Featured Bird Blogger of the Week

Howdee all,

We finally made it to warm! We are in Titusville Florida, at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival as this post goes to press. Can’t wait to learn some more about Birds, goodness knows I need all the help I can get. I wish you all well and hope that you can all find some Warm this winter. So…here we go again….this is week 12 of

~Featured Bird Blogger of the Week~

This week….I am pleased to take you, via cyberspace, to a very cold wintry Vermont where our featured Bird blogger, Chris Petrak, resides.  Chris’s academic back ground is in History and Theology. In his blog, Tails of Birding. Chris weaves history and lore into many of his posts about birds.  Chris also writes a birding column for a local Vermont newspaper. A keen birder and traveler~Chris has traveled extensively throughout the United States. Internationally in Europe, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, India. Most recent travels: Texas, Trinidad, Quebec, Alberta. Coming up this year: Belize and Wyoming. I am sure you will enjoy Chris’s blog as much as I do. So……….Without further ado………I bring you a wonderful writer, birder and blogger.

~Chris Petrak~

Read more about Chris in his own words……

I began birding about thirty years ago, but until I moved to Vermont fourteen years ago, I did not have the time or flexibility to become involved in the birding community or to go birding with experienced and skilled birders. I was completely self-taught.
In addition to pursuing my birding hobby with much more purpose after my move to Vermont, I was also

Chris Petrak~VT

invited to contribute to “Tailfeathers” in our local paper, the Brattleboro Reformer. I am now in my eleventh year of writing the weekly column. The column is a continual incentive to learn more about the life histories of the birds, the science, the folklore, their interaction with human observers, and their conservation.

As digital photography emerged with improved equipment and slowly falling costs, I began photographing the birds I was seeing, primarily for documentation purposes. The limitations of point-and-shoot cameras finally brought me to quality digital SLR equipment. This opened a whole new dimension to birding, photography, and nature observation.
I began blogging about five years, primarily posting my weekly column for local readers and friends. The scope of blogging has increased tremendously, especially in the last two years as photography has become a key part of my birding. I try to write and blog for the non-specialist, hoping to be informative and interesting, sometimes entertaining or provocative. Photography has also expanded my blog, providing a thousand words with each image.
A researcher at heart, I dig through musty old books and troll the internet, doing the best I can to get the science, history, facts, and IDs about the birds all correct, but if I mess up, as I sometimes do, I sure hope readers will let me know. Most of all, I hope readers of “Tails of Birding” find enjoyment for the mind or spirit.
Please enjoy these featured posts…click on the links to go to the original post.

Saturday, June 05, 2010
Monogamy Among the Birds
Dawn says….Say it isn’t so…Cheating Birds?
Sunday, January 16, 2011
LBJs – Who Am I? – Exercise #11
Dawn says….Go ahead….Test your birding ID skills
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Tough and No-Nonsense
Dawn says…Excellent post …here are a few excerpts..
“That is the way nature is: tough and no nonsense. Often brutal and violent.”
“But that is not the way it is. The world outside of our climate controlled cocoons, outside of our frantic and over busy lives, outside of our technological insulation and electronic amusements, does not exist for our escapism. That world is an complex laboratory for life, a continuous experimentation in what works, what works best, what will best survive.”
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Whiskey Jack and the Real Thief
Dawn says….A fun post about the Gray Jay…Read why the Gray Jay is called Whiskey Jack
Monday, August 30, 2010
Shorebirds
Dawn says….A great day of Shorebirding…lots more photos in this post..and Chris would love someone to make his
male Semipalmated Plover into a Ringed Plover..Any takers for this ID? Go to this post to see the photo.
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Common Loon – Up Close
Dawn says….Wowee…A Kayaking adverture brings close up views of Common Loon and young. Such sweet photos of the babes..
Monday, September 20, 2010
A Few Fall Warblers
Dawn says….Who doesn’t love them some warblers…check out the birds in this post!
Monday, November 08, 2010
Hermit Thrush
Dawn says….Beautiful Hermit Thrush images..Check out the in motion photo!
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Not Cute
Dawn says….I love this post! You must read and then decide if it is right to call a bird CUTE!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Baffled for a Description
Dawn says….Is that snow, are they snowballs? No..62,000 breeding pair of Northern Gannet…read more of Chris’s observations of these birds on The Island of Bonaventure..the stink, the sounds and more…
Saturday, July 17, 2010
My Favorite Birding Destination
Dawn says….Where is Chris’s favorite Birding destination?

I hope you enjoyed Chris’s blog and visit often…

Please keep those emails coming with suggestions of Birding Blogs you would like to see featured here. Nobbiecat(@)gmail(.)Com

Don’t forget to leave a comment. Bloggers love feedback.

Happy Birding!

All permissions for this post and photos were given by Chris Petrak

Sunday, January 16, 2011

LBJs – Who Am I? – Exercise #11

3 comments add yours

  1. Hearty congrats to Chris on this. He deserves it. I’ve been following his work for some time now and have found him most informative and entertaining. And, great pics, too!

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