BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 23, 2025
A life list is a list of all species seen in one’s lifetime. Roger Tory Peterson’s groundbreaking Guide To The Birds, published in 1934, included a checklist of all recognized North American birds. The 1960s edition of Peterson’s guidebook fell into my hands at an impressionable age. I wanted to find every single bird in that book and check them all off. I still do. I have officially seen 657 species in the ABA Area, sort of. Last week, I added a new bird to my list without ever leaving the couch. The American Ornithological Society determined that warbling vireos in the east and west are genetically different, and reclassified them as two separate species. Where did it all go so wrong? If I had just kept my checklist in that original guidebook, I might be all done by now. One thing’s for certain, it’s too late to start over. Or is it? I still have my Peterson. ~ Bob Duchesne