Greg Laden joins Birdingblogs

Number 1 nature blogger joins our ranks.

If you have you checked out NatureBlogNetwork lately (that is within the last 3-4 years), you may have noticed the name in the title. Greg Laden is number 1. His blog on ScienceBlogs.com gets around 4000 unique visits per day. That’s right! 4000 people visit his blog every day! Now Greg is blogging for Birdingblogs on Fridays. Maybe not every Friday, but he has quite a few posts in the bag scheduled. Greg shall be blogging here about Darwin’s lesser known birds.

Greg Laden’s blog

Two things characterize Greg’s blog which may well be the secret to all that traffic, apart from the fact that he is posting very frequently.  He is extremely broad, covering, apart from birds,  a wide range of topics  such as  anthropology, human evolution, atheism,  evolution, nature, Linux and his adventures in Congo.  But most importantly, he always has a strong  opinion. When I started blogging more seriously a couple a years ago, I often checked Greg’s blog because it struck me as being very different from all the other blogs I came across. He would often lesson creationists and  political figures (Republicans)  to a point that I wondered if it would not detract people from reading him.  But instead he seems to have a very solid readership.  Maybe that is a lesson to bloggers? Is it good to be opinionated on your own blog?  While he may come across as a bit arrogant to readers that don’t agree with his ideas, I find a twinkle in his eye, that at least in my opinion makes his posts very entertaining.  Just check this excerpt from his own About page:

I am astonished at how many “about” pages fail to mention the name of the blogger! So I’ll start by mentioning that my name is Greg Laden. I am a blogger and writer and independent scholar who occasionally teaches. I have a very fancy PhD from Harvard (written in Latin and everything) in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology, as well as a Masters Degree in the same subjects (also from Harvard). I was awarded a Medical Doctorate from Harvard as well, but that was a clerical error and it was quickly revoked, much to the annoyance of my patients …

My undergraduate degree in Anthropology is from the Regents College of the University of the State of New York, which is an individualized degree program. My academic advisors were Dean Snow and Bob Paynter, which probably gives you a good idea of what I was into at the time.

For some reason the previous paragraphs have enraged a number of readers. Harvard this, Harvard that. Why is the guy telling us he went to Harvard? If you are such a reader, let me speak to you for a moment. Well, the reason I’m telling you this and other things is because YOU clicked on “About” on MY blog. So you get a wordy version of my c.v., and I’m not going to lie on my c.v. just to make you feel better. I assure you that had I known you would be so offended I would have gone to what you might consider to be a lesser school, such as the one you went to. There, do you feel better now? Good. On with the show.

Greg also blogs at 10000birds once a month. Here is his latest post Are birds really dinosaurs.  Give Greg a big welcome by checking out his blogpost here on birding blogs tomorrow. It’s going to be very good.