Chris is "encouraging" me purge, which means I'm rifling through a midden of papers looking for stuff I can cull to the recyclers. In doing so I came upon a "Lot List" of birds I kept for the yard where I grew up in suburban Detroit. There are 55 species on the list with the first date for a RBNU of 11/7/81 and the last is a BBCU on 5/4/83. The most memorable birds are Golden-winged Warblers (5/10/82), Bay-breasted Warbler (5/23/82), and Gray-cheeked Thrush (5/11/83). I also have my mom's old kitchen cabinet door that I recorded my bird records on from 1983-2010 (whenever I visited) - it probably adds another 20 species or so. The only groaner bird was a (probable) Cerulean Warbler that sang from the top of a neighbor's oak several times before flying off. In 40 years my family has been in that house I only recall a few nesting birds -- robin, Blue Jay, Gray Catbird and cardinal. The yard had some nice tall old trees (oak and walnut) but backed up to a busy 6 lane highway. The neighbor was a nature lover and squatted his property shortly after WWII - he had no lawn just oak-walnut forest (we converted most of ours to trees too). Crazy to think Ive been birding that yard for over 30 years.
This is out of control! My first such list wouldn't have occurred until about 1990ish, and would have been similar to this. We also would circle the birds in the Eastern flexcover Peterson Guide, in ink pen. Not sure that book is still extant.
ReplyDeleteMy money says keep this! It's an heirloom.