Avian Ecologist

Skua Inspo – March

It appears that the last MD pelagic to have a great skua this month was Mar 1 1992 and there were 2 birds seen then! Notes variably place the records at Elephant’s Trunk and near Baltimore canyon, but all records appear to be during a 12 hr trip. Similarly, there were several birds per trip […]

Pelagic <3

I thought it was only fitting to adorn the title of today’s post with the icon of the month! My heart was warmed by scores of alcids today! I stuck with pretty much the layer formula that works for me: This time I tried my heated socks, but the battery on one of them is […]

Skua Inspiration

As I psych myself up for yet another pelagic season in the north Atlantic, I review this month’s “nearby” skua sightings. On Valentine’s Day 1991, be still my heart: it appears a record from shore at Manasquan inlet NJ (among others that year) was accepted to genus level. Other encouraging records: So yet again, I […]

Best Birds of 2023

This year, my “big birding vacation” was that I signed up for a dream trip in the form of Kansas lek treks! On 4/14 I visited a lesser prairie-chicken lek and got to start the morning with some dancing chickens. The afternoon would see a possible tough miss of unpreparedness, where flying by the seat […]

Great Allegheny Passage

For my birthday, the guy I’m seeing took me on some cool little hikes in Ohiopyle. For one, we parked at the falls and walked across the 2 foot bridges.

Pelagic Overnight

We are just getting back from an incredible night and day at sea! From land, temps bottomed out at 57F and got up to a high of 79F. We started the morning at ~90 mi offshore off Wilmington canyon and worked our way back in from there. Here’s what I wore to stay comfortable… I […]

Yard Tree Candidates

From the list native to the county that would also produce some yummy fruits (for me and the birds) or add conservation value…

Compassion Fatigue

Yes, I’m writing this the day after Earth Day for a reason. I love that beautiful day we take to soak in nature in my favorite season of rebirth and new growth. However, the flip side of the appreciation that comes with being an ecologist these days seems to come with an inevitable degree of […]

Remote Sensing for Birders

Or: Birding in the era of climate change In my previous job as a researcher, I modeled hydrology of wetlands, including the playa lakes region. Visiting Kansas this weekend was my first time getting to spend time in that region since that project concluded, but sadly, I got to see the phenomenon we were testing: […]

LEPC Blind!

We had to depart in the vans at 4 AM to get to the lek with enough time to setup the blinds. The blinds had unzipped openings to look through (i.e. the openings were an exposure to the air temp/wind). The morning temp bottomed out at 58 F so relatively warm all things considered, and […]