I and the Bird #52

Passion for anything, even an activity as innocuous as bird watching, has the tendency to inspire ugly feelings. Jealousy seems to be a hazard of this avocation, or perhaps that’s just me. Reading about birding excursions in Cameroon or Tasmania or Britain or even Wisconsin can turn my brown eyes green. Basically, any account of spotting a new bird or a bird I haven’t seen well or just a bird I haven’t seen often has the potential to arouse a mighty envy. Again, maybe that’s just me.

I bring up this rather sensitive issue because I always feel a twinge of envy when I consider the travels of our newest IATB host, Paul Ollig of The Wandering Tattler. Paul is currently a park ranger in Verde Valley, AZ enjoying encounters with western warblers, desert specialists, and, of course, condors. If that wasn’t enough to give a northeasterner pause, Paul’s last gig was in Alaska, home of arctic breeders and alcid wonderment. What birder wouldn’t be jealous? And now we all get to drool over another international aggregation of avian observations in Paul’s completely non-geeky presentation of I and the Bird #52.

Believe it or not, the next edition of I and the Bird is our second anniversary! Since the first I and the Bird back in July 2005, the nature blogosphere has burgeoned, blossomed, and bloomed. Today, hundreds of impassioned authors write about wild birds and birding, straining the capacity of even the fastest web surfer. Because there are just so many amazing nature blogs out there and just not enough time to frequent more than a fraction of them, I’m adding a twist to our anniversary edition of IATB. When you submit your contribution to me, our next host, I’d like you to also sell your blog to readers with a brief but pointed summary of what your blog is about. This tagline, slogan, or teaser should be 20 words or fewer, something like “The best darn birding blog on the planet Earth” or “Monitoring the avifauna of Oshkosh so you don’t have to” or even “Birding, blogging, bombast” though that last one clearly needs work!

Define your theme or scope in such a way that your ideal readers will recognize and prioritize your daily wisdom. Send your links and blog summaries to me by Tuesday, July 10 for the July 12 edition.