The Bird Time Blog in 2023
Updates, new stories, and future plans.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and generally Happy Holidays! Thanks y’all for reading and supporting the Bird Time! blog here on my substack, Grover’s Grotto. After taking a much-needed break, I will be back again (roughly twice a month) with fun bird photos and interesting stories. I truly hope things go well for everyone this year and that sharing these newsletters brings a bit of happiness to your day. For instance, I pinned printed copies of some of my photos outside of my cubicle and coworkers will stop by to comment on them, ask questions, or share their own bird stories. That alone is pretty darn cool.
Share Your Stories!
So, I’m asking y’all to please share your stories and pictures! I’ve heard from readers and friends about their own adventures, and I hope to share more of those going forward. Just a few neat examples include:
A friend and reader living in Japan may have accidentally derailed her plans to befriend local crows. She was putting out snacks to attract crows just as she had done back at home in the United States. However, crows in Japan are a big nuisance and good citizens have resorted to putting nets around their garbage to prevent pillaging. So when she saw a crow casually undoing a poor neighbor’s net and systematically taking out the garbage, she re-secured the net—causing the crow to glare and caw angrily. Now, that crow may have spread the word about this interference and so other crows have stopped visiting her.
Another reader found a stray parakeet in his backyard and brought it in. Attempts to locate the owner have been unsuccessful (there was no leg band with any contact information) and this relative decided to keep the bird safely inside the house for now. Initially nicknamed “Rascal” due to the circumstances of finding this bird, that moniker has unfortunately taken an upsetting turn. Rascal is a very messy and poorly behaved bird. It splashes water everywhere, dumps out its food, and even ripped a toy rope ladder to shreds!
A couple of readers share most of my posts with their children, using the stories as educational tools that help encourage a budding interest in birding. One friend in particular has been bird watching with her two kids, naming the birds that come visit their feeder. Of these, one of the most beloved is a Northern Cardinal they’ve dubbed “Bob”.
Finally, another reader alerted me to the hilarious and tragic news article Why is Everyone Stealing Parrots? in The Atlantic. That piece is a great read and also raises several concerns—whatever happened twenty-eight birds stolen in Punta Gorda, Florida? Especially the stolen, aged parrot named Birdie Bird. WILL WE EVER KNOW? I mean really, I read that and thought “Not Birdie Bird!”
Occasional Interviews and Future Merch?
Two things I’ve been wanting to do is to have occasional, short interviews with other people who love birds and also to launch a small, online Bird Time! store. The goal of both of these would be to have fun and to continue to stretch my creative muscles. I intend to interview some friends or local ornithology experts on birds and also sell some goofy stickers or eventually a little book of photos and stories.
These would be interesting, experimental add-ons to the existing Bird Time! blog. The blog itself will remain a free newsletter for the time being. Eventually, I might turn on a completely optional, paid version of the newsletter and pay wall some of the additional posts. However, I am not there yet. I The goal isn’t to double my content or turn a big profit—either would defeat the point, which is to have fun. If this newsletter becomes a job, then it will feel like another chore and I will stop bothering.
What is Grover’s Grotto anyway?
One thing to clarify is that although this is the Bird Time! blog, it is an emailed newsletter that is a part of the larger publication Grover’s Grotto, which is all hosted on the Substack platform. This is something I tried to explain in the About Page of my website and the introduction email every new subscriber receives. The idea is that Grover’s Grotto is my main creative outlet in which I will post whatever creative hobbies I happen to be involved with.
So far, I only have the Bird Time! blog, but I intend (eventually!) to also start a second (more occasional, but still free) newsletter called The Sci-Fi Taco Truck. That newsletter will feature my short fiction in serialized format. You can see how this could easily grow into a bigger endeavor—at which point I would likely create that paid option I mentioned to offset the cost of time and coffee spent on all this writing.
Because both newsletters will be under the same publication (Grover’s Grotto), subscribers to one will be automatically subscribed to the other when the time comes. When that happens, I will send an email announcement and also explain how you can opt out and subscribe only to the Bird Time! blog if you are not interested in fiction or sci-fi.
Anyways, those are my plans for this newsletter for 2023. Feel free to email back or comment with your feedback as usual. Good birding to you in the new year!
Until next (Bird!) time,
Grover