Archive for the 'Blogs' Category

Birding in Western Australia

It has been far too many years since my last visit to Western Australia. In fact, I’m probably some 30 years overdue for a return visit. This is a serious oversight on my part. The country there is beautiful, the people great, he flowers amazing and the birding first class.

Sadly I don’t have nay photos of Western Australian birds to share with you today. (Note to self: scan onto my computer all those slides taken so many years ago.) What I do have to share is a new blog based on WA birds; it’s only a few weeks old and has already set a high standard for sites about our birds.

The site is called Leeuwin Current Birding: a Western Australian Birding Blog.

100,000 visitors – well, almost

Male Flame Robin, Mt. Macedon, Victoria

This blog about my sighting of Australian birds has been going for just over five years now. During that time I have published nearly 1200 articles about our beautiful birds. Many of these articles have one and often several photos of birds I have been blessed to get focussed in my camera lens.

Over the years a community of people who appreciate birds has grown on this site, and we are approaching 4000 comments and questions, a significant milestone which will happen any day now. (I’ll keep an eye on the statistics and let everyone know. Sorry – no prize for making the 4000th comment.) I’d like to thank all of you who come here regularly, and especially those of you who leave comments. You are appreciated.

You may have noticed a logo on the sidebar from the Fat Birder “Birding Top 1000″ ranking. This site ranks the top birding sites from around the world. Over the last year my site has consistently been in the top 50 sites, sometimes as high as about #24. This amazes me. The ranking is based on traffic to my site, so plenty of people must be visiting on a regular basis.

I use two other programmes which analyse the traffic coming to my site. On one of these I had just over 250,000 visitors last year, but this site can be rather misleading. Google Analytics is a far more reliable indicator I believe, and last year Trevor’s Birding had almost 100,000 visitors – actually, it was just 600 short of that figure.

Darn.

Never mind, figures so far in 2011 indicate that visitor numbers continue to grow. I am planning to continue posting new articles here at least every two or three days – more if I have the time – for the foreseeable future, so stay tuned.

And don’t forget to leave a comment or two. I appreciate your efforts.

Good birding.

Worldwide Waders web site

I find identifying waders and shorebirds can be a very confusing pursuit. So many of our Australian wading birds look very similar in the field. I try to take note of the major characteristics of the plumage, consider carefully the size and shape, watch the habits of the bird in question and think I know what it is. Going to the field guides just confuses the issue all over again. [sigh]

If you see plenty of this kind of bird, or you want to learn more about waders and shorebirds, go to WorldWaders Posterous. This blog features wading birds from all over the world. Plenty of good photos are posted there too.

Red-kneed Dotterel

Happy Fifth Birthday to Trevor’s Birding site

Crested Pigeon

Trevor’s Birding is five years old today.

It has been an interesting journey. This site now boasts over 1100 articles about Australian birds with nearly 4000 comments from readers. It is read in over 100 countries by about 1000 readers every day.

This site ranks regularly in the top 50 birding websites in the world and continues to grow in popularity.

Thanks to all of my regular and loyal readers. Thanks also to those who bother to leave comments and questions; you are very much appreciated.

Now for the next 5 years!

Happy birding.

Male Flame Robin, Mt. Macedon, Victoria

A strange sort of birthday

Red Capped Robin

Red Capped Robin

Today is the fourth birthday of this blog about Australian birds.

Sort of…

Let me explain. The “real” birthday of this blog is on the 3rd September. That’s when I started blogging about birds. The trouble is, that was on a completely different platform. On 6th March 2006 we changed to the current WordPress platform where it has resided ever since. I say “we” because my son Sim’ does all the administrative background work which keeps this and my other blogs ticking along nicely. Thanks Sim’.

So – can a blog have two birthdays? I guess it can. Whatever you think I feel it is worth celebrating twice a year. Thank you to all of my regular, faithful readers. Thanks also to those who may only visit occasionally, or who discover my blog via a search engine. You are all appreciated. And a special thanks to the many thousands of people who take the trouble to leave comments, help other readers with their questions and converse with one another. It makes this all worthwhile.

Four years and counting. We have only just commenced on our wonderful journey together.

Blue-winged Parrot, Cleland Wildlife Park, Adelaide Hills

Blue-winged Parrot, Cleland Wildlife Park, Adelaide Hills