Nature Blog Network

Mon@rch’s Nature Blog is well-known to NBN members, and is a perennial favorite of many of us. Tom, aka mon@rch, also maintains birdQUIZ, a fun blog for sharpening your identification skills. He has 16 years of experience in the environmental education and field biology research field. In the early 1990’s, Tom was a volunteer for the National Aviary in Pittsburgh and worked with the education and animal care department. In the late 1990’s through early 2000’s, he was a naturalist for the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation in Allegany State Park as well as for other organizations. He has presented public education programs on a wide variety of natural history topics including avian ecology, entomology, forest ecology, and plant identification. He received his bird banding permit in 1998 and became a certified bird bander in the fall of 2003. Tom lives and blogs from the Western New York area and normally writes about his nature adventures in the Allegany State Park and nearby areas.

Tom, why do you blog?

I love being able to share my nature experiences with people and Mon@rch’s Nature Blog is the perfect way to expand my sharing to a larger audience. One of the best feelings is seeing a child hold a bird in their hand for the very first time. Years later those same kids know the name of every bird that we encounter during that nature outing. We start the kids early in sharing their experiences with others as a way of developing them into future educators. I hope by blogging my nature adventures, I will encourage other people to look for similar experiences and then blog about their adventures!! People that come to my website asking questions or sharing similar experiences are my biggest reward from blogging.

What got you started?

I started the blog after discovering a blog post by Wildcast doing something amazing with large elephants or rhinos. Ironically while downloading (on dial-up internet!) one of his videos, I had a Black Bear raiding the birdfeeder in my back yard. I captured a few photos of it and wondered . . . . . would others be just as interested in hearing about my bear experience as I am with Kim’s African adventures?? I guess a simple answer would have been “a Black Bear in my back yard is what got me started!”

What do you like best about blogging?

What I like best about blogging is connecting with amazing people that I would have never had an opportunity to share experiences with otherwise. There are bloggers that I have been following since 2006 and find myself worrying about them when I don’t see any updates for a while, and I get emails from friends who say “get off your rump, we need a new post!” You can tell when nature is pulling me back in from real life stuff because that is when I find myself blogging more and more!

What’s unique or different about your blog?

With my nature blog, I try to give my viewers an opportunity for an up-close experience with wildlife through my photography. Every kid should have the same opportunities as the Young Naturalists on my site do but not everyone knows a bird bander in their area. Also, many of my viewers travel long distances to camp in areas like Allegany State Park. I am lucky enough to live in the middle of this 65,000 acre park 365 days a year. By living in the park, I have many opportunities to blog about activities that you wouldn’t necessary see on any other blog.

How do you promote your blog and attract readers?

I use twitter,  facebook, and stumbleupon to help promote my site because the technology is there. I enjoy more promoting my website by commenting on other sites and being part of the nature blog community. I have created t-shirts and given away temporary tattoos with the monarchbfly.com logo on it to promote the site. The daily numbers used to be important to me but now days it is more about the enjoyment of sharing my experiences with everyone and seeing people smile.

Has blogging changed how you think about nature? or how you write?

My first two years in blogging were the easiest with material flowing out of me like Niagara Falls. However, I have been blogging for almost 4 years and I have been finding myself struggling for new ideas. I hate repeating myself but luckily nature always throws a curve ball with something new to share with everyone. Walking threw the woods in years past was more about exploring and never really had a purpose (unless it was job related). Now, as soon as that bird shows its colors through the leaves, I begin to thinking, “how can I turn this discovery into words?” I try to look for unusual behaviors that I can include and/or anything that my internet friends might find interesting about the discovery!

Since childhood, writing has always been a struggle for me. I have always been more of a visual person. I feel freer in my writing than when I first started the blog and I am sure my writing style will change with the times. I also am certain my thoughts and experiences are expressed more with my photographs than with my words, so I can say that photography has probably improved more with blogging than anything else.

Mon@rch, how does your job intersect with your blogs?

I work in the Resource Management Department of the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation. Our department deals with anything relating to invasive species, bird conservation, and other wildlife concerns. The department I work in with two others is involved with all hunting related issues, including pheasant stocking, deer checking, and hunting permits within the park. We are constantly called for nuisance wildlife and extensively involved in a black bear monitoring program. We will trap, tag, and then release the problem bears that become a little too friendly around cabin trails or campsites. Besides doing everything we can to keep the bear from campers, we spend a good part of the day on the cabin trails educating the public on keeping their sites clean.

We are also involved in hiking trail issues and anything related to natural disasters within the park such as flood or tornados. During the winter months we are busy with hazardous tree removal, and the wood we harvest is processed into firewood for patrons during the summer months.

I try to keep my work life separate from my personal nature adventures on my blog, but I do slip from time to time. I have given in whenever we do fish stocking and when I had an opportunity to help band Canada Geese and Wild Turkey. Working in this department does have some pluses for blog. Once I photographed and captured a video of a Pileated Woodpecker excavating a large hole in a tree. I wanted to show the grub the Pileated was after, so the following day I went down to the firewood splitting lot and captured a few pictures of a grub that was found between logs.  Another time, a fellow employee came into the office saying “Tom, we have an injured bird in the snow!” It became an excellent opportunity to blog about a rescue of a Red-necked Grebe. Despite my occasional slips (who could resist?), mostly my work is kept in the office and my at home adventures saved for my blogging time. I just think with my job it is best kept that way.

What does the future hold for you and the blog?

If you regularly follow my website, you realize that I have fallen in love with someone very special. We have so many similar interests and have a comparable love of nature that makes us the perfect match! I am sure you will be seeing many new adventures as we are exploring nature together. Also, she is expecting a granddaughter that will be born soon. I am sure we will have fun exploring nature with a grandbaby strapped onto my back. I can imagine the blog post with this baby naturalist exploring nature for the very first time!! We are both very excited about these new adventures!

Any words of wisdom for new nature bloggers?

Don’t start a blog thinking it will be easy! I remember the days when I spent 10 hours editing pictures, researching content in reference material, and then rewriting everything because I didn’t like the direction it was taking. However, technology has made it easier to blog and because of this, you will find many more individuals blogging about their passion for nature.

Proof reading is important! I have made dumb mistakes in my posts because I rushed them.

Take your time! Readers don’t appear overnight. You need to be as active in the nature blogging community as humanly possible. View as many blogs as you can and make sure you leave comments. People will find you, and if you have good content, they will subscribe and become regulars.

My number one rule is always keep your posts positive and my second one is to always have fun with your blogging!

Thanks, Tom!