About the Blog
I love writing, and for as long as I can remember, have been enamored with birds of all kinds, drawn to the chase, the diversity, the science, the art, the beauty. The great thing about both writing and birds is that they are perfect vessels for sharing a passion for the natural world and its conservation. While birds draw me to some of the world's most amazing scenes, they also bring life to the mundane. Writing, in turn, allows me to reflect on both the incredible and the less incredible, to see the beauty that is omnipresent, and hopefully to relay that to others. While the mundane things in life often constrain us – stiffling motivation and creativity – an appreciation for them more often has the opposite effect. This is why I write, and this is why I bird.
About Me
I have been birding intently for more than a decade now, since I began paging through the Sibley Guide to Birds of North America, doing detailed drawings of every species that caught my attention. I can't remember exactly what started this interest – I've been drawn to birds for as long as I can remember – but I do credit an ethereal experience with a Bald Eagle's seven foot wingspan emerging from a fog bank just above and in front of me for solidifying it.
I have since travelled across much of the continent following birds, from Maine and Washington to Arizona and Florida, and spent the last two summers studying Hudsonian Godwits in Churchill, Manitoba, the "Polar Bear Capital of the World." This experience in the summer of 2010, working in the field with Nathan Senner, a Ph.D. student here at Cornell, kickstarted this blog and has been an extremely rewarding opportunity to relive in 2011 and to draw from for future endeavors. I'm now a sophomore at Cornell University, studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Cheers, and thanks for stopping by Birding Et Cetera!
