A Blogging Year in Review

Today marks the one-year anniversary of when I started writing this blog.... How quickly time passes! To celebrate the occasion, I've decided to try something new: Around New Years, I noticed a bunch of other nature blogs publishing a year-end summary of their sightings and adventures, which I thought was a very cool idea. I missed the boat there, but an anniversary seems like as good a time as any to do my own "year in review"!

And so, for your condensed enjoyment (and mine), here are some of my favorite highlights from the past year:

• Last February (2011), soon after I started the blog, I posted about the acrobatic Gray Squirrels that regularly fling themselves through the air outside my office window. They're still doing it! 
• In March, I saw my first owl in recent memory, peeked into a chickadee/titmouse/nuthatch bedroom outside my window, and discovered courting Wood Frogs for the first time. (The frogs showed up in what would be less than a month from now! I'm so excited to see frogs again!)
• In April, I got to watch a baby Great Horned Owl grow up and leave its nest. (I don't know how I'm ever going to top that.)

• In May, I saw a strange mammal (a mink, I think) in the woods.
• In June, armed with a new camera, I posted about our fantastic trip to Copenhagen and Norway, watched a family of baby Woodchucks in our neighbor's yard, and learned to bring my camera into the garden to find cool bugs.
• In July, I saw American Woodcocks and tons of other things in the meadows of Naugatuck State Forest, and got up close with a cicada in my garden.
• In August, I discovered an amazing night-time world under my porch light (a discovery I plan to put to great advantage this year!), watched a moth laying eggs on our kitchen window and the baby caterpillars hatch a few days later. I also saw a Cedar Waxwing eat a gigantic Orb Spider, and went on a post-Hurricane-Irene adventure at the seashore. (August was a big month!)

• In September, I listened to a Great Horned Owl screeching in the woods, made friends with a huge spider on our front porch, and explored the mysterious (cursed?) Charles Island.
• In October, Paul and I rescued an injured Rock Pigeon, and I marveled at my amazing Birthday Snow (which knocked out the power in our apartment and the rest of Connecticut for several days, but it was awesome that first day at least!).
• In November, we relocated an adorable White-footed Mouse from our apartment to the woods.
• In December, I saw some fantastic sights at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge on the Jersey shore -- this is a two-year-running Christmas tradition for Paul's Dad and I! (Can it be a tradition if it's only been happening for two years?)
• In January, I went on a traveling spree, first to the cypress swamps of Louisiana, then to the San Diego shoreline, where I hung out with a stunning Anna's Hummingbird.

 

• And now it's February again, and so far this month I've seen paddling gulls, a big "gang" of turkeys, and the first flowers of the year.

Wow.... It's been quite a year! I've had so much fun recording my adventures and sharing them with everyone on this blog -- it's been a great outlet, and I think it's successfully served its original purpose (to keep me from emailing pictures to my family and friends all the time). :P Thank you to everyone who's visited this space, and read my ramblings, and commented in the past year! I'm perfectly happy talking to myself, but it's always nice when someone else listens, too. :)

I'm very excited to see what the next year brings!