writing with a pen (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

9 November 2026

Nineteen years ago today, 9 November 2007, I posted my first blog at Outside My Window.

A flamboyance of 19 greater flamingos kicks off the anniversary celebration.

19 adult and juvenile greater flamingos, wading in Pallikaranai Marsh, Tamil Nadu, India (photo by Timothy A. Gonsalves, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

And there’s cake (not mine) that celebrated 19 years of Wikimedia Serbia in December 2024.

19th Birthday of Wikimedia Serbia, Dec 2024 (photo by Gorana Gomirac (VMRS), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

As of this morning I’ve written 7,019 articles but only a few are widely read. Here are three popular articles in the past 12 months in reverse time order.

• 3 November 2026 Just last week I wrote Insects Don’t Swarm at LED Lights because they are attracted to ultraviolet light. Incandescent emits UV but LEDs doesn’t. A few commenters said I’d got the facts backwards so today I triple-fact-checked and did not need to make corrections. Jump to the new text, an explainer about incandescent and LED (here) or read the whole blog below.
• 23 September 2026. Armadillos in Ohio!
• 12 December 2025. Lots of people want to know where rabbits are in the winter.

Thank you, my readers, for your enthusiasm.  I couldn’t have blogged every day for 19 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 19th Bird-thday, Outside My Window! 

p.s. This is my blog’s birthday, not my birthday. I’m a heck-uv-a lot older than 19 !