Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 01:13:34 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bill Ellis Subject: About Lists In-Reply-To: <4DD724FD8DC6F940A83F7DD327AD8589011398F7@grn1200-mail02.cifa.local> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Rob: I can't resist. I prefer to keep my list of birds seen by ecoregion (formerly physiographic region), so that I can see patterns of what birds are found in different habitat types. This makes the most sense during the breeding season, when you know Brown-headed Nuthatches will be almost exclusively on the eastern shore (coastal plain; Middle Atlantic Coastal Forest), and Chestnut-sided Warblers will be almost exclusively in the Allegheny Plateau (Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forests). http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/terrestrial.html?detail=detailed &size=large&id=1&cMinx=39.795368&cMaxx=180&cMiny=-90&cMaxy=90 I don't think county lists are worth keeping, except for my home county, Carroll. That's the one county for which I keep a year and life list. Same way with state lists, except for Maryland. I guess I am just an idiocentric lister. ("idio" here meaning self more than idiot) I have to say that list-keeping is more than just an obsession, as Norm calls it. It is also a sport, in which you can compete with other birders, and also compete with yourself. If you compare your own lists year-to-year for county, state, or atlas block, you can hopefully see improvement, which can be rewarding in itself. I think the American Birding Association (ABA) is the leading organization for boosting listing. They publish Big Day lists and State lists and more, and encourage that friendly (?) competition. http://www.americanbirding.org/bigday/listrep.htm Bird on - List on! Bill Ellis Eldersburg Carroll County Maryland -----Original Message----- On Behalf Of Castle, Robert Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 9:21 AM Please tell me the difference between a "List" and a "Life List", or is there one? ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================