Featured Bird Blogger of the Week

Howdee all,

We left the Space Coast of Florida behind and are now headed toward West Palm Beach to visit friends and family. The Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival was allot of fun and it was great to meet up with Twitter and Facebook friends! If you haven’t been to this festival put it on your list of birding festivals to attend.

I hope you are staying warm and dry wherever you are…Seems like there are storms all over the world this week. If you need some warm and some sun..come on down to Florida..It will reach 80 degrees today.:)…..OK…here we go… Are you ready for Week 13 of

~Featured Bird Blogger of the Week~

This week we go to freezing cold and snowy western New York State to meet Laura Kammermeier. Laura’s blog is Birds, Words, & Websites.  Laura is a wonderful writer, I am sure you will agree after reading her blog. Laura not only writes her own blog, she is a contributor for the ABA blog and many birding magazines.  Being an Iphone user I have enjoyed Laura’s reviews of  Iphone apps for birding.  Laura also has a great Birding Guide: Eastern Shore of Virginia ~  Part I, Intro | Part II, Birding Sites | Part III, Links if you plan on birding the area check out her guide.

Laura was interviewed recently by Robert Mortensen of Birding is Fun.  Read more of Roberts other Birder profiles here. This is a fun interview… read the interview in it entirety here. Below is an excerpt.

How did you get into birding? Did you or do you have a birding mentor and can you tell us about that person? Did you have a “spark bird”?

My interest in nature was innate but primarily fueled by TV with shows like Wild Kingdom and even that dang 1970s commercial where the Indian cried over strewn garbage—you know the one. I had no single birding mentor, but have learned so much from friends and colleagues and my own study over the years. I also don’t have a spark bird in the usual sense, but I sometimes wonder if this career is karmic payback for running over a baby robin when I was a teen (story here).

The ultimate spark for birds/birding happened after I set foot into the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and started working for Project FeederWatch. At that point, there was no going back! I guess you could say half the employees at Cornell were my mentors…but so were the data sheets and educational materials I prepared, and the participants who wrote in asking questions…

More about Laura……

Laura Kammermeier

Laura Kammermeier has chosen to blur the line between life and work by bringing her favorite things–birds, nature, and travel–into focus as a freelance writer and web consultant. As well as publishing her own birding and travel blog and in magazines (iPhone Life, Birding, Birder’s World, Bird Watcher’s Digest), she is a contributing author to the American Birding Association blog and the Audubon Guides blog.  As a ‘tech-head’ and new media consultant, Laura also keeps busy with online content strategy and web production, with marketing and destination sales for Birding Adventures TV, and frequently writes reviews on mobile nature apps.  Laura served as an official blogger to the Rio Grande Valley Birding & Nature festival the last two years.

Finally, Laura is a Leica prostaffer, and carries two amazing pieces of glass: Leica Ultravid HD 8x42s and the Leica APO-Televid 82 MM Spotting Scope (25-50x WW).

Laura lives and birds in western NY with her husband and two boys. Find her on the web at laurakammermeier.com/blog.

Please enjoy these featured posts…click on the links to go to the original post.

Wind Farms & Birds: Interview with Bill Evans, Avian Tower Kill Authority
November 11, 2009
Dawn says…..Read this very important post “We are headed toward a huge buildout of wind energy facilities – it would be a great asset to future generations for us to make the effort now to fully understand and minimize wind energy’s impact to migrant birds and other creatures.”

A Birder’s Tale: Spotting A Tricky Rare Hybrid, The “Lawrence’s” Warbler
May 5, 2009
Dawn says….Read this fun, informative post and find out if Laura found the tricky little warbler.

Approaches to Bird Identification & A Kirtland’s Warbler
September 27, 2009
Dawn says….Do you look “at the “whole bird” and letting its Gestalt register your brain, just like the image of your mother, sisters, and brothers are embedded in your memory, letting you instantly recognize them” Or do you use another approach for bird ID? Read this post for more thoughts on bird ID.

Bird-Friendly Coffee: Why are YOU waiting?
January 26, 2011
“This was one of the best birding moments of my life, the kind that grabs you by the soul and shakes you and makes you thank God you’re alive–but it was also one of the most instructional.
This was a moment where I saw first-hand the benefits of leaving trees and other precious habitat in and around coffee plantations.” Dawn says…..Read more about why you should be drinking Bird-friendly Coffee! What are you waiting for?

RGV: Birding Estero Llano Grande
December 2, 2010
Dawn says…..Laura tells us about a great birding destination in Texas…a must see…

Rio Grande Valley Festival Time!
November 8, 2010
Dawn says…..In this post Laura tells us about the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival and what birds you might expect to see if you attend.

Chasing A Black-headed Needle In A Haystack (part 1)

April 16, 2009

“Scores of birders amass on the bird’s location. When they know a rare bird “should be out there,” a crazed turgor sets in, arms raised, bins glued to hopeful eyes.

A birder can stay in that locked, pitiful position for hours, even days. They become super human, able to endure arm cramps, eye strain, warbler neck, grumbling stomachs, full bladders or worse, because, they will tell you, the agony of missing a rarity outweighs all other forms of pain and discomfort.”

Dawn says…..See if Laura succumbs and becomes a rare bird chaser.

Black-headed Gull photo Courtesy of Dale Forbes

Confessions of a Reluctant Gull Chaser
December 6, 2010
“A life bird and rare European gull lay only 40 minutes away and I didn’t want to chase it. This was a problem on so many levels…But the Arctic blast whipping through western NY made the gull possible to resist.”

Dawn says….Read how the social networking platform Facebook leads to Laura braving the cold!

Animated Short: I Saw A Rare Bird
January 5, 2011

“What happens when the tragically uninformed meet the regrettably uptight (2:52). Please be patient as it loads (several seconds).“

Dawn says…..An animated short by Laura…This is Brilliant and hysterical!

Bluebirds: Thirty Days of Backyard Bliss
August 13, 2009
“In the mornings I’d grab my camera, coffee, and bins and pad across the dewy lawn to a plastic Adirondack chair.  I reckon it looked a bit odd, me sitting alone for hours in the middle of a grassy yard, big lens in hand, facing nothing more than a PVC pole as if waiting for it to jump!”
Dawn says…. I love this post and photos ..see the fecal sac in the photo below..isn’t that cool? now go see the adorable babies..

I hope you enjoyed Lauras 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 Laura Kammermeier