Milestone

["Wayne Forsythe" <wforsythe@a-o.com>]

Folks:
        Today, I logged my 20,000th species sighting in my Avisys Birding
Program.  When my wife bought it for me for Christmas several years ago, I
wondered just what was I going to do with it, since I'm not real good with
computers.  Once I got it loaded in the computer, the rest is history.  For
those of you folks not familiar with Avisys, 1 species entry for example
would be 15 Magnolia Warblers seen one morning, which would count as 1
species sighting.  Therefore, 20,000 species sightings is actually several
hundred thousand bird sightings.
About 95% of these sightings are from the mountains of western North
Caroliana. For the past several years, I have mainly concentrated my entries
on Neo-tropical migrants that pass through the mountains in migration,
Winter waterfowl, etc., not the local, common, to be expected birds.  As a
result, I probably have one of the most extensive data bases on dates of
migrating birds here in the mountains.
        As Charlotte said, Avisys is easy to use, and the tech support has
always been outstanding.  If someone doesn't know what to buy you for
Christmas, ask for Avisys, I believe it is a must for serious birders!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Wayne

Wayne K. Forsythe
Hendersonville, N. C. 28791
828-697-6628
wforsythe@a-o.com