Certain developments in this last month lead me to believe we may be entering a Golden Age of nature blog carnivals. Nature bloggers can boast a number of vital carnivals covering a variety of important topics but there have been, until recently, some glaring absences. But Santa came early this December, delivering news of an exciting new blog carnival devoted to reptiles and amphibians, House of Herps. He must have liked the organic hemp cookies and shade grown coffee we left out for him because the jolly old elf returned a week later with An Inordinate Fondness, a carnival celebrating the world’s bounty of beetles! Exciting, right?
One common thread in these two terrific developments is Jason Hogle of xenogere. Jason is, with our friend Amber Coakley of Birder’s Lounge, one of the landlords of the House of Herps. He also worked behind the scenes to help Ted C. MacRae of Beetles In The Bush bring his new carnival to market. This thread connects to some of our most active existing nature carnivals too: Jason is hosting Festival of the Trees #43 in the beginning of January and, more importantly, hosting I and the Bird today! Thank Jason for all he’s been doing to support the best nature writing in the blogosphere when you check out his Waldenesque edition of I and the Bird #115.
And with that edition, we close the books on 2009, at least as far as IATB is concerned. Please use the remainder of the calendar year to write an amazing post about birding or wild birds worthy of the first IATB of 2010, which will be hosted by Andrew Skeoch & Sarah Koschak at Listening Earth Blog. You should get your links and summaries to me or them (freedom AT netcon.net.au) by 1/5 for the January 7 edition.
Thank you, Mike, for letting me host and for having faith that I could pull it off without falling on my face. Honestly, I found it a delightful and rewarding experience, especially considering it was my first carnival and I was nervous as all heck!
We’ve been busy little bloggers, haven’t we? 🙂 Sure has been fun and rewarding.