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Health & Fitness

Mike King

The blog process. How birds fit in. And a question for our readers.

Blogging and Birding

The thing about blogs, at least for rank amateurs like yours truly, is that there is no pay involved. The Patch overlords (not you of course, Dear Editor, but those inhabiting the mother ship U.S.S. Arianna), squinting at the bottom line, happily realized that there is no need to pay columnists and freelancers when a cadre of citizens could be persuaded to post material for free. “You get what you pay for” jokes notwithstanding (I'm speaking strictly of my own feeble efforts; I notice our other Patch bloggers have some content that’s actually worthwhile), it’s a savvy business model.

What this means is, where once I would have written a series of articles about birding in the Shore-Naples area, and maybe even have gotten paid a couple of bucks, I now have the “opportunity” to instead “post” snippets of birding “observations” in a “blog” format. But look at the benefits! I can throw quotation marks around words with reckless abandon (witness the ridiculous sentence with all the quotes just previous). I don’t have a set deadline (but you better get out at least two or three a week, King!) I can pick just about any topic (as long as there is a Belmont Shore or Naples connection of course). And I suppose I can even make it seem like I actually have a life (good luck there!)

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What I’ll do now is give you the opening paragraph of what was to be my second birding article for Patch (the first was published months ago at  ), and then ask you, the astute Patch reader, a question. 

“Along our little stretch of the California coast, the creatures of the air and the sea thrive: the gulls, the pelicans, the sandpipers. Near the Belmont Shore bike path, these beautiful birds flock with abandon, presenting to both the casual and most discerning onlooker an opportunity to gaze at, study intently, or even disregard, depending on one’s inclination. With these articles we’ll take a middle road, somewhere between the scholarly and the vaguely interested, and simply look at, identify, and ultimately take joy in some of the birds that frequent this rather spectacular parcel of beach area (or so we tell our friends from Idaho) we call the Shore.” 

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OK, so here’s the question: Is there a particular type of bird that you’d like to know more about? Egrets, Gulls, Terns, Herons? Pelicans, Black Skimmers, Surf Scoters? Others? 

Think about it. Maybe ask your kids. Let me know and I’ll try to come up with something fun and interesting. 

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