It’s my pleasure to talk with Julie Zickefoose this week. In addition to being a popular blogger, Julie is a naturalist, artist and writer. She began field work and natural history illustration as a freshman in college in 1976, worked as a field biologist for The Nature Conservancy for ten years, and went freelance in 1991. She started blogging in December of 2005. She’s married to popular bird blogger Bill of the Birds, whom she elbows for the exalted rank of #13 on the Nature Blog Network. They have two children, and live on an 80-acre sanctuary in the Appalachian foothills of southeast Ohio.
Liam (in front), Phoebe, Julie, and Bill near Magdalena, New Mexico
Julie, why do you blog?
I blog because I write, and I write because I need to. I blog because I enjoy publishing my photos, and because for me, it’s like having my own little magazine. I’m the reporter, the editor, the art director, and I can connect directly with thousands of readers without spending anything other than my time and some brain cells. (Bill bought me the new camera). The best thing about blogging is the constant exercise it gives my writing muscles, and its function as a cooker for ideas for my other writing–books and NPR commentaries.
What are your favorite posts from your blog?
“Dogie Stogie,” sums up the appeal of Chet Baker, the Boston terrier who I shamelessly exploit, angling for the affection of Cute Overload cohort.
I’m particularly fond of “Manatee Love,” because it helped me surge past Mike Bergin and the 10,000 Birds people on the NBN for one glittering week. Then the bubble popped. Those Cute Overload animal fans are so FICKLE.
I like to salt my posts with a dash of humor, and like my father’s humor, it’s often pretty earthy. “How Do You Spell ‘Shitepoke?’” makes me laugh.
Because it pertains to the Nature Blog Network and gets at the whole question of why someone would blog, I’d like to share “Baker at the Beech“.
home at the sanctuary
How does blogging relate to and integrate with other aspects of your life and work - birding, obviously, but also writing and painting?
Blogging makes me live larger and seek out things that I find interesting. Blogging puts me in the mind to share what I find wonderful about the natural world. It moves me to try to document what I see with photos, and it also makes me learn more about the natural world so I can write about it with some authority. I think it motivates me to be a better, more curious and thoughtful naturalist, writer and photographer. I’m not sure it’s all that good for my drawing and painting, though! It’s so much more fun and fast to “take” a picture than to make one. I do enjoy sharing the step-by-step development of paintings, though.
Yours is among the most read blogs on NBN. To what do you attribute your popularity?
Manatees, NPR, and the dog. I also have to credit Birdchick for asking me to guest-blog for her for a couple of weeks while she hunted ivory-billed woodpeckers in Arkansas in November of 2005. By doing so, she alerted a very nice cohort of readers to my stuff. When she asked me to guest blog, I asked her what a blog was. Of course, she knew I’d get hooked. I think that got me started with a distinct advantage, which was a readership. As to what makes people come back, I’d have to guess that they like my googly-eyed dog, the earthy humor, and they like learning surprising things about the natural world.
Julie and Chet
Has blogging changed how you think about nature?
No, but it has changed the way I write about nature. Blogging encourages me to phrase things in a way that people without extensive biological backgrounds can understand–a good thing to do, because not many people have a large background in biology. They like nature, but they may not have studied its underpinnings.
Rufous-tailed hummingbird in Guatemala
Any comments on being part of the nature blogger community?
I love having all these friends, seen and unseen, who let me know what they’re thinking and of similar life experiences via the comments section. It’s very cool to meet them at nature and birding festivals, and to know that we might never have crossed paths but for this unique mode of communication and friendship.
Any words of wisdom for new nature bloggers?
I can only say what works for me, and that’s to stay positive. I make it a point to celebrate what’s cool and wonderful and beautiful about nature and life, to pass along something interesting, informative or uplifting. Sometimes the smallest tiny thing is what’s important or cool. Sometimes the most reviled creature can be the most beautiful or stirring to me (like when Bill found a brown-hooded cockroach squirming on our bedroom floor, and found out that they’re rare, local, and social, and they care for their young and live a really long time, and I had a place and some friends with whom to share that Science Chimp geek-out moment).
I trust, in keeping this focus, that people would rather hear the life history of a strange roach we’ve found than to hear me whine about having a bad day or a deathly case of ennui or something. There’s gobs of stuff that nobody needs to know about, and staying positive helps keep a blog worth reading. Your personality can creep through without telling people the nitty details of your day. Which leads me to my next bit of advice.
I find that preparing posts ahead of time, and having a theme for groups of posts (such as a trip you’ve taken, or a place you love, or the birds in your yard, or how you’ve created a painting, or whatever organizing element you wish) can strengthen a blog. I’m rotten at “grasshopper” blogging, where you have to come up with something new and different every day. I find it leads to a totally unfounded feeling of being victimized by my blog (Do I HAVE to post today?? I just posted yesterday!) I like to plan ahead and cook ahead for my readers, storing up posts like the blog ant I am. I write them when I’m in the mood, and coast on them for a week or two until I feel like writing more. At least that’s what works for me.
Would you like to say a word or two about Chet Baker’s role as your muse?
It is a very good thing, as a largely solitary writer, to have a warm dog who smells like popcorn, who freely dispenses kisses, always wants to go for a hike, loves mugging for the camera, and makes me laugh at least ten times a day. He has taught me so much about animal communication and perception, and he just turned four. We have so much yet to discover. If I could just control his gaseous emissions…
What would you like to see the NBN and the community of nature bloggers accomplish?
I’d like to see blogging go somewhere that can benefit bloggers. I haven’t figured out yet how to parlay this thing I love to do into something that can help support me. It’s crazy, really, to be doing something that a lot of people appreciate, that I love doing, that I and many other bloggers have attained a certain amount of skill at, and yet we’re all just pumping it out for free. I don’t know. Maybe it would ruin us to turn blogging into something we do for at least part of our living. No. It wouldn’t. In my mind, there’s got to be a way to make it work for us in a real, pay-the-mortgage way. Right now, it feels kind of like standing on a busy street corner, playing the violin for all I’m worth, and watching everyone else hurry by to their real jobs. How can we link in to corporate entities that would like to be associated with us, who would appreciate our (subtle, natural) endorsement of their products? How can we make it work for us as well as it works for our readers? Is subscription a realistic thought for something that’s currently being given for free? It didn’t work for The New York Times. They were forced to reel back their online subscription setup and give it away. As a full-time provider of content, that scares me. Making a living by blogging would be a dream job, and I say that as someone who already makes a modest living doing what I love–writing and painting. Why can’t that dream come true? (grabs Mike Bergin and John Riutta by the lapels, sobbing…Why? Why?…fade to black)
Seriously, though, NBN’s hitcounter and toplist are a huge step in the right direction for getting nature bloggers the recognition and data set they need to show that people are reading nature blogs; that this is a growing pursuit that is only going to get bigger and better. And I am very grateful to you all.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have some photos of Chet Baker bottle-feeding a baby manatee to upload. I have GOT to get back to #7 on the NBN.
Anything else you’d like me to ask you, or that you’d like to volunteer without being asked?
No. I’d just like to thank you for being interested, and for giving me a chance to formulate some half-baked thoughts. I appreciate the readers you undoubtedly send my way, and I really enjoy hitting links on the NBN to see who’s up to what. This is an amazing resource you’ve created. Thank you.
Thank you, Julie.
Julie’s blog is found at http://www.juliezickefoose.com/blog/index.php. You can read more about her art and writing at her main web site, also called Julie Zickefoose. Julie is a popular commentator on National Public Radio, and her book Letters from Eden, a collection of her essays and paintings, is available on her web site and in bookstores everywhere.
Coming up in future weeks: Interviews with Florida Cracker and GrrrlScientist.
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