When I arrived at the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance office in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, a high-tempo, tap-tap-tapping immediately arrested my attention. Surrounded by pine forest in general, the pavement is bordered by a handful of shorter, swaying palm trees. Echoing squeaks sounded from beneath their shade, and as I watched, a diminutive bird launched himself from the safety of…
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.
Hook and Trigger – Keeping Balance in the Bay
On an early fall morning, Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance (CBA) Director Alison McDowell and her CBA colleagues waded into a Choctawhatchee Bay bayou with seine nets. Moving slowly through the cool water, they scooped up minnows in small dip nets before depositing them into waiting tanks. Crouching at the edge of the shoreline, they peered through…
10000 Birds – Summer Tanager at the University of West Florida
Three evenings a week, I trek exactly 51 minutes from my house or 97 minutes from my office (depending on the day) to the University of West Florida campus in Pensacola for graduate classes in strategic communications. In 2018, I have set a goal of birding at least 15 minutes each and every day, which…
E. Zambello Writing and Art 