How do you start a life list, what do you include, location, weather etc, given the number of types you see most days and just can't remember the first time.
I thought of starting on my birthday just gone but that would mean leaving out shorelarks for instance that I might not ever see again.
This might seem daft to you guys, but it is a major problem to me, give you something to think about perhaps.
Mick
I'd start with the first bird that I could vividly remember and positively ID'd. It is after all called a "Life" list so should include everything seen in your life. I just tidied up all my old trip reports, scraps of paper with birding notes, field guide margin notes of sightings, and photographs last year to finally compile my life list. I entered the date as closely as known (most of my notes, trip lists, and field guide margin notes) and used the year from memory in other cases / photos with just a note in the comment section "date not accurate".
Location is very important to include as later you'll want to know how many you saw in your backyard, your county, in the UK, etc.
Take a look at the download from Jeff at Brandonbirding (see related thread in this forum) and you'll see how little info really needs to be captured. Use the notes for any special info or circumstances. Good luck and the sooner you get started the better.
Nowadays I have a day list, which thanks to the marvels of computer technology I punch into a database daily and it works everything out for me. Before such days, I did as Dave did and collated millions of bits of paper and rough lists, and in the earliest of days, I consigned them to year lists, or as near as possible in order to get them onto my database. It all depends on what information is useful to you, most folk have a life, year and country or county list, if it is solely the species you would like to keep tabs on, you'll probably remember all the goodies, and then it's a case on working from there - dates and locations don't necessarily matter, although it wouldn't be too tough to remember locations I guess.
Computer databases are useful though, it takes all the hassle out list-keeping. There are plenty of threads on this subject about, although just for the record, I use Bird Recorder from Wildlife Computing and have done forever and ever, and now I can't change without spending another xxxx years typing in all the information again!!!