10000 Birds – Research and Birding at Elkhorn Slough

“What’s that?” I asked Virginia Guhin, Education Programs Coordinator of the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (ES NERR). We walked some of the trails at the reserve, and I had spotted a large bird hovering in mid-air, almost like a helicopter, just with more flapping. Peering through my binoculars, I saw a white bird…

Voices for Biodiversity – Global Big Day 2017

Birders had their binoculars and checklists ready on May 13 for the annual Global Big Day,and I was one of them. Armed with my eBird phone app, which allows me to record when and where I see specific avian species, I submitted three checklists with a total of 20 species along the Florida Panhandle. Shorebirds, seabirds…

10000 Birds – The Beauty of Checklists

Over the weekend, a fellow naturalist friend of mine came to visit the Florida Panhandle from the Big Bend’s Cedar Key. We spent a day on the beach, a morning on Turkey Creek, and took walks around the neighborhood. She is an expert identifier of marine invertebrates, sea grasses, and reef fish, but is just…