A chukar on Antelope Island, where this game bird was transplanted, is usually easy for a birdwatcher to find. I've seen many of them, and each time was as delightful as the first time.
“Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we know that we have for sure is what is right here right now. Don’t miss it.” — Leo Buscaglia
Travels With Maggie
I keep a list of every bird species I see for the first time and a list of the all the places I’ve been. I’m always delighted when I add to these two lists. But thankfully, I’m not like the birder who passed me on a trail on Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake a couple of years ago. .
Maggie and I were dawdling along, she sniffing the flowers and everything else we passed as cocker spaniels do, and me watching red-winged blackbirds flash their scarlet marked wings while listening to a couple of breeding male meadowlarks trying to out sing each other.
Barely slowing his pace, the middle-aged hiker asked if I had seen a chukar. I replied that I often saw this partridge-like bird in the rocks near the bend up ahead. About 10 minutes later, the man ran past me going the other way.
Prong-horned antelope are also easy to find on Antelope Island if one takes the time to drive around and look. -- Photo by Pat Bean
“Got it … that’s 713 birds for me now.” His voice was like the rumble of a passing freight train.
How sad, I thought, that he didn’t take a minute to admire the flashy scarlet markings on the blackbirds or to enjoy the melodic voices of the two meadowlarks.
Numbers on a list are only that. It’s being present in the moment – seeing the golden hue on a meadowlark’s throat as it tilts its head toward the sky in song, or the magic of a sunrise slowly coloring the sides of a canyon – that makes my heart beat faster. I enjoy such wonders whether I’m seeing it for the first or the hundredth time.
But I’ll still keep my lists. I like making them. They’re also a great way to recall the wonders I’ve taken the time to enjoy.
Pat Bean's blog 
This story reminds me of all the times we hear of people being so busy watching something through their viewfinders that they never participate in what they’re watching. IOW, they watch Life, they don’t live it. Poor fella. Life is to be lived, not watched. Sam
I don’t keep lists like these, though I might begin if we start to RV. I agree with you that numbers lose thrie meaning if we don’t stop to appreciate what makes up each entry.
I like lists but, like you, I also like to take the time to appreciate the moment whether it adds to a list or not.
Chukar – game bird? How could anyone possibly want to shoot and eat such a beautiful bird? Same for the delightful Gambrel quail here in the Sonoran Desert? Same for ____________? (fill in the blank).