It’s getting worse and who knows where my growing addiction for listing will end. At least it forces me to get out of the house and visit all sorts off interesting places – often scenic and often teeming with beautiful birds that are trying to elude my binocular view (they are often brown and tiny). Like the other bloggers I hope to use this space to keep you updated on nice trips and sightings. But foremost, I want this to be a confession booth for birders craziness.

I’ll start with a brief account of my growing listing addiction. (Between brackets a lifer that I added that month)

• 2/2006 Arrival in Mapungubwe NP, South Africa. I enjoy watching birds and appreciate if others tell me their names. (African Scops-Owl)

• 4/2006 Start writing down and IDing birds in my little moleskin notebook. Create Excel-sheet to record IDd birds. (Scaly-feathered Finch)

• 5/2006 Start to include dates in my moleskin and include date of first sighting in Excel-sheet. (Comb Duck)

• 6/2006 Include latest sighting per species in Excel-sheet. (Spectacled Weaver)

• 7/2006 Create separate Excel-sheets per location (Mapungubwe, Kruger, Hwange, Chobe, etc) and a total Africa-list. (Rufous-bellied Heron)

• 2/2007 Create Excel-sheets for The Netherlands, New  Zealand and Argentina and a World-list. (Eurasian Nuthatch)

• 7/2007 Purchase Wings-database for USD25 and transfer ALL sightings in here. (Cape Rock-jumper)

• 11/2007 Note bird nr 100, 200, 300, etc including date. Note which birds were only heard. (Pale-crowned Cisticola)

• 12/2007 Start including field notes for lifers and interesting sightings in Wings. (Purple Indigobird)

• 2/2008 Record how many birds seen per year and how many lifers. (White-backed Mousebird)
• 4/2008 Keep track of totals per province and per country. (Knysna Woodpecker)

So when I saw my latest lifer last Saturday, the Cut-throat finch in Groenkloof NR, I had to do the following:

1. Record bird (and other sightings of that day) in Wings.
2. Adjust name from Cut-throat to Cut-throat Finch in Wings.
3. Record bird in Africa and World Excel-sheet, that I keep for if Wings crashes.
4. Update latest total (478) in word-document, including date and location and time past since I started birding and time past since I reached 400.
5. Update total for 2008 (335) and lifers in 2008 (44) in word-document.
6. Update total for South Africa (453), Gauteng (191), Tshwane (141) and Pretoria (105).
7. Update my Gauteng challenge total on the website www.birding.co.za/08-challenge.htm and in a word-document (181). 

I know it’s only rock & roll... but I like it.

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