Naturalisting

An avid birder for several years I am primarily interested in birds but also nature of all kind, especially invasive species distribution.

eBird profile

iNaturalist profile

Birding

I am the President of the Appalachian State Audubon Club, a campus chapter of the National Audubon Society, which leads bird walks and projects on-campus and in the surrounding area. I am also a board member of the High Country Audubon Society.

I have hundreds of hours of experience surveying for breeding birds on the East Coast as a Technician for the North Carolina Bird Atlas during summer 2023. I also have experience with point and route count protocols for birds, and some experience monitoring and identifying nocturnal flight calls (NFCs).

Birding Wiki

The Birding Wiki is a project I created to fill the large gap in qualitative information around birding locations. It is currently on hold thanks to a huge volume of spammers and lack of time on my part.

Invasive species work

I may be working with the Town of Boone and HCHRC to map invasive plants on town property.

I have experience mapping and monitoring invasives using iNaturalist, Esri Survey123 and ArcMap/Pro, and EddMapS.

Grandfather Mountain

In 2022 I did an internship at Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation to update their invasive treatment programs with new maps. I created ArcGIS Survey123 forms to digitize field data collection, and produced several maps of current and past treatment. I also identified several new invasive species not previously recorded on the mountain, and produced a report detailing my work.

Japanese Stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum

I am interested in whether there is a relationship between elevation or latitude and the date of first seeding for this stiltgrass.

It's important for landowners to know when stiltgrass is about to seed, and there is not much research on this topic.

I suspect that populations at higher latitudes and elevations begin seeding earlier the year in response to cooler climates.