Seventeen Years Outside My Window

Birthday cake and candy sprinkles (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

10 November 2024

It’s time to celebrate and I almost missed it! Fortunately the crows reminded me that …

17 crows in flight (photo from Wikimedia Commons, cropped)

Seventeen years ago yesterday, 9 November 2007, I published the first blog post of my blogging “career.”

As of this morning I’ve written 6,282 articles but not all of them are winners. On the blog’s anniversary I look for the most popular articles in the last 12 months.

One Day Wonders: These Top 5 posts caused the biggest single day surge in viewers. Click the links if you haven’t read them.

  • What Happens When a Dam is Removed? Locks and Dam #3 were about to be removed from the Monongahela River at Elizabeth. What would happen? (3 July; 7,265 readers)
  • Roost Rings on Radar Watch expanding rings on radar when thousands of purple martins leave their roosts all at once. (16 July; 3,446 readers)
  • Black Walnuts Amazingly popular because it includes photo and video of FLORY machines sweeping and vacuuming walnut orchards. (23 Nov last year; 3,121 readers)
  • Appalachia’s Mango Ripens Next Month Pawpaws are popular! (27 Aug; 2,214 readers)
  • Emerging From the Deep An old bridge and town emerge as Youghiogheny River Lake drops in drought. (23 Nov; 1,860 readers)

Old Faithfuls: Which articles steadily gather the most attention? Two articles had more than 12,000 viewers in the past 12 months.

I think some (maybe most?) people searching for this title were disappointed to find it’s not about a human invasion. It’s about spotted lanternflies.

This article was a joke about the resemblance of the Devils Tower to a large petrified tree stump. I am surprised that viewers are still drawn in year after year.

Daily readership hums along at 700-800 readers (YOU!) and soars to a new record of 7,200 viewers in unexpected ways.

Thank you, my readers, for your enthusiasm.  I couldn’t have blogged every day for 17 years without you.  And a big thank you to all the photographers who let me use your photos.  I’ve made a lot of new friends.

Happy Bird-thday, Outside My Window

17-year birthday candles (photo by Dark Dwarf on Flickr, Creative Commons license)

p.s. This is my blog’s birthday, not my birthday. I’m a heck-uv-a lot older than 17!

16 thoughts on “Seventeen Years Outside My Window

  1. Congratulations and THANK YOU Kate for always informing and entertaining. But wait… no peregrine falcon post in the top5???

    1. I was surprised too that no peregrine posts made it to the top five but maybe that’s because no one died this year 😉 Falcon or Hawk? is a perennial favorite, coming in third at 9,786 views in 12 months.

  2. Congratulations, Kate. And thank you for keeping us entertained with so many interesting topics and hoping for many more.

    Like you and Anne Marie, it’s surprising that peregrine falcons didn’t make the top of the list. Maybe that’s a good thing, nothing crazy happened!

  3. Thank you for your amazing daily insights on nature! I find them a wonderful way to start my days! Congratulations on finding a way to touch so many lives with your daily words!

  4. Congratulations Kate on 17 wonderful and educational years of Outside My Window. Blogs are interesting and insightful. Keep up the great work for as long as you can.

  5. Thank you, Kate for your wonderful daily nature blog. Always so well written and well crafted, interesting and informative. I marvel at your stunning ability to do it day after day.
    You are truly gifted and that gift of yours is such a lovely gift to us. Here’s to another 17 great years of your blog!

  6. Happy, Happy Birthday my dear Kate. I thank you for being here every day with so much interesting information. 17 years with the blog and how many before that with the other site. I know I have been following you for at least 25 years and the knowledge you impart, has been invaluable. Thank you!!!

  7. Congratulations! I always learn something from reading your blog. Thanks for sharing your window with all of us.

  8. thank you for 17 years of fascinating facts. it cannot be easy to investigate and craft blogs every single day with new and interesting nature topics. Again, thank you, your blog is wonderful and the fact that it happens EVERY single day is even more wonderful.

  9. Congratulations on 17 years blogging Kate!! I’m sure some days you might not feel like getting it over the finish line but we sure do appreciate you. I’m so thankful I found “Outside my Window” I’ve learned so much. 🙂

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