FreeLists / va_co_birding / [va_co_birding] back in the saddle...

["C. Michael Stinson" <cms@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey folks -
I think everyone has by now gotten the word that FreeLists is back in action, 
and it appears that we dodged the bullet in our efforts to get this list going. 
I think we also have at least a minimal critical mass to have some decent 
discussions now, so here goes....

One thing I'd like to hear a bit more about, and something that seems good to 
start with, is which counties different folks might have a particular interest 
in, or might be working on (i.e., birding in). As most of you know, I keep 
lists in every county in the state, but obviously I work a lot more on some 
nearby ones than I do on, say, Buchanan County. I'm still not clear on where 
everyone lives, so even though I sort of assume that people bird a lot in their 
home counties, or perhaps a county or two nearby, I don't know where all those 
places are yet, and I'm pretty sure others on the list don't know that. The 
idea is to see what kind of base for discussion we have here in terms of 
geography. I know, for instance, that no one from far southwest Virginia is 
signed up yet, though that might change soon. I don't think anyone from 
Tidewater is on here yet, either.

So - when I was a kid I lived near Lynchburg and by default birded a lot there 
and in Amherst and Bedford counties. After grad school, when I moved back to 
Virginia, I ended up in Prince Edward and was living there when the county 
birding obsession really took hold. My initial goal was to find at least 100 
species in that county and all the adjoining counties. I haven't quite finished 
doing that yet, but I have moved to Buckingham Co. in the meantime. But more to 
the point, once I started doing county listing in Prince Edward, Appomattox, 
Buckingham, Cumberland and so on, I realized that I might as well keep track of 
which county I was in whenever I was birding anywhere in the state. Which then 
brought up the issue of what to do in those pesky independent cities that 
Virginia is "blessed" with, which took me about 2 or 3 years to decide on...but 
that's another topic.

Next?

Mike Stinson
Buckingham Co.
cms@xxxxxxxxx 

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