A project begets other projects, without fail.

I promise that a few of these posts will actually talk about the PROJECT, (which, in case you've just joined us, is to create a stumpwork collection of birds from my life list).

This is not one of those posts.  This post is going to talk about my bird books and my life list.  And possibly, why I bird in the first place.

Actually let's start with that one.

The woman in the picture, Debbie, is the reason I bird. ( I really like her husband as well.)  She has been my best friend since I was 18 or so.  And she is an avid birder.  I started birding because she was so enthusiastic about it.  I have been known to call her from road trips, describe birds to her and have her id them for me over the phone.  She's that good.

I now have bird books;  many bird books, from many trips, and I keep field notes in them.  Where I saw birds, when I saw them, who I was with (usually Debbie),  notes about the sighting, etc.

There are 2 problems with this.

#1  I have terrible handwriting.  My notes are hard to read, even for me.
#2  It is hard to have a cohesive idea of what I've seen when I have it spread out through so many books.

So the project that will be going on with the stumpwork project is to make a database of birds I've seen using google sheets.  Along with that idea, I have decided to turn a google form into an app on my phone using Appsheets, which, in theory, should allow me to add to my life list from my phone, while I am out and about.  There are some bugs, but I have a prototype version that I am testing.

I'll let you know how that goes.