Twenty-Six

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

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!