The inside of a wooden bird hide, a long shelf of notebooks and papers under the open viewing windows.

163 of 200, as of 27 September

Every bird I see on one lake shore, in one year, on foot

I'm Dana. I taught biology for thirty-one years and I've walked the same four miles of shore since I retired. This year I'm counting properly. The rules, the hides and the list so far are all here.

See the list so far

A bright yellow warbler on a sprig of cedar.

A bluebird with an orange breast landing on a weathered fence post, wings spread.

Six geese flying across a pale grey sky.

A robin with a berry in its beak among bunches of orange rowan berries.

A black-capped chickadee perched on a thin branch, close up.

A pheasant half hidden in tall summer grass and purple flowers.

Where I look: four miles, three hides and a tower

From the harbour wall to the end of the point and back, most mornings from first light until about ten. I don't drive anywhere else to tick a bird; if it isn't on this shore, it isn't on this list.

A man in a dark jacket looking through binoculars from the window of a wooden hide. — The reed-bed hide best at dawn, April to June

A woman in a knitted hat and scarf looking out through the slot of a wooden bird hide. — The point hide migrants, September

A man in a dark jacket raising binoculars among tall pine trees. — The pine wood woodpeckers and the owl, if I'm lucky

A pair of black binoculars resting on an open field guide showing owls, on a wooden table. — The kitchen table where the arguments get settled

A tall wooden observation tower with open staircases rising out of long golden grass.

How the list works

On footEvery bird is seen or heard from the shore path. No car, no boat, no feeder in my own garden.

Seen or heardA call counts only if I'd bet my binoculars on it. Anything I'm not sure of goes in pencil.

Written downDate, time, where, and one line. The notebook is the list; this page is copied from it on Sundays.

CheckedAnything rare goes to the county recorder before it goes here. Two are still waiting.

The list so far

Two hundred would be a record for this shore in one year. The last forty are the hard ones: autumn waders, a few owls, and anything blown in by a storm.

163

and 37 to go

Month	New	Total	Best of the month
January	41	41	a snowy owl on the harbour wall
February	6	47	long-tailed ducks, forty of them
March	14	61	the first red-winged blackbird
April	27	88	an osprey over the point
May	38	126	eleven warblers in one morning
June	9	135	a least bittern, heard, then seen
July	4	139	nothing much; it was hot
August	13	152	a Caspian tern on the sandbar
September	11	163	still counting

If you'd like to start your own

Pick a patch

Somewhere you can walk to often. A park, a reservoir, a stretch of river. Going often matters far more than going far.

Carry a notebook

Not an app, at least not only. Writing it down makes you look longer, and looking longer is the whole trick.

Say hello

If you see someone on the shore with binoculars and a green hat, that's me. I'm happy to show you the hides.

Year List

Hollis Point, on the north shore of the lake

Updated on Sunday evenings
from the notebook

Year List is a fictional example. Dana, the shore, the hides and the list do not exist. Photographs are stock images and were not taken on this shore.