As the children’s book says, everyone poops.  People poop.  Birds poop.  People who look at birds poop – sometimes from the excitement of looking at a bird, or so I have been told.  Pooping is a simple fact of life and we here at 10,000 Birds are not going to let any topic – no matter how smelly – that touches upon the world of birding go uncovered.  As such, this week, 19 June – 25 June, is hereby declared Poop Week on 10,000 Birds!  Hooray!?!?

Poop Week?  Really?  How low can a birding blog sink to get some attention?  Well, apparently, there is no limit.  But once we started to think about how many different ways that the world of poop and the world of birds intersect we couldn’t resist dedicating an entire week to the topic.  Also, we blame Clare because it was her idea.  If you are grossed out, appalled, or constipated by Poop Week, please drop her an email – she will be glad to hear what you have to say and will give you an appropriate response that may or may not include flushing.

But how can a birding blog fill Poop Week with content?  First of all, we have required all of the beat writers to take laxatives this…no, even I am not going to sink that low.  You will have to stick around to check out the plethora of pleasing posts about poop that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about birds, birders, and what comes out of their butts.  Topics will include birding at sewage lagoons, pooping in the woods, what bird poop is, and a host of other topics.

We hope you don’t think we are full of S#!+ when we say that we really hope you enjoy Poop Week and come back to read each and every post, from this initial turtle head of a post to Mike wrapping, er, wiping it up at the end of the week.  So fire your laptop up, take a seat (on your toilet?), and settle in for a week full of poop blogging!  Welcome to POOP WEEK!

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Poop Week is a week of themed posts on 10,000 Birds that cover the intersection of poop and birding, a fertile precinct if there ever was one.  Rather than just discuss the horror of a pigeon dropping droppings on someone’s head we decided to really get down the nitty-gritty details of poop, to the point where it is squishing up between our toes.  Not only is Poop Week a fascinating way to spend seven days in June it is also a serious attempt to elevate the level of discourse in the bird blogosphere, which, as we all have no choice but to admit, is far too low.  Enjoy, and make sure to wipe up afterwards, would you?

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Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.