June 2007 wasn’t the best of times, but it wasn’t the worst, either. The end was (finally!) in sight for W and his crew. Democrats had retaken the house and Nancy Pelosi got the gavel. The 2008 primaries were taking shape, though the first votes were more than six months away. Daily Kos, with its focus on Democratic politics, had a lot to talk about.
Which is why the time seemed ripe for a bird blog.
The series was inspired by Saturday Morning Garden Blogging (by Frankenoid), and the sense of community that I saw there. As I said in the very first Dawn Chorus:
Why birds? (Besides that fact that I like 'em, that is.) Well for one thing, they are quite entwined in two things that are important on DKos: politics and community. Warblers and politics? Climate change, land use policies, energy policy, agricultural policy, even health (pandemic flu, anyone?) - all of those directly affect birds, and are sometimes affected by birds. Community ties come with birding as a social pursuit, and as it relates to other interests like gardening, outdoor life, science, art/photography and travel.
(ah, those innocent days of worrying about bird flu becoming a pandemic. * sigh * )
But also important:
One other great thing about birds is that they seem to be one of the very few things that can get people to work together across social and political divides. An obvious example is wetlands preservation, which brings together the treehuggers and the duck hunters. (The parking lots at refuges have some real interesting assortments of bumper stickers.)
For the first five years, 2007-2012, I mostly wrote it myself, with occasional guest posts if I was traveling. Back then, there was no way to pre-publish so I had to make sure I was awake to hit publish at 6:00am — sometimes tricky on the dialup connection we had at our cabin.
Writing weekly was a major time commitment on top of working full time and a very active volunteer schedule and by 2012 I couldn’t keep up. At that point, it became something more like the present format, with a rotating cast of writers. Back then, kestrel and Matching Mole were the main hosts and I cut back to writing monthly. (In 2015, I had to step away from writing almost entirely for five years.) Many thanks to OceanDiver for keeping the schedule these days, and for writing some great diaries!
The community has continued to grow and thrive, with an ever-increasing number of writers… and photographers. My photos are generally adequate at best*, so I really appreciate seeing the amazing photos shared here week after week. I can’t wait to see this week’s crop!
* though someone did lift one of my photos from this series to create a popular Hawkward meme.
Dawn Chorus has presented a wonderful mix of the exotic and the everyday, of pure beauty and solid science, and sometimes just plain fun and silliness. You know, like birds do.
Another treat has been watching as interests and skills develop. New birders benefit from the experience and knowledge of others in the group, without getting the condescension that one sometimes encounters in the field. (We are blessedly free of birdsplainers here.) Even as a fairly experienced birder, I still learn new stuff here regularly.
We get to enjoy vicarious travel around the US and around the world. It’s been wonderful to learn about different locales in the US from the people who live there — northwest islands, urban refuges, wide open western landscapes, southeastern swamplands, Great Lakes hotspots, New England coasts, southwestern deserts… so many places and so many birds! And I’d love to go back and see how many different countries we’ve “visited” — including Cuba, just last week.
We’ve followed the stories of individual birds as people watch a local resident, or a species of interest perhaps. Some stories focus on a genus or family or other grouping — raptors, waterfowl, shorebirds, hummingbirds. And quite often it’s just the whole rich tapestry that makes up a special day of observation.
One of the most fun things over the years has been meeting up with other Kossacks. We had a few field trips for locals, plus a couple that were arranged when out-of-state folks visited the Bay Area. I had hoped to do something this spring but scheduling got complicated; perhaps a trip during the fall migration could work instead.
We’ve lost a few members of our community as well. Those of you choristers who’ve been around since the early days will remember Julie Wolf, a wonderful and creative photographer who helped set up the Birds and Birding group and often guest-hosted. Another tragic loss was Real Alaskan — lost in a mudslide while working in Sitka, Alaska. Several of us in the Bay Area had the pleasure of spending a day birding with him and his wife in Point Reyes and west Marin.
I’ll share a few of my favorites from my own diaries over the years. (Surprisingly, I’m not including any about Yosemite, which I’ve written about often, because it was just too hard to choose.) I hope you will share some of your favorites in the comments — diaries that you’ve written, or favorites among those that you’ve read. We have some great writers and photographers contributing here, and it should prove to be an embarrassment of riches!
Meet the Locals — a teaser of local birding for those attending the 2014 Netroots Nation in San Jose
Orange is the New Blackbird — I like to focus on species or families from time to time.
Back to the Farallones — I’ve been fortunate to land on the islands while helping hubby with work there.
Why is this not a Redtail? and Let's end this confusion — Two stories about raptor ID
Socialist Pecksticks — homage to The Gettysburg Address of hate mail
My Year of Birding (not so) Dangerously — Pandemic birding and discovering my backyard’s mysteries
I could easily add another dozen or more but I’d really much rather see your favorites!
Thanks to everyone who has added their voice to the Chorus!