Photography

While I may not be as good at it as my former roomate, I love photography.

I love taking the photo. I love having a relationship with my shot. Just like getting an autograph from a baseball player, it means more when you are the one who meets the player and gets it yourself (over buying it on ebay).

Mike Lowell and Gabe Kapler's Autograph

Photography is the same way - when you hike 5 miles and then see a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak drop down, or travel to Florida and see a Limpking 5 feet away, or are ambling around a garden and spot an Oriole and manage to grab your camera, focus it, play with the settings, and get a shot... it means more.

Limpkin

Recently I've been getting better, if I may say so myself - I even know how to use the manual settings! And now I almost always do!

This morning and afternoon I devoted most of my time to uploading more photos onto the internet so I can share them. Facebook friends don't seem to enjoy thumbing through hundreds of bird photos in search of a photo of themselves hanging around. Besides... I have a few too many albums there! Hopefully in time I can replace the travel ones permanently to picasa and eliminate their existance on facebook. We'll see though!

My photo albums can be found here. If you're interested! Most of them are in slideshow format on the right hand bar anyway.

Bird"ing"

"Birding" as compared to "Birdwatching" is a more active and extreme version of "Birdwatching" states my Kauffman field guide.

Somewhere in the midst of the sudden desire to drive an hour and a half to see Hudsonian Godwits I realized I must be in the "Birding" category.

Or maybe I realized it when I pulled my car over in a McDonald's parking lot to see Chipping Sparrows just to push my "Birding from the car on the trip to Michigan list" one higher.

White Throated Sparrow: much cooler than a Chipping Sparrow

Or perhaps it was when I was eaten alive for a Blackburnian Warbler by mesquitos, or chased down by a pissed off Female Ruffed Grouse.

While I still maintain birding should be about more than just a number - it's hard not to get excited about a number when I'm just 3 away from achieving the 300 life birds in North America that I never thought I'd get. Last summer I was thrilled to get 200 ABA birds. This year I feel like I could "easily" get to 400 at the rate I'm going.

I should sit down and add in my Trinidad Birds - I can't imagine my number once I throw those in too.

While I know that the word "easy" is a streatch, I can't help but see how much my birding skills have improved. I can spot birds, hear the call, sometimes even recognize what it is by call when I've never seen or heard it on anything but the Thayer Birding Software and my ipod.

Either way - it's something I'm loving more and more... and I just can't seem to get away from it. I still love slowing down and watching one bird for a while ("birdwatching"). I love "getting to know" a particular bird. Simultaneously though, I am getting thrills out of seeing new things and lots of things like i never thought possible.

The Purpose

Why should you bother to read this blog?

I don't know about you but I think that there should be a reason for everything I do. Why waste our time on something without reason to do so?

So here in my sales-pitchy best is why you should bother to read my blog.

1. You love me. Maybe you just like me, I don't know. But this one always works on parents.
2. You'll learn something. I clearly know a lot. OK - that's arrogant - but you laughed didn't you? If you didn't I'll try harder next time. Maybe I'll tell a lame joke or use a really poor pun. Laugh hard the first time that way you don't have to force me to keep trying.
3. You'll laugh. Admit it, I can be pretty ridiculous sometimes.
4. You'll get to keep up with my travels and experiences. You probably won't be able to keep up with my thoughts - not sure anyone can do that! But being an active part in the blogging experience would allow you to try more successfully than someone who is not part of the experience.
5. You miss it. You miss my antics, my crazy thoughts, my outlooks, philosophies, ideas, and photos.
6. It gives you something to read other than the New York Times. Enough Said.
7. You need a better homepage than http://www.google.com/.
8. It saves you space in your inbox as you can just leave me messages in the comments section.
9. You will know if I say anything about you behind your back?
10. You'll be able to see when I'm running out of ideas (NEVER! - ok maybe on certian topics like reasons why you should read a blog.... but... never ideas overall!)

So really what I'm saying is go for it - you'll probably enjoy some of it... try to keep up or just pop in every once in a while and catch up. You can subscribe for email updates or whatever you want. No matter what - Its for me, its for you, its for anyone who wants something to do or is interested in a multitude of things.

Its not the best blog on the internet, but I promise it won't be the worst.

Graduation

The time has come. After 4 years of work I'm done. Or at least until Grad School in the Fall.

More than anything I'll miss the classes with Dave and my N2 Friends who were there all along. I love those girls. I'll miss the randomness of life and the ridiculous things people said. I'll miss lottie and the breeches. I'll miss the garden, the birding, the botanizing, the trips to Baltimore to see Boston play. I'll miss life there. I'll miss ranting to everyone about whatever I can get my brain on - but then again - that's the beauty of blogging - I can sort of keep up with that aspect of it all!

Did anyone notice there seemed to be a lot of words with "B" in the end of that paragraph?