Bird Photography Weekly #51
August 16, 2009
Article in: Bird Photography Weekly
Join in on the 51st edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!
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Phriday Photo – Great Horned Owl by Dakota
August 14, 2009
Article in: Photography
This Great Horned Owl was hanging out at Ha Ha Tonka State Park in Missouri.
Photo by Dakota
Birding Missouri – Arrow Rock State Historic Site
August 12, 2009
Article in: Birding
Veery has temporarily moved! The Birdfreak Team is partially split for the summer as Veery spends a few months working in Jefferson City, Missouri. Join in on her adventures through a new state and her quest to answer this question: How’s the birding in mid-Missouri?
My sister (Susie a.k.a. Snowy Owl) and her two daughters brought my son Dakota down to Missouri for a loaded weekend of birding fun. The weather was great much of the time and we learned a bit of Missouri history.
The Village of Arrow Rock, Missouri is a National Historical Landmark. It is an actual town that will take you back in time to the 19th Century. There are old shops, houses and even a restaurant “untouched by time”.
19th Century House – Photo by Dakota
Although we did not see a lot of birds on this trip, we discovered a common species of lizard called the Five-lined Skink (Eumeces fasciatus). All five of us Northern Illinois inhabitants couldn’t have been more excited to see a lizard!
Five-lined Skink – Photo by Dakota
Arrow Rock was a rich historic and natural experience.
Check out the Birdfreak Missouri State List
Birding Missouri – Boone’s Lick State Historic Site
August 11, 2009
Article in: Birding
Veery has temporarily moved! The Birdfreak Team is partially split for the summer as Veery spends a few months working in Jefferson City, Missouri. Join in on her adventures through a new state and her quest to answer this question: How’s the birding in mid-Missouri?
My sister (Susie a.k.a. Snowy Owl) and her two daughters brought my son Dakota down to Missouri for a loaded weekend of birding fun. The weather was great much of the time and we learned a bit of Missouri history.
One of the neat historical sites we visited was Boone’s Lick State Historic Site northwest of Booneville, Missouri. Two sons of Daniel Boone partnered up to produce salt from the saltwater springs found in the area. We hiked an interpretive trail which included some of the actual artifacts from the salt-making process.
Salt spring trail – Photo by Dakota
We had a nice picnic and watched an Eastern Phoebe catching insects. We also heard and then saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. There were many Dickcissels, Indigo Buntings and Eastern Bluebirds – a pleasant experience!
Photo by Dakota
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo was new on the Missouri State List!
Bird Photography Weekly #50
August 9, 2009
Article in: Bird Photography Weekly
Join in on the 50th edition of Bird Photography Weekly!! Hard to believe it’s already the fiftieth edition of BPW. Thanks to everyone for their submissions.
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Phriday Photo – House Wren Fluff
August 7, 2009
Article in: Photography
Common, yes. But House Wrens are always a blast to photograph!!
Bird Cliches – What the Heck is the Catbird Seat?
August 5, 2009
Article in: Birding
The Catbird Seat is used to describe an upper-handed position. Someone in the catbird seat is often “sitting pretty”. But is this really the position of one of our favorite birds, the Gray Catbird?
This term is credited with coming from the southern U.S. and in the 1940s sportscaster Red Barber used it for “a pitcher who was almost certain to strike out all the batters.” Catbirds do sit up high but are often found in low tangles. Their incessant chatter mixed with “mewing” is counterproductive to their secretive nature. Plus, their high energy often leads to long periods of non-sitting.
Regardless of the validity of “the catbird seat”, it’s a cool cliche of one cool gray bird.
37 Reasons You Need the Thesis WordPress Theme
August 3, 2009
Article in: Bird Conservation
WordPress is the number one blogging platform that runs a wide range of world class blogs. But it is also the perfect choice for anyone wanting to get their new idea or product, or to just share to the world what you think. Thesis is a premium (paid for) theme that fully enhances your blogging experience. Here are just some of the reasons you should be running Thesis.
- custom.css file – place all your style changes in this file – organization is nice!
- custom-functions.php file – create functions to do all sorts of neat tricks; only requires some basic PHP knowledge
- Hooks – Thesis has a slew of hooks that let you add or remove actions (hook them)
- Filters – like hooks, filters manage content areas; the main difference is that it works on content that already exists (hence why it is a “filter”
- Quick layout changes – within the Admin controls of Thesis (aka, no coding whatsoever) you can pick between 1, 2, or 3 column designs and the widths and positions of these
- Sidebar manipulation – create functions to display your sidebar the way you want; better control!
- Conditional styling made easy – by using Custom Functions, you can call up different
.cssfiles depending on what post/page a user is viewing more on how to do this - Navigation Menu Control – choose which pages show up in your navigation; reorder them; even rename them without altering their URL/linking structure
- Image rotator – add images to the “rotator” folder and they will randomly show up when the image rotator is enabled in the multimedia box
- Post image control – add/remove borders, change default positioning and more
- Change Title Tag – choose what shows at the top of the browser window
- Add No-Index to various archive pages – SEO-friendly
- Add Canonical URLS
- Add syndication feed – just cut and paste
- Add Header Scripts – to run various javascript functions on your site
- Add Footer Scripts – good for analytics tracking code like Google Analytics
- Home Page META – the description of your site
- Number of featured posts to show on homepage – from 0 to 6; the rest are “teasers”
- Font and Font Size changes throughout – easily switch fonts and sizes to your liking
- Teasers Setup – change what shows for the smaller (1/2 width) “teaser” posts
- Feature Box – show off a specific call to action above your content (or even above your header)
- Image Rotator – display randomized photos
- Video Embed – instead of photos, embed a video
- Custom Multimedia box – add your own code to display what you want (or turn it off completely)
- Framework Options – Thesis is default as “page” but you can switch to “full-width” if desired
- Header – site name/tagline
- Bylines – date, author, etc.
- Posts – show full posts or excerpts
- Archives – titles, excerpts, etc.
- Tagging – allows you to specify where/when to show tags
- Comments – show comment numbers, change avatar size, disable comments on pages
- Sidebars – disable the default widgets (in case you are only using custom sidebar functions
- Administration – housekeeping on where “edit” links show up when admin is signed in
- No need for SEO plugins – straight from Thesis creator, Chris Pearson, there is no need for SEO plugins while running Thesis
- Lifetime upgrades – Chris is fully behind his product; his passion for improvement is amazing and in around a year’s time the platform has improved immensely from an already great product.
- Support Forum – this may be the overall best feature of Thesis. The users are amazing and willing to share their advice when you inadvertently bung up your blog. (I’ve done it numerous times). No matter what your issue, you’ll find a solution here.
- Customization tips – while these are also found in the forums they are worthy of their own acknowledgement. The users of the forum are not just correcting coding mishaps but are always spreading ideas about ways to style and enhance the already amazing Thesis.
Customization
In the realm of blogging, customization means standing out. Thesis looks great immediately after install. But for those with just a tiny bit of CSS knowledge, you’re in for a treat with all the ways of customization.
Thesis Admin Option Controls Including Design Options
All of these are found in the Thesis Admin and require no coding knowledge; you can play around with the settings to get what you want. The Admin is part of your WordPress interface.
Display Options found in Thesis Options Control
Other Great Features
Full disclosure: we are affiliates for Thesis. We purchased the developers license for $164.00 (personal license is $87) on the belief that this would be our theme of choice for years to come. It’s been about a year and we know we made the right choice. From Birdfreak.com’s creation to the switch to Thesis we had gone through many design changes trying to find one we were happy with. Each time was a headache of trying to figure out what colors to use, which files to edit, etc. Thesis removes the headaches and lets you focus on your content.
Get Thesis Now and we guarantee you’ll be happy with it. Feel free to contact us if you want more details.
