Arte y Pico Award

Sometimes, as they say, the sun shines on a dog's rear end. While on vacation last week, and in the midst of one of my longest blogging dry spells ever, I was honored with the Arte y Pico Award from Wendy (a.k.a. Sparverius), who blogs at Musings on Nature. I found Wendy's blog while scrolling through the long but impressive blogroll at Born Again Birdwatcher. Her posts were well written and her photos were breathtaking, but the thing that truly captured my attention was her job. She works in a nature center in Utah teaching people about the outdoors, leads nature hikes, and (presumably) gets paid to do it. Needless to say, I was jealous, so I continued to read. I was flattered when she became a regular visitor and commenter on my blog, and her nickname always makes me smile (the American Kestrel, one of my favorite birds, owns the scientific name Falco sparverius) .

The award, as I understand it, recognizes art in all of its forms in the blogging world. While I hardly consider myself an artist, I guess that's the inate beauty of art . . it is something different to all people. There are a number of blogs that I visit regularly, although Wendy and I tend to "run in the same circles", so my nominees for the award would overlap a few of hers. Most notable in that group (aside from Wendy herself) is Felicia at OC Warbler. Felicia and her husband (I assumed that, sorry if it's just significant other) Glen bird and blog in Southern California, and their photos and stories are always amazing. I envy the diversity of species they come in contact with regularly, and I really envy Glen's photographic talents. Dude is just good.

So with that "honorary" award given to Felicia, I would like to officially pass the award on to the following blogs that I visit regularly. They all add something different to my days, and I truly look forward to reading their posts and seeing their wonderful photos.

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My first award goes out to John at Born Again Birdwatcher. I found John's blog while mindlessly watching the "Blogs of Note" scroll past the top of my Blogger dashboard one afternoon. I was immediately pulled in by his writing, which I appreciate for its wittiness as well as its sophistication. At one point John, like me, was a stay-at-home dad. That connection was only slightly stronger than our mutual affinity for all things winged, and his became the first blog I ever read on a daily basis.

The next award is for Lynne at Hasty Brook. I must have some subconscious affinity for woodsy, mountainous locales because most of my favorite blogs are written from such places. Lynne posts unbelievable photos of birds she sees right in her back yard in Minnesota, and they make me so jealous! She has a knack for blowing my "big days" right out of the water . . it seems each time I have what I think is a great birding day, she's seen 7 life birds and gotten incredible pictures of all of them. I find myself striving for her fortune.

My final award I have saved for last for emphasis. While I'll admit that I can, at times, be a bit of a sap, I try not to get too emotional about things that don't immediately impact my life. Problems at home may still conjure up a tear every now and then, but few other things will. Mary's View is one of those few other things. I found Mary's blog when she posted a bird sighting on our local Audubon Society's list server. At first it was just neat to read another blog from the Charlotte area, and it was a bonus that she often blogged about birds. I soon learned, however, that Mary's blog was much more of a series of postcards than any other I'd encountered. She's got an incredible circle of friends in the blogosphere, and her posts are often very personal and emotional communiques with those friends. Her writing spans the widest emotional spectrum imaginable, and I find myself bracing for a good cry when I click her link in my bookmarks. Much like with this award, I always save Mary's blog for last.

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The designer of this award has asked that the following be passed along with it:

The origin of the Arte y Pico Award: "This prize has arisen from the daily visits that I dedicate to many blogs which nourish me and enrich me with creativity. In them I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. I want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain me day to day and to share this prize with those who enrich me every day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few. The people I will name today deserve this prize, as do the very long serious list of bloggers I also enjoy to read. But I will name the first 10 and leave the rest of the work to all the bloggers that visit other's blogs and are nourished by them."

Here are the rules, if you decide to pass the award further to remarkable blogs in blogosphere worth to mention:

The rules:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.
3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.
4. Please include a link to the “Arte Y Pico” blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.
5. Show these rules.