10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2016

I felt especially thankful for the cooler air while boarding a touring boat at the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserv e along the coast of Alabama. Dedicated to science, conservation, and education, the reserve focuses on the smaller Weeks Bay, which in turn connects to Mobile Bay.

Alabama 154

Alabama Pelicans Science Fish 154

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2018

I would wake up in darkness, gather my camera and binoculars and drive to Alabama for a birding tour along a river. That my data would be used in a global citizen science event? Originally, I had big plans for the October Big Day. I would tick off migrating songbirds, from tanagers to vireos and everything in between.

Florida 113

Florida Alabama Kansas Pelicans 113

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2021

Chapter Two is a potpourri of stories about nemesis birds, birding by ear, birding for science, under the rubric of birding ‘for the love of it.’ ’ “Is this going to be a collection of essays?” ” I wondered. But, in Chapter Three the book takes on more shape.

Louisiana 264

Louisiana Species Mississippi Alabama 264

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

Over the winter, the universe lost four whooping cranes to what appears to be recreational shooting: three gunned down together in Georgia on December 30, 2010, and another in Alabama on January 28, 2011. There are 400 whooping cranes left in the wild, 100 of them in the eastern population. Here’s the petition.

2011 241

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 241

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2023

It is also about Chris’s personal history: his boyhood in suburban Long Island, college years at Harvard and the struggle to come out, ‘nerdy’ passions beyond birding–namely science fiction books and films, career highs at Marvel Comics, travels to foreign countries, and his complicated relationships with his parents.

Emotional 222

Emotional Birds Nepal Minneapolis 222