Yes, we have started our Big Year and, yes, we have already seen birds. Don't worry, we'll get to that soon. But, first, we want to introduce ourselves to you.
For starters, we are a couple. We met six months ago and bonded over our mutual love of wildlife, cats, beer, and a love of adventure. We've been exploring ever since. (Literally, we went camping just the two of us after only knowing each other for a week.)
I'll let Heather tell you a bit about herself: Howdy. I'm Heather Levy and I'm currently a graduate student at the University of Georgia studying cavity-nesting birds in old-growth pine forests of the Southeast. I'm active with my local Audubon chapter, and am a member of several avian and birding organizations. I started birding back in 2013 in South Florida, where I grew up, and my fervor for it only grew as years passed. I began working as an avian field tech in 2015 and fell in love with birding. I wanted to turn my passion for this humble hobby into a career and I have plans to pursue jobs in avian ecology and conservation after school. I firmly believe that birds are a key connection in drawing humans closer to the natural world and heightening awareness about conservation. Much of the marvel of birding is the mystery of it. Of course nature tends to follow broad patterns, but we follow birds, not always knowing what we may see, what new environments we may discover, or what interactions may unfold before us. And so, we begin our Big Year bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on new environments, species, and adventures.
As for me, I'm Peter Kleinhenz and my story is quite different. I work for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as an interpretive writer in Tallahassee, Florida. I've taken ornithology in Ohio, where I'm from, and in Oregon, where I went to graduate school. I've been birding intermittently since I was 21, but it wasn't until 2015 that I began to seriously work on my life list. You see, my original love was herping and, while I still wrangle and photograph snakes when I find them, birding has overtaken herping as my hobby of choice. Now, I'm president of my local Audubon chapter, participate in Christmas bird counts, and volunteer to teach kids in Tallahassee about birds and their conservation.
I'm not the birder that Heather is but I try to contribute to our Big Year in other ways. Planning trips has always been my specialty and I obsessively pore over eBird to figure out exactly where we need to go, and when. If information is out there about a certain place or a certain species, I will find it. In addition, a flight attendant friend who works for United provided me with a deal that allows me to fly for free. When we fly, I split the cost of Heather's airfare and we are able to chase birds, despite being far, far, FAR from wealthy.
Like Heather, I feel that a trip is not a trip without finding cool birds and cool breweries. Our goal for this year is to not only find 500 or more species of birds in the U.S., but to also have a blast doing it. Join us as we explore places off-the-beaten path, document wildlife, and sample breweries every step of the way.
This isn't meant to be a one-way blog. We'd like this to be interactive and would like to get to know our readers. Introduce yourselves and ask any questions you have while we go about our quest to find as many birds in the U.S. as we can between December 26, 2018 and December 26, 2019!
Follow Peter on Instagram: @petekleinhenz
Follow Heather on Instagram: @looksatbirbs
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