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After a few weeks of considering the pros and cons, I eventually decided to start a new bird list from scratch. I don’t have any concrete reasons but I’m glad I did, nonetheless.
When I broke the news to my parents, I was answered with two perplexed faces. Of course it seemed completely idiotic. The fact that I had been to places that I may never visit again made my attempt seem completely futile.
However, my former bird list had one too many loop holes in it. It made me question my credibility on some bird sightings. An example would be my record of a Long-toed Lapwing seen in the lush suburban jungle of… Kempton Park, Johannesburg, Gauteng… Seriously? 
My sighting in red, the distribuiton of the Lapwing in green.
Once I got a DSLR camera and gained more experience over the years (with the help of fellow birders), my sightings became more concrete. Some great birds species seen and photographed (more recently the African Finfoot) made it harder to start again, but I did. On 2009/10/11, my new list had begun…
The first day of my new list awarded me with a quick centuary of lifers. My mom and I traveled to Roodeplaat Dam Nature Reserve in the early morning. As the sun rose, silhouettes of herons flew over. After giving the blind eye to a few, I finally ticked it as a Black-headed Heron as more flew by (suspiciously slower than normal) and the two-tone under-wing became clear. It was inevitable that my first tick would be a Black-headed Heron.
Shortly after I started my new list, school exams had begun. The 2 month period of no bird watching had dampened my new run rate and slowed me down to a halt. The race to 200 became more of a marathon. I was depending on new garden birds to push my bird list up. Fortunately, the ‘bird restaurant’ in our back garden did provide a few more lifers. By the end of exams, I was sitting on 193, the last bird being an African Green Pigeon seen in my garden. A quick trip to Rietvlei Nature Reserve soon followed on 2009/12/17. There my 200th bird frolicked in the grass whilst eating the seeds on the indigenous grass, a Common Waxbill.
» 5 Comments
1Comment
at Sunday, 03 January 2010 08:25
Wow - Candy, 200 birds in 2months and 6days! Thats AWESOME!! Well done!!!
2Comment
at Monday, 04 January 2010 11:16
You are going to have so much fun with your new list!
All of the best!
3Comment
at Wednesday, 06 January 2010 15:30
Way to go Candy, Let us know when you have reached your old number, it would be interesting to see if you reach it in a shorter time the second time around.
Over the years i have dropped a few suspect birds from my list that came on when i started, but mine was never as interestingly out of range as your lapwing,. I do take my hat of to you as i would not restart my list, there are just a few too many really special ones that i know i will probably not see again.
4Comment
at Thursday, 07 January 2010 09:26
great stuff Candy! it will definitely be an exciting adventure!
5Comment
at Friday, 08 January 2010 21:18
brilliant stuff, Candy, best of luck with the new list but somehow I don't think you will need it, I foresee it progressing mighty fast ;-)))
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