Aug 14 2010
About Me
Photo by Liz Gordon
Welcome! Here’s a bit about me. Since this is a blog after all, I’m guessing you’d be interested in an annotated list of links that will give you an idea of some of the things I’ve done in the realms of multimedia and social media. If you’d like to see my résumé, look here.
If you only have time to look at one or two things in the list below, I suggest Before the Spark, especially the video at the end of the post, and Almost Like Resurrection. If you want to see me being interviewed, check out Horseshoe Crab Spawning with Host Our Coast.
If you don’t know how to adjust resolution on YouTube for the best viewing experience, please see the tip here.
Below are direct links to five blog posts of mine that I recommend as a starting point:
•Before the Spark: Here I tell the story of my own “spark” bird and a little about how I got started in birding. At the bottom of the post, there’s a video I did that I think you’d enjoy. I interviewed a number of birders at the Cape May Autumn weekend and got them to tell me the stories of their spark birds.
•Swainson’s Warbler: King of the Rhodos: A photographic essay about a wonderful encounter with a wonderful and weird bird.
•Horseshoe Crab Spawning with Host Our Coast: This post features a video of me on the Delaware Bay shore, talking about the horseshoe crab spawning and attendant shorebird migration.
•One and a Half Hours at Mindo Loma: Ecuadorian eye candy. Plus, giant earthworms!
•Here’s a guest post I did for the estimable 10,000 Birds, concerning a stellar morning with The Military Macaws (and people) of Jaumave, Mexico.
Peterson Video Podcasts A major project that I did with Bill Thompson III in 2008 was a series of 33 video podcasts for the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. One of the things I’m proudest about is that these videos were almost entirely created from scratch by Bill and me, using home computers. It was labor intensive, but I think we produced a very good product. Here are 2 that will give you a nice sample.
•Almost Like Resurrection: This is a biographical sketch of Roger Tory Peterson from his birth up to the publication of his first field guide. Yes, that’s me doing the narration.
•Woodpeckers: This is just one of fifteen bird family overviews that we did—the aim is to paint a portrait of the group, not go too deeply into identification. There are portraits of lots of popular groups. If you like this one, try warblers, gulls, sparrows, owls. Heck, try the whole bunch.
Peterson Field Guides Facebook Page I maintain the Peterson Field Guides fan page on Facebook. I post lots of my own photography and videos there, share links, and comment on and answer questions about photos and videos posted by fans. Anything you see by “Peterson Field Guides” there is mine.
My Flickr photos: Lots and lots of pictures I’ve taken, plus one or two from other sources. Most of these, I’m happy to share for various uses, just drop me a line or leave a comment below.
My YouTube videos: A selection of odds and ends. Here’s a fun one—One-spotted Prepona discovery at NABA Park, Texas.
Delaware Birding Trail The Delaware Birding Trail’s web site is here. I’m quite happy with the online version, but I like the hard copy even more. If you enter your address on this page, they’ll mail you a free copy. I wrote the text for the guide, selected the photos (mostly by the amazing Kim Steininger) plus served as the coordinator for the whole project.
There’s lots more out there, but again, I believe this short list will give you a good idea of the kind and quality of work that I do. Thanks for looking!
A note about me as a blogger and social media user: I see a huge value in blogs. They provide a very personal, longer-form way to share information and images. I’ve loved having this one. When I think I have something really worth sharing, it’s here for me. But I’ve given up on trying to post very frequently.
I’ve tried doing the post-5-times-a-week thing and the post-every-week thing. My conclusion, for me only—blogging that often just isn’t something I want to do. In the last two years, I’ve found Facebook to be a much more interactive, exciting place to be on a daily basis than any individual blog. That could change at any time—I fully expect Facebook to sooner or later go the way of AOL, MySpace, and others that briefly dominated the online social landscape. For now, though, I think it’s where the action is, especially for the birding community.
As for Twitter, I’ve been on it for a long time (I was there before Oprah!) but I’ve typically found it more enervating than enlightening. I think I get it, I just haven’t gotten into it yet. If someone wants to get in touch and really show me the Twitter light, I’d love that. I do see how it’s potentially quite useful for people, e.g., birders, who are trying to communicate in real time in a certain region or at a particular event.
