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

[t ian <ict_earth@xxxxxxxxx>]

  My name is Ian Topolsky and I am a county lister...

  I've been fighting this urge for roughly two years
now (it's a seedy bunch) but after birding numerous
counties that I never expected to visit and with
constant peer-pressure from Todd Day to fit in with
the 'cool' crowd (Come on, everyone's doing
it...etc.), I have succumbed to the urge and more than
embraced it.
  At the age of seven I moved to Loudoun. The year-
1983. I was not a 'birder' yet but it was then that I
started to really notice the birds (and other
wildlife)
that share the space around me and actually started to
take notice of their day-to-day activities. I had only
recently started keeping a life list and a yard list
(even though I didn't know exactly why???) before a
fateful visit to Snicker's Gap Hawkwatch in 2001,
where I met this so-called Day fellow. Since then I've
visited and revisited several counties that I had
never thought I'd step foot in and, for one reason or
another, seemingly justified my keeping track of what
I saw there; not to mention it made seeing a House
Sparrow or Mourning Dove feel almost as exciting as it
did the first time I layed eyes on them. 
 Most of my time is spent in Loudoun, Fauquier and
pieces of Clarke (in that order), but Loudoun is where
I call home so I concentrate on searching the nooks
and crannies here...
  I like the idea of county listing because: 
1)- it's an incentive to get out and explore new      

    places, with a purpose...and
2)- it might actually result in worthwhile data, 
    despite the joy of the hunt...


  Giddyup,
  Ian Topolsky
  Hamilton, VA 







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