Craziness…coolness…total surprise!

When I checked in to Red tonight, I found Roy Hilbinger of Roy’s World had selected Red and the Peanut for the Dardos Award. Roy is a skilled and talented photographer, a thinker, a knowledgeable birder, and a gifted writer, so to be among his picks for the award makes it all the sweeter. Thank you, Roy!

Here is the skinny:

The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.

The rules:
1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog. [Note: Don't forget to copy and paste the award jpeg itself to include on your own blog!]
2) Pass the award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.

In the short time I have been blogging, I have come across so many fun, informative and exciting blogs. I seem to learn something new everyday, and I’ve already made a lot of birding friends. Choosing only five bloggers to receive the award was stressing me out, so I decided to make it easy and go with the early Red Lovers:

The first person to welcome me to the world of blogging was Heather from Heather of the Hills. She dropped in introducing herself as a fellow Ohioan birder and nature lover. Heather has a playful sense of humor, posts wonderful pics of her beautiful woodlands, and is devoted to her blogging. Thanks for bringing me into the flock, Heather. I found a lot of other birding sites through Heather’s blog.

The second blog I stumbled on was the Nutty Birder by Eric and Rob Ripma. They are both fantastic photographers, and they also post on the Tri-State (Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio). They always have helpful info on their blog, as well as wonderful travelogues from weekend trips. They know birding inside and out!

The third blog I started following was Chris Photo Nature, which is based in Iceland. I visited Iceland in 1985 and immediately fell in love with the rocky cliffs and beautiful scenery, so when I found a birding blog with wonderful photos from Iceland, I was hooked. The European species are new and different for me.

The fourth blogger to become a Red Lover was Dave from Birds from behind. Dave is funny, and so is his blog. “Birds from behind” is dead-on descriptive because he tends to shoot his birds from the backside…if you catch my drift. Check it out for a chuckle and wonderful bird photography. Be sure to visit his warbler series.

The fifth blogger is Paul from Little Brown Job. Paul found Red and the Peanut early on. He and his wife, Debbie, are from Yorkshire in the U.K. They team up together in another blog called Snowbabies. I really enjoy looking at the European birds, especially their little Robin.

Since Roy only sent the award out to four bloggers, I’m going to scarf up his unused fifth spot and choose Kallen from Kitchen Window Birder as the sixth blogger. If you are at all a kitchen window birder, you will enjoy Kallen’s blog. She’s very enthusiastic and always has a fun story. Kallen brings a lot of energy to her blog. She also takes you along on field trips looking for birds in her area.