Humble grovelling time! Just a quick note to apologise publicly to Ian McKerchar for not asking his permission before posting the previous email about BUBO Listing on the forum. I've been asking permission on every county yahoo group, but inexcusably forgot this time. Obviously, Ian's site does an excellent job at covering the Manchester county listing scene, but you might find BUBO useful still for your national and international lists.
This is just a quick note to inform birders about the (fairly) new bird listing website, BUBO Listing (www.bubo.org/listing). This site has been set up to enable the storage, sharing and comparison of bird lists of a wide range of types (including county lists). Birders can use the website to enter their own lists (not just a total, but the full species composition of the list). They can then use the site to compare their list with those of other birders and can view the lists of anyone else using BUBO Listing.
The site is entirely FREE to use. Just go to www.bubo.org/listing and click on Register on the left-hand side to get (within a minute or so) a username and password (which users need to ensure that only they can edit their own lists). You can then view any lists already on the system or add your own lists. You can also look at a directory of other BUBO Listers, or check out the latest list updates that have been entered onto the system.
Lists are defined based on a number of factors:
Region: currently GB, UK, England/Scotland/Wales/NI, British counties, Ireland and Western Palearctic. [World listing will be coming shortly!] Period: currently Life or a given Year. All/Self: whether you include self-found birds only, or all species recorded Authority: who has determined which species are available for the given list; e.g. BOU, UK400 club, etc. Different authorities consider different species as 'countable' (e.g. some split White Wagtails from Pied Wagtails, etc)
Lists are entirely transparent; anything you enter will be visible to anyone else using BUBO Listing (with the exception of records flagged as 'sensitive', for the purpose of guarding information on rare breeding birds).
At the time of writing, 376 birders have added a total of 841 lists to the site. Currently, list types include:
BOU British Life - 265 lists BOU British 2007 Year - 104 lists AERC Western Palearctic Life - 66 lists BOU Greater Manchester Life - just one so far - plenty of scope for more! etc
We are constantly updating and improving the site. For example, we have just developed a "targets" facility whereby you can see which are the 'easiest' missing species from any given list. Moreover, we're always on the lookout for feedback and new ideas.
Of course, keeping lists is not to everyone's tastes. Moreover, BUBO Listing is not a scientific bird survey tool (for this, see the excellent BirdTrack at www.bto.org/birdtrack). However, if you do enjoy listing as a fun part of your birding, then check out BUBO Listing!
