I'm still recovering from a slight blogger-burnout as a result of compiling, writing and hosting I and the Bird #8. I can tell that I'm almost over it... I really, really enjoyed my turn at assembling IatB8 though. Our slowly expanding circle of bird-bloggers is a very friendly, smart and really fun bunch. I exchanged lots of emails with interesting folks whose blogs I read all the time, or only once in a while, about interesting and important nature topics. In imagining what IatB8 would look like, I had goals to include some of my favorite blogs and to introduce some new bloggers to IatB participation. I was thrilled to accomplish both objectives with the help of a few regular visitors to S&S - Deb, Alan, Pamela, Nuthatch, Lené, Cindy and others.

Two additional friends played an even larger role. Mike from 10,000 Birds, the mastermind who started the IatB carnival, was a great mentor and provided superb guidance. He has been summarizing his thoughts on carnival hosting in general here. And Tony G of milkriverblog provided a list of email addresses that he's collected to announce publication of IatB and CotS carnivals or to request submissions, etc. Tony's list was important in drumming up quite a bit of interest, both directly and indirectly. MSNBC.com listed IatB8 on their daily blog review page called Clicked. PZ Myers of Pharyngula was also on the email list and he was kind enough to post a link on his most excellent blog. Most traffic to IatB came from these two sources. Traffic here exploded to more than 10 times normal levels.


There is apparently lots and lots of interest in our IatB, the participating blogs and posts. S&S was even bestowed, briefly, with 'Adorabe Rodent' status.

I'd encourage others to consider hosting IatB or some other carnival. It's a lot of fun. I've noticed that Pamela and Nuthatch will soon be taking turns hosting IatB and CotS...