I started birding when I was eleven years old after earning the Bird Study merit badge at Boy Scout camp. Growing up in Maryland, I was fortunate to learn from several birding mentors who eagerly imparted their knowledge and helped me deepen my interest in birds and birding. In the fall of 2014, I moved to Williamsburg to begin my PhD in American Studies at William & Mary, which I completed in May 2020. I now live in Cape Charles, which is certainly a treat from a birding perspective. My involvement with Virginia birding was stoked through my involvement with the Bird Club of William & Mary, and in the subsequent years I’ve had great fun getting to explore the state and meet many of my fellow Virginia birders. I am happily married to Erin, and even that is something I owe to Virginia birding — we met in September 2014 while chasing a Sabine’s Gull on the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry. I am an avid county birder, a pursuit which has led me to explore all 133 counties and cities in Virginia. In addition to birding, I am a passionate fan of rock music and enjoy collecting CDs and records, as well as attending concerts. I am also an enthusiastic supporter of Virginia craft beer, and my birding travels dovetail nicely with my interest in visiting breweries across the state (I’ve been to over 180 in Virginia thus far).

I was always interested in birds and wildlife in general growing up in Michigan but I started birding more seriously when I was fourteen years old in 2007 when I got a National Geographic Field Guide and started using eBird. I had the privilege of learning from several excellent birders in Michigan who first introduced me to county birding. I went to college at Christendom College in Warren County Virginia starting in the fall of 2011 and got a job with a government contractor doing web development after graduation so I remained in the area. I was always interested in birding and keeping track of records in the local counties in the northern Shenandoah Valley, but I didn’t really get into county birding at the statewide level until my Virginia Big Year in 2016. Since then I have gotten pretty into it and have birded in all of Virginia’s 133 counties and independent cities. I have become especially interested in focusing on the cities and counties with little coverage by birders and trying to grow the lists for these counties. Besides birding I’m an avid baseball fan. The Detroit Tigers are my team but I’ve become a bit of a bandwagon Nationals fan in recent years as well. I also very much enjoy going to minor league games and hope to eventually attend games for all the minor league teams in Virginia.

From my first bird walk with Sean Duffy at Waples Mill Elementary School in 2nd grade, I have been hooked on birds and birding in Virginia. Through middle and high school I was active with the Northern Virginia Teen Bird Club based out of my hometown of Oakton in Fairfax County. Later, while pursuing my undergraduate degree at The College of William & Mary I founded a birding club that continues to be active. Some of my favorite birding in Virginia consists of kayak trips, exploring under-birded hotspots in the Williamsburg area where I now live and work, and assisting researchers at the Center for Conservation Biology with various field projects. Away from birding I enjoy trail running, hiking, herping, fishing (fly and conventional), botanizing, and visiting micro-breweries. While I consider Virginia my home and favorite place to bird, I have also spent time living and birding in Alaska, Switzerland, and Madagascar.

My first memories of sharing bird sightings hearken back to 1976, when I would eagerly tell Mrs. Twohig, my second grade teacher, about the cardinals, Evening Grosbeaks, or Ring-necked Pheasants that visited my backyard in Lynn, Massachusetts. She too was a birdwatcher, and she would tell me of her finches, sparrows, chickadees, and titmice. My interest in birds has accompanied my whole life, but in the mid-1990s, it became a much more serious pursuit. The more I birded, the more involved in birding I became. Within a couple years I was compiling the Snickers Gap Hawkwatch, and The Plains/Airlie CBC. I completed a record-setting Virginia big year in 2002 with 347 species—a record that held until 2020. I have sat on the Virginia Avian Records Committee multiple times since 2001. I spent five years as the North American Birds regional editor for the Middle Atlantic region, beginning in 2003. In 2005, I took on the role of eBird reviewer for Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, before paring down to just Virginia a few years later. I am still the Virginia statewide coordinator for eBird, and review Fauquier, Culpeper, and Green Counties.

I love exploring all of Virginia, and proudly admit to being a keen county birder—one of Virginia’s first birders to submit eBird checklists from all 133 counties and cities (the so-called “133ers”). Beyond birding, I am happily married to the lovely Kate, and father to Fox. I enjoy professional sports with a loyalty to all Boston teams, and the Liverpool Reds. I am an avid indie, punk, and alternative rock fan with roots that go back to sixties and seventies classic and hard rock. Another interest that pairs nicely with statewide birding is finding breweries in all corners of the state, having tilted a pint or two at around 100 of them.