April might be the cruelest month but here at 10,000 Birds it has been nothing short of marvelous! The big news for the month here, in case you haven’t noticed, was our complete makeover with a new theme. Charlie gave a hint of what was to come with his well-thought out essay The future of bird blogs? and Mike laid out the new theme with 10,000 Birds Gone to the Dark Side? But a new theme isn’t the only new thing here at 10,000 Birds: Charlie has spearheaded the creation of the 10,000 Birds clinic and has already answered some pretty tricky questions. Not only that but we set new site records for visitors and page views for the second month in a row!

But birds is what people come here for, and birds people got. Whether it was a Purple Swamphen in Sydney, a Black Kite in Bangalore, or a Hermit Thrush, a Field Sparrow, a Fish Crow, Cedar Waxwings, or Palm Warblers in New York City 10,000 Birds was there, cameras in hand, to share these charismatic creatures with our readers. Not only did we bring birds direct to your computer monitor but we brought books directly to your door through The Life of the Skies giveaway.

And we went birding. Did we ever go birding! All three of us 10,000 Birds bloggers (and some friends) met up for only the second time to go birding together and then two of us at a time met up for some birding as well. Not only that but we birded Westchester County, the Sime Forest of Singapore, Staten Island, Hong Kong, Sydney’s Olympic Park, and, of course, Forest Park in Queens.

Our Welcome Wednesday feature continued strong with the tale of how the Scott’s Oriole that delighted New York City birders was found and identified, the story of an amazing trip to Costa Rica, and a how-to on finding a rare bird in Spain. Our other main community-building endeavor is participating in blog carnivals and we did. Let me not forget the two I and the Birds that came out this month and were, as always, ably introduced by Mike.

And all of that wasn’t even it! Mike celebrated Earth Day and panned Arbor Day, explained coots, asked what to do about a lost baby bird and shared his birthday present while Corey reviewed Kenn Kaufman’s latest book, discussed sparrows migrating and Charlie saw a cool bug, discussed a new listing website, schooled us on waterthrush identification, reviewed a young birder’s guide, tried to fool you and asked if he succeeded.

In our year-listing endeavors Charlie continued to see way too many really cool birds in his Old Friends, New Friends World Tour, Mike plugged steadily away on his normal old year list and Corey reached the halfway point to his goal in his Anti-Global Warming Big Year.

Now that you have read this post and clicked on every last link why not stick around awhile and explore the new digs? I can guarantee that you will not find content this good anywhere else on the world wide web!