About
On August 25th, 2010 we changed our slogan from Birdfreak.com: The Bird Conservation Blog to Birdfreak.com – Birds, Conservation & Everything Outdoors. Our goal is not to change our core mission: increase conservation for birds and inspire new ranks of birders. Instead, we hope to expand on the countless fun outdoor activities available for anyone willing to go out there and enjoy them. This opens up a lot of new topics for us to discuss and we hope our growing readership appreciates our efforts. – Eddie Callaway
Eddie Callaway [Birdfreak]
Birdfreak has lived all 28 years of his life in northern Illinois in the city of Rockford. While most people don’t plan a vacation to northern Illinois (unless they go to Chicago), birding is surprisingly excellent in this area. Springtime is the best when warbles of Warblers come through along with other cool birds like Cuckoos, Thrushes, shorebirds, and more. One of the local birders has tallied over 300 species in our county (Winnebago).
Birdfreak enjoys hunting, with a camera that is, but is still an amateur photographer. Nearly all the photos on this site are taken with a Canon Rebel XTi (or 400D) and now a Canon 50D. You can view all of The Birdfreak Team photos on their Flickr account.
Birdfreak loves dogs, hiking, writing and travel but his biggest desire is to promote birding and conservation. He graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in Marketing. Currently, Birdfreak works professionally in the marketing department for a local company that manufactures machine safeguarding and safety shields.
Birdfreak’s dog, Dobella Nova Scotia [Bella]
Bella is the inspiration of the logo for our sister site, Callaway Dogs. It was created in 2010 and is still new in content, direction and purpose.
Stacia [The New Birder]
Eddie got engaged on December 31st, 2009 to the most wonderful woman in the world, Stacia. She is gradually being dragged into the birding world but is already an avid outdoor lover. She owns a horse, Teddy, a dog, Macey, and three indoor cats.
Read more about the birding adventures Stacia and Eddie have which we call “The New Birder Experience“. Stacia is a research librarian and provides a lot of wonderful ideas for this site.
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Jennifer Outcalt [Veery]
Veery – Jennifer Outcalt (Birdfreak’s sister), a 34-year old birder with a 12-yr old boy that is also into birding and quite excellent at spotting birds. Veery enjoys photgraphy too but claims to not be that good at it. However, she is super quick at spotting birds and is devoted to conservation.
Veery earned a degree in Geography with an emphasis on Natural Environmental Systems and a GIS Certificate at Northern Illinois University in De Kalb, Illinois. She helps Birdfreak write many of the posts and brainstorm for new ideas about conservation. She currently works as a Cartographer for the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) in Findlay, Ohio.
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Susan Callaway [Snowy Owl]
SnowyOwl – Susan Callaway (Birdfreak’s sister), a 32-year old birder with two nature-loving girls, BlueJay and Roseate Spoonbill. She is a superb writer with an English degree from Northern Illinois University and is currently working towards her masters. Snowy Owl also writes and/or edits many of the posts and other projects going on.
SnowyOwl is an excellent editor but alas, does not have the time to edit everything posted. If you find a grammatical error or typo, it can not be attributed to her.
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Dakota [Kingfisher]
Kingfisher – Dakota (Birdfreak’s nephew) is a bird and baseball nut. His birding skills are improving with amazing speed and he has tons of hiking energy. He was a great help when we posted about the Brood XIII Cicadas being chomped on by birds.
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Dad (Grandpa)
Here’s Dad to Birdfreak, Veery, and Snowy Owl; Grandpa to Kingfisher. He is currently hard at work training a very crazy doberman, Arizona, and birding in his first wonderful year of retirement. Birding can be difficult with a doberman at times, but all the more fun. Dad has been to all 48 contiguous state in the US as well as Germany, South Korea, and Japan. Lucky birder!
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Dogs
Dogs are a big part of the lives of the whole Birdfreak Team. As of April 2010, The Team has four wonderful dogs amongst them: Socks, a mix of German Shepherd, Blue Heeler, and who knows what; Arizona, a Doberman and Great Dane mix; Bella, a Chesepeake Bay Retriever, Black and Tan Coonhound and Doberman Mix; and Bandit, a Beagle/Basset Hound [Bagel].
In Remembrance . . .
Max, our awesome Golden Retriever
The Team’s beloved Doberman, Baby
The Team’s beloved Labrador, Spot
The Team’s beloved “mutt”, Joker.
The Team’s beloved Irish Setter, Shamrock
Last updated: August 25th, 2010
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
It sounds as if you have a fine group of Birdfreaks, Eddie. I reciprocated on the link you added to your Birdvine. Again, it is an excellent effort and should further the interests of all birders.
Love the bunch!!
I began my Birding along the shores of Lake Michagan, in the suburbs of
Chicago. I learned how to bird in the harsh winters of Illinois, the unpredictable springs, hawk counts in the fall. Now I live in Arkansas,
learning how to bird all over agian. Every moment I have birded I have enjoyed. I enjoy reading your blogs, because brings back fond memories.
Great job.
Bradley – Glad you enjoy this site! Birding really can be enjoyed everywhere at any time and it is always such a blast to learn or re-learn birds whether it be a new region or just the start of a new season.
Great site! Beaytiful pictures I particularly liked the Osprey!!
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