On an Audubon field trip I was co-leading, we spotted several common mergansers floating near the far bank of the Nisqually River, which splits two counties.

A lady asked me if I could get the birds to come to our side of the river. I hurriedly trained my scope on them to give her a better view, but she didn't want that.

She explained that the mergansers were technically in Pierce County, where she had seen them previously. If only I could coax them to our side of the river, she could add them to her Thurston County list.

Welcome to the world of birders who list birds they've seen, sometimes in quirky categories.

All serious birders list birds at times, the Christmas Bird Count being the most prominent example.

On our Audubon field trips, we compile species lists. I posted our most recent such list on our new blog and it has attracted considerable interest.

To see it, visit the OPAS blog on our Audubon Web site at www.olybird.org. On field trips in my bird classes, I compile the list of species seen and e-mail it to my students. This lets them focus on seeing birds rather than writing.

My wife and I maintain a "life" list in the form of a diary. We record species seen, when and where we saw them, and any friends with us at the time.

We now have a near 50-year diary of our outdoor adventures. Also, we list birds seen on trips, finding that it adds a bit of spice during an outing. A relative of mine in Indiana keeps a life list of birds he has seen on his multi-acre property, a variant of keeping a backyard list.

Some birders are into numbers. I know a retired Arizona man who, as of a couple years ago, had 792 birds on his U.S. life list.

His remaining big ambition in life is to reach 800. Poised to catch the next airplane out, he watches hotlines for news of a rare European or Asian bird straying into the 49 U.S. states (Hawaii, quirky for having very different native birds than the rest of the U.S., is excluded in this context).

Numbers lead to competition. A few birders with fat wallets have pursued a "big year," listing all U.S. species they can find in a calendar year. Top totals have been in the mid-700s.

Well-known birder Kenn Kaufman achieved a big year as a teenager, despite traveling on a shoestring budget. He describes his adventures in the delightful book "Kingbird Highway."

Several years ago, a friend suggested that I might enjoy compiling a list of the species I saw in a year. Curious about my total in 2006, I wrote a little software to merge our trip lists (commercial software is also available).

To my surprise, I had found 335 U.S. species - a puny amount compared to totals in the 700s - but far more than the 230 or so species on our life list only a few years earlier.

Exotic birds such as macaws and hornbills tempt some birders to chase after the 10,000+ other species found worldwide. Guided tours in species-rich countries, such as Kenya and Ecuador, can yield 400+ new life birds in two weeks.

Not long ago, I read of an international birder reaching the 10,000 species level. Such achievements require deep pockets.

Some birders combine listing with fundraising, typically in "big day" events.

Locally, we have an annual Audubon fundraiser in May called Birdathon (see my archived Sequim Gazette article on our Audubon Web site).

Nationally, the most prominent single-day event, titled the World Series of Birding, is held annually in New Jersey. Teams scout the territory well in advance then race by auto from midnight to midnight counting species seen or heard.

Last May, a six-man team from Cornell Labs was the top fundraiser with $198,000, mostly for bird conservation. They finished second with 222 species, seven short of the winners.

I've got a little list - not like Gilbert and Sullivan, of society offenders who never would be missed - but of birds I easily could have missed.

Do you care to make such a list? Lists require names, and naming birds they see is the primary reason people take my six-week Beginning Birds class. It next runs on Monday mornings starting March 2. A second class meets on Tuesday evenings starting May 4.



Dave Jackson is "Our Birds" series editor and Web master. Send comments to him at editor@olybird.org or 683-1355. Olympic Peninsula Audubon meets at 7 p.m. tonight, Feb. 18, at the Dungeness River Audubon Center, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road. Center Director Bob Boekelheide will speak on Sequim CBC trends. All are welcome. Details of bird classes and field trips are on the Web site www.olybird.org.