Author: Erika Zambello

Erika Zambello is a writer, birder, and photographer living and working along the Emerald Coast of Florida. She has a master’s degree in environmental management, where she specialized in ecosystem science and conservation. Her love of the outdoors was inspired by a childhood in Maine, where she returned for her National Geographic Young Explorer grant. In addition to Maine, she has lived in New York, France, Washington, DC, and North Carolina. Erika believes in the power of communicating conservation and exploration, which was the inspiration for One World, Two Feet.

National Parks Traveler – Birding In The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

A light drizzle created a gray sky when my mom and I hopped out of the car at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas. The flint hills rolled all around us, differing shades of green fading in and out of the distance. Though the prairie used to cover 170 million acres, only 4 percent…

10000 Birds – Graduation Birds

Graduation ceremonies are quite long, and one weekend in December I attended my 5th such ceremony celebrating my husband’s bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. Graduation is a time to reflect, celebrate achievement, look towards the future… But there’s also a lot of empty wait time. So, on the morning of his Gainesville commencement…

National Parks Traveler – Searching for the Slave Ship Guerrero

Terror echoed across the waves in Florida’s Biscayne Bay. The slave ship Guerrero had just run aground on a nearly invisible reef, unable to move, its splintered hull quickly filling with saltwater. Others heard the cries and attempted a rescue, but so many could not be saved. The disaster remains a testament to both the cruelty of…