Keeping a Journal of your Bird Sightings

Keeping a Journal of your Bird Sightings
Hello. Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Wayne Peterson, and I'm the director of the Important Bird Areas Program for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Today, we're here at the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield, Massachusetts, where we'll be talking about bird identification and some of the equipment and essential tools that are useful to get one started in this incredibly interesting pastime. There's a lot of other information that can be put on the field card in addition to the seasonality. For example, in the case of the Common Loon, we see that the Common Loon in Massachusetts occurs from 9A, which would be the first week of September, through 5C, which would be the third week of May. But, we also see some indications that in fact the bird nests in Massachusetts as identified by the fact that it's in bold faced type. We see that it's italicized which tells us that in fact it's a state listed species, that it's uncommon in Massachusetts. And, there's another symbol, a little dagger, that tells us that the bird can be seen at other times of the year besides the period that I described. So, there's a lot of information on a field card or a checklist that can be useful. For more extensive record keeping, it's a good idea to have something like this. I prefer to keep my notes in something like a diary where it's a day by day, and it's possible to record more detailed observations of bird sightings and other things that are of appropriate interest. Some people like to use software programs. The internet now affords a number of opportunities for doing things either electronically, like eBird, which is something that Mass. Audubon uses as a way for observers to record information into site specific locations. Also, you can get software programs that will allow you to manage checklists, your life list, how many birds you've seen in your life. You can generate checklists. If you're going to be traveling to distant areas, you can put together lists using some of these software programs. So, there's a lot of different ways to keep track of information and record it. But, I think it's essential that for a beginning birder getting into the habit of using a small notebook and some sort of a journal, possibly along with a checklist, is a very useful step to begin your efforts.