Today is a big-number day on catandturtle.net – 1500 blog posts! That’s a lot of posts!

I started blogging back in January 2007 with the goal of keeping track of the wildlife in my backyard. I wanted to know when migratory birds came and went, to document which species of butterflies visited the yard, and to share the silly photos of our cats enjoying pansies on the porch. That’s how the Backyard Photography category got started.

One of the most frequent questions I get is “why is your site about birds when the domain name is catandturtle?”  Good question!  You can go read my About page to discover how my cats and my husband’s love of turtles inspired my photography.  :)

As my interest (OK, obsession) with photography grew, I started blogging about the places I went to photograph.  When I was first learning about nature photography, I had a hard time figuring out where to go in Central Florida to get good wildlife pictures.  I was very appreciative of people online who shared their expertise.  So I figured that I could share as well.  And so began the Beyond the Backyard series…

I love getting comments from my blog readers!  In addition to the WordPress comments, I get lots of emails from people asking me about bird identification and photography tips.  My most popular page is my Backyard Bird Identification page.  It’s fun to realize that I’ve achieved my goal of sharing Nature’s wonders with other people. :)

It’s also fun to see how my photography has grown over the years.  I think you can see a fun progression just from the images I’ve chosen for this post!  My most popular post this year was the Newborn Sandhill Crane at Nest, which chronicled the first week of a young Sandhill Crane’s life.  I was so excited to finally have the opportunity to photograph colts at the nest!

I couldn’t end a 1500-post milestone entry without mentioning my favorite shooting buddy, my dad!    My dad and I have driven all over Florida searching for birds together.  We’ve seen sunrises and sunsets and everything in between.  Happy Father’s Day, Dyeyo D!  Here’s to another 1500 posts!