BUBO Listing.

Do you keep a list of birds you've seen? Locally,nationally,internationally perhaps? In recent times I do, and quite unashamedly too, but for my own enjoyment and reference as opposed to it being in any way competitive. Living where I do it would be impossible to be competitive anyway ( I've yet to see some of the most common birds in the UK this year given they don't occur on the island! ).

Sadly I lost most of my previous (lifetime ) records previous to 2001! Any lists I'd kept had been a bit of a half-hearted affair anyway and weren't computerised. Following that time I was determined that such a loss wouldn't happen again and a suitable means of "storage" would be found. And so , I commenced on a full blown Ornithological Renaissance and am enjoying every minute of it!. I have to admit that, in addition to the facilities described below, I also use Bird Base to record daily excursions etc, which can incorporate more detail.

Along this road of self declared discipline I found BUBO!! Not a stray owl, nor a holiday company , but a listing facility (http://www.bubo.org/listing, but also see the direct link opposite under Links to Other Organizations). Created and maintained by Andy Musgrove and Mike Prince it provides the facility to create, store ,compare and print off as many lists as you wish to maintain, and much,much more. You can commit records to more than one list as you're entering items, see who's seen what and how many species in a given year, retain your old Annual Lists...... They've thought of everything and it's tremendous fun. The more information you commit, the more you can enjoy a good trawl through a list for, say,2008, or check whether you saw a particular species when visiting Borneo!! They deserve a lot of credit from all of us in the birding world who use the site and I'm quite candid in saying that my own usage of the site has brought a lot of enjoyment. New features are forever appearing and doubtless the site will ( and should ) go from strength to strength.

So, whether you ( like me )also have a copy of Clements' book and dutifully "tick the boxes", try this too. Take a look at the site, register, have a browse and then pitch in! You'll not regret it. Sure, there are some very active people who see an enormous amount of species, but there are many,many more who can only operate within the limits of the time they have available. A site for everyone, try it!