ABA Blog in Review: October 2012

Thanks to all our readers for making this month the best, as far as traffic is concerned, in the history of the ABA Blog.  This was an exciting month for the organization as a whole too, as our first ABA Birding Rally was held at Kiptopeke State Park in Virginia to great success.  We'd love to see you at an upcoming ABA Event, so check out our calendar and see what looks exciting.

But here's a quick rundown of the fun stuff we had here at the ABA Blog this month.

George Armistead offers his choices for the Top 10 Cutest Birds in North America.  I have to say, the exclusion of Sanderling from the list was a travesty in this blogger's humble opinion. 

Lynn Barber takes a break from her South Dakota Big Year, but not from thinking about how important carrying a camera has become, for better or for worse, for documenting rarities.

Ted Eubanks returns with a resonant look at conservation concerns on the Caribbean island of Grenada. 

Ted Floyd's integration of Birding magazine and the ABA Blog continues, with posts on Chandler Robbins, hybrid hummingbirds, photo quizzes, and some exciting member's only book reviews. 

Blake Mathys shared a compelling post about certainty in bird identification, and what it means to be an "expert".

If you haven't yet seen Bird of the Year coordinator Robert Mortenson's recruitment video for the BOY multimedia art contest, you absolutely need to. 

Greg Neise offers some helpful hints on how to make your birding listserv experience a more rewarding one for everyone reading your posts. 

Winging It editor Michael Retter digs into some of the new scientific names we find in the most recent AOU Check-list suipplement. 

Photo guru Bill Schmoker shares some secrets of dealing with issues that effect photo quality, from high ISO to fixing foggy photos. 

Noah Strycker gets some birding in via webcam from California's Farallon Islands.

Rick Wright reviews the Kaufman's new Field Guide to the Nature of New England. 

A great lineup of Open Mics highlighted the month, with submissions from Rob Fergus on bionic birding, Susan Ford-Hoffert takes us on a field trip through the Woodson Art Museum, Ruth Bloedorn shares some tips for attracting birds, and Steve N.G. Howell in a two part post discusses what works and what doesn't in writing a field guide.

October was a hot month for rare birds, not only the Hurricane...er... Superstorm Sandy washed tons of new birds up on northeastern shores, but excellent birds were found everywhere.  Alaska and British Columbia hosted a bunch of Asian passerines, with an additional Siberian Blue Robin and a Pine Bunting, a state first Gray-tailed Tattler in Massachusetts, Rhode Island's first Wood Sandpiper, Oregon's first Cassin's Sparrow, and Georgia's first Dusky Flycatcher.

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Thanks for your continued support and patronage.  If you haven't already, pleas consider joining the ABA! 

We'll see you next month!