The grandparents have our toddler for the weekend, so Obo and I took advantage of some free time to take our kayaks out and paddle someplace new yesterday. I chose the Concord River, and we paddled alongside Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge for several hours. What a beautiful trip! As it was afternoon when we finally got on the water, my birding expectations were relatively low, although we did see a fair amount of wildlife including a mink bounding across one bank, a very close-up look at a great blue heron sitting on a branch (definitely not hunting – digesting, perhaps?) and a beautiful eastern forktail damselfly (had to look that one up – my dragonfly/damselfly identification skills are quite rusty).
We went technology-free, so no cell phones or cameras to record the trip. I did lament the lack of pen and paper to record our wildlife observations, however (unintentional oversight), which got me to thinking about just how much I love making lists (being unable to do so). And I then started thinking about the different lists I keep and how varied they are, depending on my role: bookstore owner, naturalist, parent, etc., and that I ought to make a ‘list of lists’ to see what it is exactly that I’m recording. So here goes:
- Birding lists
- Life list
- Location lists (home, house in Weskill, NY)
- Seasonal and work lists (depending on where I am, when and how often)
- States we’ve birded in
- Rivers paddled (pretty small list)
- Mammal sightings (just a life list at the moment)
- Butterfly & dragonfly sightings (same as mammal list)
- Book lists
- Books owned
- Books in inventory
- Newly acquired books (usually before they get into the database)
- To-Do lists (these are pretty impermanent, although I do have a record of my bookstore lists simply because they get recorded in a notebook)
- Household
- Bookstore
- Outside work (as in work I’m doing outside of the bookstore or house…)
I know there’s more, but this is what I’ve got off the top of my head. Maybe I’ll make this an official list and add to it when I remember some other list I don’t have on here yet… And yes, for the record, I did make a list of our sightings on the Concord when we got home.
Happy Father’s Day to all my male parent friends (Obo is at Nashua High’s graduation today, so our celebration won’t be until later with Grandparents and other family members).
Cheers!
