Happy Birthday To Me

Man, time flies. One year ago today I tentatively put my toe in the sometimes raging, sometimes placid waters of the blogosphere. Since then I've unabashedly doggie paddled in the shallow end, meandering on a fairly random course. This blog has "forced" me to sit and write, something I wasn't successfully setting aside time for in the years leading up to March 17, 2007. A very near post I've been sorting through is explaining why I started blogging and why I continue. But that'll have to wait for another week or so, for now all I can say is it's been refreshing to periodically "publish" a piece here and there, and flattering a few of you return to read it. Thank you.

Here's a question: what do I have in common with the bird in this video clip?

Answer: I also dove deep underwater and haven't resurfaced (yet).

Oh, and don't read too much into that Q&A: it wasn't meant to be funny or particularly clever, I mostly just liked the clip. Follow up question, what's the bird? (The answer is below.)

Right now I'm drowning in a large pool of "other obligations," but I swear I haven't abandoned this blog, just neglected it, hopefully in a benign manner. Like the bird in the clip, I'll appear again, but perhaps not in the same place. I'm aware I still owe a Friday Flashback, which I've been reliving in my head - I only need some extra time to transfer it to electronic media. When will we be able to download thoughts directly, anyway?

In the meantime, check out my first-ever post on this blog, just as relevant for this year as it was last March.

• Information about the birds in this post birds can be found at All About Birds | Bird Guide
• Ruddy Duck video © Mike Powers, filmed at Chincoteague NWR, November 2007.