In a previous post I noted I was knee deep in digital bits trying to get everything transitioned to both the new computer platform and probably more tedious, resetting all the backups/trackers/counters etc. for 2024. The latter feels like I am back at work crunching numbers and traversing through spreadsheet cells. Didn’t really enjoy it back in the grind and certainly have better things to do now that I am not getting paid for it. However, it “has” to be done (wink). It is a nice way for our Intrigued staff to quickly see all the great things we did all year and I know they like to reference it in their end-of-year performance reviews. Truth is, I forgot to publish the 2022 Blog Summary last year. The end of the year was a mess and didn’t want to put my still whining elbow through the countless hours poring over the tracking documents. We just gave the staff all “exceeded” and then picked up the end of the year extravaganza bar tab. Win win I say! (especially for the legal department who are apparently a bunch of lushes). Decided to go ahead and get the 2023 summary done while dealing with PC downloads and file transfer wait times… and yes, my elbow still hurts.
2023 was an in interesting year for sure. Brad and his staff (Jan and Allyson) were old hats by then and regularly cranking out new adventures from their travel filled year. My Intrigued photo queue went ANOTHER year behind thanks to numerous trips to the likes of Texas, Las Vegas, Alabama and Florida. You have to give me some credit though as I was able to get a lot of the new tins out in record time (and now I have 21 new lifer birds from our recent trip to Arizona to add to the backlog – I am sure there are worse problems to have hehehe). We hit our self-imposed quota of at least 6 posts a month and reached all new levels for reader engagement (kudos to our great readers for sharing in our adventures). Still amazed by many of our fellow bloggers that are far more prolific. The birding front was wonderful as well. Hit the 400 lifer plateau and The Average Year (link here) was a huge success. In 2022, both Ron and I came up short on our 300 species goal. 2023 a completely different story. Both cresting over that mark setting even higher goals for this year. Brad also came in strong and will undoubtedly be moving into the Small/Medium Year bracket for this year.
On the flip side of that good news, the race season took a serious hit thanks to the “Root of All Evil” adding the first DNS (Did Not Start) to my racing career. Even though I religiously continued all the therapy exercises while on our trip, it is still not recovered and likely heading back to therapy next week for one last ditch effort before having words with the surgeon. Unfortunately, there were some truly sad times within the extended Intrigued family as Brad and his family lost a beloved family member. 2022 brought a lot of sadness to Linda and I and having our friends go through similar difficulties less than a year later was heartbreaking.
2024 is still young, but shaping up to be a great year. Now in our 17th year of blogging on our Intrigued platforms (The Mothership and its younger sister site Wildlife Intrigued). Several ’24 trips are all lined up (both Linda and I as well as Brad and Jan) – looking forward to bringing you the stories and pictures from our experiences. Hopefully we can continue to grow our presence and always looking forward to the reason we put the work in – to engage our wonderful readers, hearing your feedback, getting your take on our tins and truly learning together.
A few quick shout outs. A big thanks to Linda who has to put up with me (I really am a handful). She is my secret weapon – trip planner, financial wizard, nourishment provider, injury soother, bail provider (just in case hehehe) and truly a bird whisperer. Ron continues to push me on the birding front, dragging me out into the field, helping with those difficult IDs, keeping me posted with opportunities showing up on the birding forums and willing to throw himself in harm’s way to protect me (well, that is what he says…but I’ve seen him run screaming halfway across a field after seeing a Tick). Brad and his team have been a big help in keeping this blog from being work – also does a good job of catching my grammar/syntax errors. In my defense I was forged in the shape of and speak the language of a “coder”. To our staff – you continue to be the best and to all our friends out there spanning the globe, buckle in, 2024 should be a fun ride.
Well, it is time to look back on ’23 and bring you the performance stats. If you are curious about the details, hit the jump to see the 2023 Life Intrigued blogs stats and accomplishments (Mothership and the Wild side).
Thanks again to all my readers that keep us committed month after month. Cheers Everyone! (that is a dry toast of course as the year end extravaganza ran us out ha).
Wildlife Intrigued 