Until today, I had never crossed paths with a Dekay's Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi). I had been looking for several years, but with no luck. I can now cross it off "my list".
When I encounter a new species, I feel a certain obligation to create and / or add to a list of the species I have seen. But I am not a list maker.
Keeping lists of the things I observe stresses me out. Do I start my list moving forward? Do I try to remember all the species I have seen? Do I include only species I have seen in Vermont? Do I include species I have seen in exotic places like Iceland, St. John's or Eastern Long Island?
I, inevitably, start to feel like a need a list of lists -- ferns, fungi, lichen, plants, insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals... I will never see them all -- so what is the point?
For me, focusing on the lists detracts from experiencing the interaction.
So, I have decided to just keep a mental "rolodex" of species I have seen. A constant process of meeting new friends and re-crossing paths with old friends.
