Self-found in more than one way...

Dear and fellow SFYLers

This afternoon, an event occurred whereby my firmly-held existential belief that 'the world is essentially meaningless' was called into question. It was very brief, however.

The fundamental tenet of existential philosophy is ''to live one's life with clarity; be true to oneself and to never draw blood.'' That is how one makes sense of life in a meaningless, futile and utterly absurd world.

(I hope we can all agree that the random collision of random atoms a few billion years ago does not endow upon the universe any innate sense of purpose or direction. Ergo, the world is meaningless).

With this in mind, my list will be based upon existential principles, (although I cannot promise not to draw blood). ;-) So the following species come off, for the reasons stated.

i) Mediterranean Gull - a joint find with SCB
ii) Goosander - as above
iii) Goldeneye - as above
iv) Cetti's Warbler - I understand that Warren Villas was the site where Cetti's actually speciated from the locustella warblers.

With regard to i-iii, there is a good chance I will find these, and of iv, they will be like Little Egrets before too long. We should be looking for others along our river systems. I will also discount anything of which I have the slightest suspicion in terms of provenance and if I suspect the same bird has been seen at nearby locations or by other observers.

I am not 'in it to win it' but instead to provide myself goals and targets and give myself certain health benefits. We all have our own definition of the rules, none more or less valid than the next man's. Now I've purged my list and set out the boundaries, it is almost cathartic.

The classical existentialists would have loved 'self-finding.' It would work on so many levels!

Atb,

DOM