Using Flickr to Manage Photos and Gain Traffic
July 13, 2009
Article in: Photography
We love Flickr for a lot of reasons but for now we will focus on two big ones: 1) photo management and 2) attracting qualified traffic to your site.
#1 – Photo Management: Flickr is best used with a pro account ($24.95) because it allows for unlimited photos and storage. Currently we have over 6,000 photos stored and somewhat organized. Flickr lets you create sets and collections to sort out your photos as well as title and tag them. As long as your camera allows for it (most do) you can also store all the specs of a photo [such as focal length, exposure, date, etc.] to improve your understanding of what made the photo work (or not work).
You can also find your photos based on date taken, date uploaded, tags, and more. This definitely improves finding a photo taken a few months (or years) ago, especially if you do a good job of tagging and organizing. Flickr also works for photographers not wanting to lose their copyright, or if you’re like us, you can make them part of the Creative Commons.
Golden-winged Warbler
Once your photos are on Flickr, putting them into your blog (or elsewhere) is fairly easy. Select the photo, click “all sizes”, and choose the size you want. We use medium as it usually has a width of 500 pixels (which fits perfectly on our site). However, you can do small and thumbnails as well. Just copy the code Flickr provides and paste it into your site. If you want to change the size to something in between, just remove either height=”x” or width=”y” and replace with your desired size (in pixels).
There is a potential risk with keeping your photos on a 3rd party site. If the site goes under or the server fails completely, you could lose your photos and break the links to them from your site. However, Flickr is massive in size and popularity and is extremely reliable. We have had zero problems in over 2 years.
#2 – Traffic Gains: One of the best things about Flickr is that it really is a social networking site. One of the main purposes is to view other people’s photos and comment/favorite stuff you like. Like other social sites, you create a profile and make contacts. Your contacts then can see your photostream and it opens up a communication channel. You can also search for phrases, tags, groups, etc. to find specific photos, including those to use on your own site (Creative Commons).
Thus, the more active you are in the community, the more exposure your profile gains and the more traffic to your site. Our profile name is Birdfreak.com which is itself a plug, but uploading tons of great photos and commenting on other people’s shots will increase your visibility. We even created a group called the Secret Life of Birds to further increase our involvement. [This was a ton of work and the group has practically taken on its own life which we are not as involved in now.]
A lot of the traffic gains from Flickr are hard to track completely. But it is definitely an excellent tool to easily gain buzz about your website through the pictures you already take and need to manage.
Banding Birds at Birdfest 2009
May 12, 2009
Article in: Bird Conservation
Each year during the month of May, Sand Bluff Bird Observatory (SBBO) hosts their Bird Fest. This festival centers around teaching the public about the wonders of birds, specifically focusing on the process of bird banding (or ringing). Each year we try to stop in for a little bit but this is also the weekend that the Illinois Spring Bird Count is, and we are usually out counting birds. This year was different because Jennie (Veery) graduated from Northern Illinois University so we were busy with that.
Henslow’s Sparrow – so close you could smell his grasshopper breath
This year we were able to take our visiting aunt to Bird Fest for a couple of hours and, as always, it was loads of fun.
Bird banding is one of the most underfunded yet highly rewarded research efforts. The process works like this:
- put up mist nets in high bird traffic locations
- walk the nets and remove captured birds
- place captured birds in nets
- band birds with numbered bands
- record all information
- release bird
When an excellent bird is found, the Bird-arazzi heads outside to capture up-close photos. This Henslow’s Sparrow was a major highlight as it was the 2nd one banded in three days and only the fourth in 43 years at this location.
However, this Baltimore Oriole quickly stole the show. Perhaps it was his flashy orange? (We still love our brown sparrows though.)
Besides seeing birds super close, bird banding at SBBO is the ultimate learning experience. You may be an expert birder, but if you’ve never listened to the grand master, Lee Johnson, you are missing out. His encyclopedic knowledge of birds borders on supernatural.
Lee Johnson holding a Gray Catbird and firing off hundreds of nuggets of information
Birds are banded every Saturday and Sunday at Colored Sands Forest Preserve during spring and fall migration. They are funded entirely on donations and events like Bird Fest, so it was fun to support their effort (and see a lot of great birding friends in the process).
While we were milling about outside (awaiting yet another photo-op), one of the master banders, Richard Hamilton, briskly walked down the path cradling a large bird in his coat. What he brought out was a Cooper’s Hawk.
Our friend Mike Eickman held the hawk for photos
Whenever a hawk is caught in the nets it is a race against time to get them out before they break free on their own. SBBO also bands raptors at a special location, but this bird was caught in the “regular” nets.
Bird banding is an excellent way to get close views of an amazing array of birds and the perfect place to bring fledgling birders.
Focused Bird Conservation – Saving At-Risk Birds Through Citizen Science
June 16, 2008
Article in: Bird Conservation
What is Focused Bird Conservation? Each time we as birders go out we have several goals: see more birds than last time, find a life bird, find a rare bird that was reported, get a great photograph, or just get out to enjoy the weather and birds. Often, these goals are what help expand our love of birding, but something’s missing when our sightings are kept secret; unintentionally hidden away from others.
Wood Thrush
But what if each time we went birding we had a new purpose: to find specific birds in need of conservation help? Focused Bird Conservation is exactly what it sounds like. By targeting birds of special concern like Cerulean Warblers, Henslow’s Sparrows, or Dickcissels, birding becomes more meaningful. Also, certain parks and preserves can be targeted for specific time periods to better understand the bird populations and what areas are better suited for birds.
The data collected from this studies can be used to further conservation efforts. Special localized plans can be set up to help declining birds. Important Bird Areas can be designated through this same process. We are currently working on a project to name the Kishwaukee River Corridor (one of the cleanest rivers in northern Illinois) or at least Deer Run, an IBA.
Golden-winged Warbler
We have spearheaded a project with our local bird club, NCIOS, to count 14 declining birds in our area:
- Bell’s Vireo
- Bobolink
- Dickcissel
- Henslow’s Sparrow
- Red-headed Woodpecker
- Sedge Wren
- Blue-winged Warbler
- Cerulean Warbler
- Golden-winged Warbler
- Hooded Warbler
- Kentucky Warbler
- Prothonotary Warbler
- Whip-poor-will
- Wood Thrush
Blue-winged Warbler
The goal is to get a baseline status of these birds in our county and the surrounding counties. We’ll be updating periodically through the spring and summer and have a full report in October.
