About Me

Hello and welcome to my internet habitat! A little about me and why I've chosen to spend time creating this blog.

I'm a lifelong Nature enthusiast! I grew up in the beautiful New Jersey Pine Barrens and a very short drive from the Jersey Shore. When I was a young girl I brought home all manner of wild animals to study and then release. Anything I could catch and drag home was fair game and I was lucky to have very supportive parents. As I got older I bought many pets; snakes, frogs, lizards, turtles, fish, rats and everything in-between I could bring home and fit in my room. I also had a Border collie, Lady, my constant companion on all of my wanderings through the forest near my home.

As far as schooling goes, I have a B.S. in Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy and an M.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. My Masters' thesis on arthropod sensory ecology was published about a year after I graduated. 

I've held all manner of sciencey jobs over the years which have exposed me to so many different types of biological science and implementation. I feel incredibly fortunate! I've worked for New Jersey's Division of Fish and Wildlife studying endangered shorebirds (Piping Plover, Least Terns, Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers) and New Jersey Audubon Society studying endangered grassland birds (Grasshopper Sparrow, Horned Lark, Uppland Sandpiper). I was also a laboratory manager and technician for a vector biology lab studying invasive mosquitoes (Asian Tiger Mosquito). After all that I worked as an assistant project scientist for an environmental consulting company doing water testing, oil spill clean-up work, air monitoring and anything else that was needed. I decided that wasn't for me, went back to school for my MS, then worked as an adjunct professor for a few years. I loved teaching and also did research as an adjunct.

Now I am continuing my education by pursuing a Ph. D. this Fall and in my spare time taking photos of any wildlife that will allow it.

Popular Posts

Northern Mockingbird: The Singing Bully of the Backyard

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Link to this photo on my Flickr profile. This morning two mockingbirds in the green field were spinning and tossing the white ribbons of their songs - Mary Oliver 1 If you have a backyard and you live in Nothern or Central America, you probably have at least one Northern Mockingbird ( Mimus polyglottos ) living nearby. They are the second most popular state bird in the United States, a symbol of Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, and Alaska. 2 They are visually easy to identify; they have long tails they flick about and large white spots on the backs of their wings.  What's in a name? However, their family name, Mimidae, and even their genus and species name hints at a very different way to identify Mockingbirds. 3 Mimus ployglottus translates to "many-tongued mimic" in English. Listen for a long string of unrelated songs all woven together that resembles the songs of other birds in your neighborhood. If you have never heard one before,
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The American Museum of Natural History's Butterfly Conservatory Exhibit

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The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is one of my all time favorite museums to visit! I remember going when I was a small girl with my Uncle Steve, a science teacher and big promotor of my then budding love of all things science. While I go a few times a year, this visit was for a trip to the Butterfly Conservatory . I wish I had my real camera with me, but my cell phone did a surprisingly decent job. So please enjoy a few photos and some descriptions of the species involved! Let me set the stage for you... When you walk into the balmy tent full of magic and light breezes produced by hundreds of butterfly wings, the first visual thing you notice is the incredible amount of color! There is gorgeous foliage everywhere, in various shades of green and then, of course, the butterflies. It's a little overwhelming at first as the stunning diversity hits you full in the face. Small black butterflies sit daintily on the leaves while large black and white striped but
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