The Beast Called County Listing

American White Pelicans

A couple of years ago my birding took a drastic turn to the insane due to a beast known as County Bird Listing.  This practice involves keeping track of every bird species you see in a particular county in a state.  I mainly focus on Kansas as you have probably already guessed.  So lets get down to the nuts and bolts of county listing.  Every bird species you see in a county counts as a tick.  Once you reach a certain number of ticks in a county you become listable.  Only your listable counties count as your total state ticks.  In Kansas once you see 75 different bird species (ticks) in a county, you are listable.  Kansas has 105 counties with which to try to be listable.  I know this can sound confusing but it is very simple when you get down to it.  Keeping a notebook of your listing can really help. 

Quivira NWR after a storm

The thing I love the most about county listing is that it gets you to parts of the state that you would probably never see otherwise.  Most people view Kansas as a giant flat wheat field, which is not accurate.  We have the beautiful Flint Hills, vast and majestic.  There are the Red Hills in the southern part of the state that are just stunning.  The Cimmaron National Grasslands are probably my favorite with an underground river, wide open vistas, and the actual wagon tracks from the Santa Fe Trail.  I highly recommend exploring Kansas or the state you live in because there are an endless number of things to discover.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

I am fortunate enough to have some close birding friends that have introduced me to county listing and I can't imagine birding with out it.  I still get excited when I see a crow in a county I haven't been in before.  It is like having a lifelist for 105 counties that can always be increased.  This year I am hoping to reach the milestone of 3000 total ticks in Kansas.  There are not a whole lot of people who have accomplished this so I am excited. One of my good friends has over 10000 ticks which is just incredible to me. 

A wind farm outside of Salina Kansas

If you want to download county lists for Kansas or to find out more about the Kansas County Listing Project I have included a link below to some great resources.

http://www.ksbirds.org/checklist/checklist_index.htm