For my article on banding Snowy Plovers, I placed 2nd in the 2017 NFPW At-Large Professional Communications Contest for feature stories in an online publication. Yay! The judge wrote:

I appreciate the great detail this writer has given on these birds, their habit[at] and efforts to keep the birds in existence. Despite the clear expertise of the writer on the subject, she did not write over the head of the non-birder – like me – who might come upon this piece. The descriptions were engaging, mixing a love of nature and the ethereal quality of humanity with the concreteness of scientific study and exploration. The piece was well-organized with loads of facts that would clearly appeal to a birder. The call for birders to join in on the watch for these bands presented, for me, an unusual way to enjoy birdwatching and a great call to action at the end of the story.

My thanks go out to the federation for running the contest!

Read the article here: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/12/banding-floridas-snowy-plovers/