A new species for the garden list earlier this week when the Wildfowl jinx was finally broken with a Mallard scooting over the house. No idea where from, or where it was heading to!

Had a look at my lists on Bubo.org today. what is surprising, is the number of personal milestones I am close to reaching:

The Western Palearctic life list is just 10 species shy of 500, the self-found version 14 short of 450.

My British self-found list is an agonising 5 species short of 250.

I also know from memory that my world life list is just  "A couple of days out in Florida" short of 1000! However, I've been waiting 5 years for those two days!

One target I have reached is "False" UK400.. That is counting UK species seen anywhere in the world! This seems like cheating, but is relevant to me as there is no way I'm going to travel to see a species I have seen thousands of in Europe. It certainly makes me appreciate the dedication of people with huge "True" UK Lists, even if I don't aspire to the same goals myself. I stopped counting at 400, but suspect there are a couple more American species that I saw in Ecuador many years ago to be included. bubo summary page below..