2013 Year of Birds

Happy New Year to all (buon anno a tutti)!

It was a nice year for us here at The Year of Birds, and though we are already in 2014 and looking forward to great things for this year, we are going to take some time to wrap up last year. Paul will be along soon enough with the data analysis (like he did at the quarter mark, and the halfway mark, and the three-quarters mark), but until then here is a short preliminary discussion of our year.

First: Paul won the little competition 262 to 217. Note the numbers folks, because these are very probably the lowest year numbers you will ever see from us! Paul's trips to the west coast, the gulf cost, and a couple other places made it impossible for me to catch him, but really there is no excuse for me not being able to easily get 300 birds in the Delaware Valley. My excuse is that I just moved here.

During the year we posted about trips, had some photoessays, reviewed some things, wrote some more serious and heartfelt pieces, waxed on other birders and birding culture, and had a love-hate relationship with eBird. So what was our most popular posts? Mostly the silly ones.

1: Immaturely Funny Bird Names was far and away the most popular post, read by more than the next 10 most popular posts combined.

2: Immaturely Funny Bird Names: European Edition was a distant second, but still should this be disheartening or a good thing (we know our audience!)?

3: Oregon Birding IV: Succor Creek State Park, finally an actual real post about birding. Good job Paul for having the most viewed serious and real post on the blog!

4: Schleich Theater: Recreating Paul's Snowy Owl, ok, back to the lighthearted posts, but this one I am actually most proud of. I thought of it in pique of silliness and I think it worked out great. I also like how seeing a Snowy Owl was considered a big deal even in southern Canada this time last year. How quaint!

5: Avian Style Baby Names, another silly and fun one. I felt like I was on my old blog writing this one.

6: Immaturely Funny Bird Names: Australian Edition, another one in the series, but Australian names made for an easy post like this.

7: Oregon Birding IV: The Coast, Paul's Oregon birding series was well liked, though I think one of us messed up the numbering.

8: Leaving Birds in the Field, yay for another real post making it into the top 10.

9: Damon's Birds for the Week of 24 - March 30, yeah I messed up the title, but this is odd to be in the top 10. This is the one that keeps getting hits from Russia for some reason. No, really, I am serious.

10: It was a Swan, one of our posts about finding rare birds (usually Paul) in which Paul sees both native swans in one place, in one picture.

Now all of those favored early year posts, of course, because it was a year total, but it does not surprise me that the top post is what it is (we at least a handful of people visiting that post via google every single day).

So what will 2014 bring? Stay tuned for a couple more 2013 wrap-ups, a more regular Bobo-links, a few more product reviews, and our stories of our first week of the year.

Happy year of birds (buon anno d'ucceli)!