Are you a lister? I have to confess that I have always been a lister and written things down all my life, from I-Spy books as a child, though my teenage years with secret diaries, and now as a birder I record everything (well almost) – even a job list for the day! Having accumulated numerous notebooks with birding holidays somewhat haphazardously recorded, I decided about 5 years ago, that the time had come to embrace the technological age, put my notes into some semblance of order, and transfer them onto the computer. But how? And with which gizmo? Personal recommendation being the best option, I asked around, and made my final selection at the Bird Fair. I bought a programme which lists all the world’s birds by country, as well as a smaller butterfly section, and started the mammoth task of transferring all my data into it. It was a slow and laborious task, as well as a steep learning curve initially, but well worth the effort as I am now reaping the many benefits. It’s not the most technically advanced method but it suits me fine. These all singing all dancing iphones will soon do a quicker and maybe better job but I’m happy with what I’ve got.
To illustrate one of the benefits, let me tell you about a recent sighting of a Tawny Owl in the garden. We were both absolutely thrilled with this, as the last sighting as I recalled from memory was some 30 years ago when we were walking with the children up on Tegg’s Nose. As we walked along a footpath towards the end of our walk we passed underneath a tree, and there it was, perched up just feet above our heads, fast asleep. Having entered my recent sighting I clicked on “find” and was stunned to see that I had recorded a Tawny three years previously in Morocco and had completely forgotten about it! Then the memories came flooding back; we were travelling towards Taddert and had stopped some 15 miles short of the village at Toufliht Forest. This is mixed woodland quite high up in the hills and a good place for Crossbills. It had rained heavily overnight and there was still some rain in the air with large drops showering down off the trees. Having successfully found three Crossbills we were huddled together sharing a couple of brollies – whoever thought of taking one on this holiday? – when one of our group shouted Tawny Owl. He took some finding, but there he was, perched in the fork of the tree, hunkered down, a bundle of wet dripping feathers. And there I was, back in Morocco, reliving all the highlights of the trip. It made that tedious job of recording everything so worthwhile. I do hope this will encourage some of you to give it a go!
BARBARA