Space Coast Birding Festival and Birdchick

One of the experts coming to the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival is Sharon Stiteler, also known as Birdchick. She explains her attraction to birding thusly: I was given a Peterson Field Guide when I was seven years old and snapped. I love birds and it's just the way I'm wired. Her goal is to show the world that you can be a birder without being a geek!

Sharon's Birdchick Blog is one of the highest-rated birding blogs on the Internet. Fortunately for those of us that want to know how she does that, she's presenting her Blogging: The New Nature Journal seminar on Friday, January 23, 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. ($5) and on Saturday, January 24, 9:15 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. ($5). Her presentation will include how to start a blog, techniques you can use to enhance your blog, and a guide to some birding and nature blogs that are out there. I'm so looking forward to that seminar - her blog is really cool. (Actually, today, her blog is not only really cool, it is really cold. Sharon lives in Minnesota, and her posting this morning noted that it was -21 degrees Fahrenheit when she woke up. She still managed to record a cute video and smile while doing it. Follow the link and wander through some of her posts - she has a delightful, irreverent sense of humor. And she digiscopes!)

Her other seminar is City Bird, Country Bird Housing & Feeding, also on Friday, January 23, 12:45 - 1:45 p.m. ($5) and Saturday, January 24, 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. ($5). This is based on her book (City Birds, Country Birds), and she'll talk about how to attract birds no matter where you live.

In her spare time :), she'll be participating in the Pelagic Birding Offshore New Smyrna Beach field trip, the South Brevard County field trip, the Viera Wetlands field trip, and the Refine your ID Skills field trip.

When she's not birding or writing or appearing on radio shows or speaking at wildlife festivals, Sharon is a part-time park ranger for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. And she keeps bees.

I'm really looking forward to meeting Birdchick - anybody that puts Disapproving Rabbits on a t-shirt (and writes a book about them) is my kind of people!

Be sure to check the Birding and Wildlife Festival web site for late-breaking news regarding updates.