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Top Ten

Three Jars of Currant Jelly on the Floor in the SunAfter reading Seabrooke’s post about her most popular posts for 2009, I decided to check my WordPress stats, just for the heck of it…

Here are the top ten searches that drove people to my blog over the 365 days ending today (January 16, 2010).  The number in parentheses is the number of searches.

  1. currant jelly (642)
  2. dragonfly eggs (523)
  3. dragonfly sex (206)
  4. poison sumac (181)
  5. edible wild berries (176)
  6. little snakes (160)
  7. wildflower identification (143)
  8. porcupine scat (122)
  9. what eats milkweed (115)
  10. musclewood (107)
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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hope you’ve had a love-filled day.

Well, as you are probably figuring out, I just can’t stop creating blogs.  As I learn more about the platform, and I explore what others are doing with it, I just keep getting more and more ideas.

Animals of Western New YorkMy latest one is geared at the folks who help us lead thousands of school children on field trips at the Center…  It’s called “Animals of Western New York”.  It might also be helpful to students and teachers in our region.

I plan to feature animals that our visitors are most likely to see when walking our trails in April-May-June – our heaviest fieldtrip season.  I will try to include a few relevant facts (the ones kids seem to ask the most about), as well as some tips for walk leaders on activities and lessons they can do related to each animal.

Give it a look, and let me know what you think:
http://wnyanimals.wordpress.com

Thanks!

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Finally…

I finally managed to get over to the Roger Tory Peterson Institute to see some of Julie Zickefoose’s paintings and sketches.  My daughter Emily and I went.  Emily is a big fan of Julie’s dog, Chet Baker.

One painting in particular was fun to see because of a series of 4 posts Julie had put up on her blog about the process of painting it.

Eastern Phoebe by Julie Zickefoose

I wanted to put links to each post here, but I found it hard to do…  This link will get you to the first three:

http://www.juliezickefoose.com/blog/labels/phoebes.html

And this is the final of the four posts:

http://www.juliezickefoose.com/blog/2007/04/painting-phoebe-finis.html

(I don’t want to say anything bad about other blogging platforms, but permit to say that I really like WordPress!)

It was also very fun to see Julie’s first watercolor made at age 12, and her first bird painting made for her grandma at age 16.

The exhibit is at RTPI through January 31, 2009.  Don’t miss it.  It’s called “Letters from Eden” – same as the title of her new book, which is also on sale at RTPI.

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Blogging for Bucks

Turtle Pond WestI’ve been approached to join a blogging network that facilitates the placement of ads on your blog.  So, I’m curious…

  1. Do you read any blogs that have ads on them?
  2. If yes, which ones?
  3. If not, why not?
  4. If my blog suddenly started showing up with ads, would you still read it?

I know there are a lot of readers out there that don’t comment, but I’d really love to have you comment on this one!  Thanks!

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Allegany Nature Pilgrimage – Bloggers’ Meet

Saturday, May 31, 2008 – Allegany Nature Pilgrimage – Bloggers’ Meet

A few days before the Pilgrimage, through emails and blog postings, we attempted to get folks who blog to agree to meet up at the Big Tent on Saturday at dinner for a Bloggers’ Meet.  Here is the group we managed to connect with:


Jeremy, me, Linda, Toni, and Tom

You can read their versions of the weekend by clicking below:

I’m sure there were other bloggers out there.  Maybe next year, we should offer a Bloggers’ Forum as one of the Pilgrimage programs? Bloggers could swap stories. Blogger-wanna-bees could pick our brains…

This concludes my series of posts about the Pilgrimage.  Hope to see you at Allegany next year!

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Allegany Bound

Canada MayflowerThe Allegany Nature Pilgrimage has been a springtime tradition in these parts for decades.  Sponsored and organized by members from three Audubon Societies (Jamestown, Buffalo, and Presque Isle) and a fourth nature organization with Audubon in the title (Burroughs Audubon Nature Club), this event is always held on the weekend that follows Memorial Day at Allegany State Park.

A few of us thought it would be fun to gather some of the nature Bloggers together for a face-to-face meeting…  So, if you are reading this and are planning to be at ANP, add this to your schedule:  5:00pm at the Big Tent (Chicken BBQ).  We’ll get as many bloggers together as we can for a group photo and dinner-time chat.

Check out the second link below, and you will see the names of some of your favorite nature bloggers.

Learn more: