting my brand new lists. It's the time to put all the successes and failures behind you, and ahead, a whole new year in which you will perhaps have a chance to add new species.

The anticipation reminds me of schooldays when you were given new exercise books at the beginning of term, your neatest hand writing on the pristine cover, a fresh start. Looking back I suppose I exhibited all the trademarks of a future 'lister' when in my younger days I and a couple of school friends would go bus and train spotting. Ideal training for any aspiring birdwatcher really i.e. standing around, often at the end of a windswept platform or a cold, remote bus station, underlining or ticking off the engines and buses in our books. It was around this time of my childhood that my first bird list was born when I started to tick off the birds that I had seen in my Observer's Book of Birds.

Nowadays, like numerous other birdwatchers I am sure, I keep two lists- a garden list and a year list. I won't bore you with the details of my somewhat mundane year lists which, by the way, has never exceeded the 150 mark but I would like to share some of the highlights from over the years that have appeared on my garden list in Corringham, Essex. They include ;  waxwing, wryneck, barn owl, reed bunting, woodcock, spotted flycatcher, coal tit, grey wagtail, ring necked parakeet, brambling, willow warbler, goldcrest, redwing, fieldfare, song thrush, siskin and sparrowhawk. 

So going back to my initial question [what use are lists?]. Well obviously they are great for looking back and rekindling memories of the more exciting sightings and perhaps their locations. They can also remind you of the harsher periods of weather as most of the scarcer birds have occurred in winter during periods of snow or very low temperatures, especially in gardens. If you compare your lists year by year you may see changes in the species turning up in your garden or even further afield. On a wider scale, submitting your records to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) or the RSPB's garden watch schemes, you can contribute to the monitoring of population fluctuations on a national level.

Happy New Year