Birding

We love to travel to find new birds and participate in a lot of bird counts. We also created a Guide to Birding Field Guides and host a collection of over 300 birding links from all over the globe.

Conservation

While our main focus continues to be birds, we promote other areas of conservation as well. Conserving land not only benefits wildlife, but is hugely beneficial to people as well.

Outdoors

We love all sorts of outdoor activities, especially hiking and spend a lot of time outside with dogs and horses. We are working to produce more articles on all sorts of outdoor fun!

Photography

Every week we bring you Bird Photography Weekly. We periodically talk about our adventures in digiscoping. Feel free to browse our photo lifelist.

Article in: Birding

Twenty-Six

Today is my (Birdfreak’s) 26th birthday!! Here are 26 facts about me. Enjoy!
Birdfreak

  1. I was born on Labor Day in 1981
  2. I belong to the “Sevens Club”, something my sister, Snowy Owl and I dubbed for friends and family members born on a seventh of a month
  3. I have a B.A. degree in Marketing from Northern Illinois University
  4. I switched majors twice before choosing marketing – computer science and biology were the other major attempts
  5. My birding career began at around the age of 5 or 6 when my parents took me bird banding – I held a Blue-winged Warbler and was hooked
  6. I’ve traveled from coast to coast but have yet to get to the southeast, particularly Florida
  7. I’ve never flown in a plane
  8. I’ve been to Mexico and Canada, but no other foreign countries
  9. I love to travel and in 2002 I traveled for over 3 weeks with my dad and two dogs all over the west, totaling over 7100 miles and 17 states
  10. I keep a lifelist but I am not a hardcore lister – my list is around 350
  11. I’ve photographed nearly 1/2 of the lifebirds I’ve seen
  12. My favorite bird is a tie between the Northern Cardinal and White-breasted Nuthatch
  13. My rarest bird sighting is a Blue Mockingbird in southern Texas
  14. I am a full-blooded Illinoisan and have lived in Rockford all my life with one small exception
  15. I lived in Grand Teton National Park for a brief period
  16. I love to write and writing runs in our family – both of my grandfathers were professional writers and Snowy Owl (aka Susie) is one too
  17. Our family tree links to a fellow by the name of Shakespeare (yes, THAT Shakespeare)
  18. I am also part Czech and dream of birding in the Czech Republic someday
  19. I am a dog person despite also having a lovely cat
  20. I have always dreamed about adopting stray and neglected dogs on a large scale
  21. I love playing video games like Madden and Grand Theft Auto
  22. I used to collect baseball cards by the thousands but not anymore
  23. My favorite sports teams are: St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, and Chicago Bulls – I don’t really like hockey
  24. My favorite place to bird is Horicon Marsh NWR in Wisconsin
  25. I don’t hunt but appreciate what hunters have done (and still do) for conservation
  26. I love spending time at my grandparent’s farm in northern Wisconsin, a forested playground of hundreds of acres

There you have it: 26 facts about Birdfreak!
Birdfreak

7 Comments or Trackbacks   ↓ Jump to add comment ↓

  1. Patrick says:

    Happy Birthday! My friend is part of that sevens club. He was born on 7/7/77.

    Posted on: September 7, 2007 @ 8:38 am

  2. LUANN YOUNG says:

    Happy Birthday!!!!

    Posted on: September 7, 2007 @ 2:45 pm

  3. The Birdfreak Team says:

    Patrick – thanks… your friend must be the leader of the seven’s club

    LUANN – thank you very much :)

    Posted on: September 7, 2007 @ 9:03 pm

  4. mon@rch says:

    Happy Birthday and I so remember being 26!! Great times for sure!

    Posted on: September 8, 2007 @ 12:29 pm

  5. Mary Carlson says:

    A belated Happy Birthday, Birdfreak! I am glad to get to know you better. My husband is also a native Illinoisan (born in Galesburg, grew up on a farm in Rio) and graduated from U of I – and his birthday is next Friday!

    Posted on: September 8, 2007 @ 3:52 pm

  6. The Birdfreak Team says:

    Monarch – Thanks!!

    Mary – Thanks and that’s cool about your husband… Illinois isn’t too bad a place :)

    Posted on: September 9, 2007 @ 10:08 am

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  1. NCIOS - North Central Illinois Ornithological Society » Highway 38….shorebirds and traffic!

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