Oh my! The wide world of nature bloggers!

I just spent a good part of this morning trying to add a couple of widgets to Nature ID. Comcast internet service was very slow for a couple of hours, which was a drag. I run Windows ME and haven't upgraded anything since my computer purchase almost a decade ago. Perhaps, when we get new computers (and possibly a new camera) in the fall, blogging will be less time consuming for me. Then, maybe I could also run Picasa!

I also did a little reorganization, by moving relevant blog listings to blogs I follow. By following other followers of the handful of blogs I was following, I discovered a whole world of nature bloggers. Holy wow! There are a lot of nature blogs out there and most are fantastic! I don't know if it was simply the draw of whom I chose to follow, but most blogs are based out of the UK or the Midwest. Nature photography, birds, and gardens seem to be the most popular. I'm still looking for another non-business, non-garden, nature blogger based out of CA.

What I want to know is, how do people find the TIME to:
1) learn how to create an eye-popping blog?
2) actually post regularly?
3) do other things in their lives besides blogging???

I was starting to feel so proud of organizing my humble photos, posting them to document dates and observations, and searching online to ID the things I spotted during hikes. But now? My blog is so basic (yet, scarily lengthy) compared to the clean, well-organized beautiful sites I saw today. So, I've relabeled my index to make it easier to read. I'm not the best writer, nor am I great shakes at photography, and I'm starting to feel a little intimidated about blogging. I really had simple intentions when I started Nature ID, but I can imagine this has the potential to soon grow to take over my life!

ps 03/10/10 - Speaking of widgets, I deleted a couple from my site, because they slogged my blog loading time and I was starting to receive too many automated comments that initially looked okay, but were actually from dubious hackers. I'm also going to delete several blogs that I follow, because some people load their sites with so much commercial crap and fancy schmancy that it takes forever to load and often locks up my old computer.

pss 04/20/10 - I've also blocked several followers. That big eye avatar was starting to creep me out, so I checked it out. Looks like it's someone with decent internet programming skills to auto-follow blogs, same-o, same-o as the dozen other followers I've now blocked. And, yes I know it's supposed to be P.P.S., but I don't like having to use caps and periods if I don't have to and I really don't like the way it sounds when said out loud.

habitat ~ 06/19/09 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord Public Lands - Creekside entrance

June 19, 2009

Compare these pics with those from our March 14, 2009 hike. I'm usually not a huge fan of hiking at Fort Ord once things start drying up for the summer, but it wasn't too hot and the profusion of sticky monkeyflowers and beautiful manzanitas kept me cheerful. There were several spots under the oak trees which were green with ferns and red poison oak leaves.

manzanita
Arctostaphylos sp.
Ericaceae

This is not the exact same tree as from the May 23, 2009 hike at Fort Ord. I did find it interesting that the bark of many manzanitas had started peeling within a 4 week span.

ten-lined June beetle ~ 06/16/09 ~ at home

male ten-lined June beetle
Polyphylla decemlineata
Scarabaeidae

edited 03/25/12 - We found this fellow in the stairway as we were unloading our car from our trip. I haven't seen a June beetle since my Ohio days, although this western species is a bit more dapper, like wearing a pinstripe suit. He hissed when I picked him up. I wished I could have gotten a pic of his antennal clubs separated - they're spectacular!

I'm now eating crow and extensively edited this post with new embedded links in the ID. At the time of this post, I unfairly slammed BugGuide.net for misspelling the scientific name and what I perceived to be other minor errors, when in actuality CalPhotos was the one with some incorrectly spelled "decimlineata". Since 04/18/10 I eased up on my blanket ban of BugGuide.net and now reference it regularly. Additionally, I remembered hissing June beetles from Ohio, but over the course of time I forgot they didn't have lines on the elytra. I'm a bit more humble these days and fully understand how difficult it is to maintain accuracy for any online site.