The year is drawing to a close and the long dark winter evenings are a time for retrospection and introspection (if youre not looking down a microscope!) Pan-species listing is changing and evolving. New listers are joining (Graemes article in British Wildlife was very successful) and old hands have dropped by the wayside. PSLing has changed enormously in the last 2 or 3 years. An instantly-updated list on the website keeps everyone aware of the rankings and this has upped the game for the hard-hitting listers and has raised the level of competitiveness. This is great when people are going out and finding new species and new sites and contributing records and it would be really interesting to see how many new VC records have been generated by PSLers. Like any family we fall out from time to time and I have to confess I am still uncomfortable following a heated discussion with criticisms of twitching, listing for the sake of numbers and cliquishness at PSL meetings. I think if we take a moment to think about it, most of us have gone on a trip to see certain species, joined in with a field trip just to add some species we wouldnt have been able to identify otherwise or gone out with mates on PSL trips. As there arent any real rules we wont always like the way other people play the game but thats life. I am torn between thinking that listing is fun and being jaded with the competitive side. Its a bit like birding. 25 years ago I wanted to see 400 species before I turned 30. I still havent seen 400 species but I lost interest in the twitching scene. PSL has given me the motivation to get back out into the field and start recording again as well as study new groups. I once had the idea of getting to 5000 before I turn 50 but thats not going to happen (unless I obsessively follow bryophyte and lichen groups around this winter!) and I cant really see the point any more. Im also weary of the FB page vs the website issue which rears its head from time to time. I like to think that people are capable of deciding on the best place to post things for themselves and this page remains extremely useful for channelling people towards the website. The FB group has grown beyond active PS listers and is always active with some trivia which wouldnt really find a home on the website. I have no doubt that both serve a useful function but I have been uncomfortable with what seems like pressure on people to put things in certain places. Ive been wondering what to do for a while. I dont think I will ever be disinterested in seeing new species, but Im getting less inspired with keeping a competitive list. I think my emphasis is going to switch to recording in 2015 and look towards putting dots in squares rather than ticks in boxes.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 20:43:36 +0000
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