Welcome to Bear Sees Birds!

This is the grand opening of a new bird-lover blog, "Bear Sees Birds"! Years ago I ran a similar blog and really enjoyed cataloging my birdwatching exploits and following my curiosities about the natural world. I've decided to return to this structure as a way to record and motivate my interest in birds.

Let's set a few ground rules, specifically those that set this site apart from my previous venture:

This is a personal blog, focused on my own views and experiences. In the past, I had other contributors and stylized everything as a wide reaching journalistic effort. Ultimately though, I am not an expert or even a professional. My goal is to share my own perspective, as such as I will writing every single post myself and I will be focusing less on rigid professionalism.
Bear Sees Birds is about a passion for not only birds, but nature, calm, peace, animals, and mindful compassionate living. Birds are the lynchpin at the center that holds it all together, and the vast majority of posts will be focused on them at least tangentially. But occasionally I will write about cozy fiction with themes of nature conservation, or calm public spaces such as libraries and parks, etc. Works like My Neighbor Totoro or the Pikmin games might not spotlight birds specifically, but they fit the spirit of the blog well.
Each week there will be one column, and one feature. Columns will be loosely structured posts with multiple sections of varying lengths. It might be a dive into a recent headline, or a series of small updates. These are designed to be malleable and timely, written on a week-to-week basis. Features will be more traditional long-form articles on a singular subject. My current plan is to post a feature on Tuesday and a column on Friday. Both columns and features will come in different forms and subjects, to be described below. They won't be an exact rotation. It will depend on what I want to share in a given week, and I also reserve the bend or outright change my posting schedule as needed.

And now, a bit of a breakdown for what kind of posts to expect:

Features: Long-form articles focused on a single subject, you could call it the "primary content" of the blog. Some will fall into the series below, some will stand on their own as an uncategorized story.

Bird Profile: A deep dive on a specific type of bird that I enjoy. I'll share fun facts, personal experiences, show some pictures, and tell you why you should know about and love the bird. Some will be well known, some obscure. Some local, some exotic.
Travel Journal: A story recounting a trip and the experiences with nature I had while out of my home. Intended primarily for out of town vacations, but can also be used for notable excursions out on the town. Focus on birds will be as loose as it needs to be.
Review: Exactly what it sounds like. I will review books, movies, video games, etc., that include birds, or have relevant themes of nature and peace.

Columns: Loosely structured update posts. Will often include multiple stories that fit under a similar umbrella. Designed to keep readers (and myself) regularly up to date on birds in the world.

Culture Corner: Instead of being about the animal, this column will be on birds as cultural signifiers. Sports news relating to teams with bird mascots, or thoughts on stories with bird themed characters such as superhero comics and videogames.
Around the Feeder: Personal experiences and anecdotes as a birdwatcher. Species I've seen, stories I've heard, thoughts I've been chewing on that are too small to justify a full sized feature. The loosest structure, most likely. This is where thoughts about bird feeders, binoculars, specific species, etc, will go.
Big Blue Birdhouse: A current events column focused on environmental conservation, animal rights, energy, parks, agriculture, etc. No Earth, no birds, that's what I say!

I hope you enjoy. You are welcome to sign up for email updates, use our tags to find the posts you're looking for, or even use the search bar if you only want to read about owls or something. If you like birds, I hope to provide something that can help you. Thank you for reading, I hope you'll come back some other time!