As a fairly avid birder, I've kept desultory notes on sightings, both in my backyard and on various outings, for several years. I've logged these notes in a series of small notebooks that cover anywhere from a few months to a couple of years. These notebooks sit on a shelf and are unlikely ever to be read by anyone, even me. When I moved from Tennessee to Maine in April of this year, I set aside a new, blank notebook with the intention of starting fresh with a new chapter in birding notes to go along with the new chapter of my life. However, never let it be said that I don't do my part to keep the road to Hell nice and smooth. The notebook still sits, with all pages empty, on my desk.
Nevertheless, I continued to make daily observations of avian visitors to our yard, and also to make frequent forays to the shore and elsewhere in the area in search of birds. I scribbled hasty notes about interesting sitings on random scraps of paper, still intending to, at some point, enter them in my new notebook in a more systematic way. I've finally decided that rather than sit down and enter a bunch of stuff in yet another notebook that will just sit on the shelf, I'll make a stab at maintaining a birding blog. I harbor no great fantasies that many, or even any, other people will ever read it, but if someone does, so much the better.
I don't necessarily have a clear vision of what I'll do with this space, and I'm sure the nature of the blog will evolve over time. One thing I am certain of is that it will not consist solely of dry lists of what I've seen. I do intend to log what I see each day, so as to have some sort of record of seasonal changes and whatnot, but I hope to make it something that is at least halfway interesting to read. I have much, much to learn about birds, and this blog will give me the chance to share what I learn, and perhaps also to engage in dialogue with others with similar interests who are at different points on their journeys than I am.
