10,000 Birds Beat Writers
Here are all the amazing 10,000 Birds Beat Writers in alphabetical order by last name. If you don’t see a beat writer you are looking for here they might have left the blog in which case you will find them on the 10,000 Birds Writers Emeritus page.
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Faraaz Abdool: Birding Trinidad and Tobago and Beyond
When Faraaz Abdool reached out to Mike and Corey about writing on 10,000 Birds they were keen about the idea: after all, both of them had birded T&T before and loved it! Faraaz’s posts on Birding Trinidad and Tobago and Beyond will appear every other Wednesday afternoon.
Faraaz Abdool is an internationally published freelance conservation and wildlife photographer/writer who specializes in birds and the issues they face worldwide. He graciously serves on the Trinidad and Tobago Bird Status and Distribution Committee (formerly the Trinidad and Tobago Rare Bird Committee), and leads birding trips on both islands. Faraaz also runs yearly birding and wildlife tours to East Africa.
Although he doesn’t keep a life list, Faraaz has been a keen birder for many years, separating Black and Turkey Vultures at a distance as a little boy, skipping class to gaze at Magnificent Frigatebirds as a teenager, and quitting his job as an electrical engineer to put all his energy into conservation as an adult. Faraaz cultivates wildlife consciousness via his words and images, in a last-ditch attempt to reconnect humans with nature and save the world.
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Hannah Buschert: Adventures in Birding Here and There
Hannah is very engaged in promoting women’s birding, helping to organize a conference on the topic. She also travels a lot both in the US and abroad, which makes for excellent posts. I have no clue how she manages to write posts while operating a motel, but I am glad she does.
Hannah Buschert started birding in college thanks to a required Biology of Birds course and a professor who included Sir David Attenborough’s Life of Birds to punctuate lessons. Almost as if by accident, Hannah landed the dream job of Park Ranger in the Rio Grande Valley at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park where she guided many birders who filled her head with far-off destinations and incredible birds. Consequently, her beat is Adventures in Birding Here and There.
Called home to the Oregon Coast to operate the family motel, in her free time Hannah leads Tufted Puffin walks and escapes to guide at birding festivals and explore the world as often as possible. Hannah is passionate about travel, tourism, and birding and hopes to inspire others through her podcasts: Hannah and Erik Go Birding, Women Birders (Happy Hour), and Bird Nerd Book Club.
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Jason Crotty: General Birding and the Law
Jason Crotty started at 10,000 Birds with a series of awesome guest posts and signed on as a beat writer in March 2017. His beat is General Birding and the Law.
Jason is a birder, lawyer, and occasional writer currently living in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter. A Bay Area native, he started birding while working at a large law firm in San Francisco, but birds less frequently now that there’s a toddler around so he writes instead. He is particularly interested in the intersection of law and birding (especially the Endangered Species Act), other bird-related federal litigation, and the impact of federal public lands. He has also written about birding in Puerto Rico, which he believes is criminally underappreciated as a destination for birders. Jason’s writing has also appeared in BirdWatching, Birding, and Birder’s Guide, both online and in print.
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Luca Feuerriegel: Essentially Europe
Luca Feuerriegel approached me responding to my embarrassing campaign looking for new writers – and I am very happy to have him here. Not only because he writes well but also because he substantially lowers the average age of our writers …
Family holidays to nature reserves and the abundance of nature books including bird guides at home paved the way for Luca Feuerriegel to be a committed birder by the time he was in his early teens. Growing up in Namibia, South Africa, and Sri Lanka provided the perfect setting for this interest. Luca recently completed his BSc in the Netherlands and currently spends his time working (and birding!) before starting his MSc.
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Clive Finlayson: Avian Survivors
Clive Finlayson received a 10,000 Birds post from his old friend David Tomlinson and then asked me about writing for 10,000 Birds as well. That is the kind of network effect I really appreciate. In addition, his first post indicates that he is an absolute expert on raptors, – and a great photographer. I am very glad to have him as a writer.
Growing up in Gibraltar, it is impossible not to notice large birds of prey, in the thousands, overhead. That, and his father’s influence, got Clive hooked on birds from a very young age. His passion for birds took him eventually to the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at Oxford University where he read for a DPhil, working with swifts and pallid swifts. Publishing papers, articles, and books on birds aside, Clive is also a keen bird photographer. He started as a poor student with an old Zenit camera and a 400 mm lens; nowadays he works with a Nikon mirrorless system. Although his back garden is Gibraltar and the Strait of Gibraltar, Clive has an intimate knowledge of Iberian birds but his work also takes him much further afield, from Canada to Japan to Australia. He is the Director of the Gibraltar National Museum. Clive’s beat is “Avian Survivors”, the title of one of his books in which he describes the birds of the Palaearctic as survivors that pulled through several ice ages to reach us today.
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Mark Gamin: Book Reviews
Mark Gamin contributes book reviews to 10,000 Birds – we are happy to have him here.
Mark Gamin is a lawyer, writer, and editor. He became a birder at Antioch College, where he studied with the ornithologist Jim Howell, and first saw the secretive Virginia Rail. Physically Mark is a resident in Cleveland, but in his mind, he is often at his small farm in Appalachian Ohio, on the very edge of civilization.
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Sara Jentsch: Annoying Woodpeckers and Beyond (and Other Tales by an Amateur Bird Watcher)
Sara Jentsch contributed a guest post describing her experience with an annoying woodpecker. Hoping to get more bird-phobic posts from her in the future, we asked her to become a regular writer. Unfortunately, it turns out she likes birds as much as the rest of us.
Sara Jentsch is a German law student with a passion for writing, art, and nature. She also has a growing interest in birds, although she considers herself a newcomer to the field. Balancing her studies with creative pursuits, Sara finds inspiration in the outdoors and expresses her ideas through writing. She is committed to learning and creativity in all aspects of her life.
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Leslie Kinrys: Canadian Birder At Large
Given that many of the readers of 10,000 Birds are based in North America, and that presumably many of them are female as well, I felt it is a bit unfortunate that both groups are underrepresented among our writers. So I was very glad to be approached by Leslie Kinrys about contributing posts.
Leslie Kinrys has loved birds since her father put a House Sparrow fledgling in her young hands. She lives and birds in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with some trips farther afield. She enjoys seeing all species of birds, but her favorites are hummingbirds. Also, Leslie enjoys, reading, listening to country music, getting together with friends, and rooting for her baseball team: the Toronto Blue Jays.
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Paul Lewis reached out to us with some guest posts about birding in Mexico and we liked them so much we invited him to become a beat writer!
Paul Lewis moved from California to Mexico 36 years ago. He lived first in Mexicali, and now in the historic city of Morelia (about halfway between Guadalajara and Mexico City), where he and his wife pastor a small church. He is the author of an internationally distributed book in Spanish about family finances and has recorded four albums in Spanish of his own songs. But every Monday, he explores the wonderful habitats and birds found within an hour of his house, in sites that go from 3,000 to 10,000 feet of altitude.
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Angela Minor offered to write for 10,000 Birds despite already having quite a few writing and editing credits to her name. (We don’t know why either!) She wanted to write about visiting parks and political-based attacks on those parks but “Conservation Politics and Park Destinations” wasn’t quite the catchy title we felt was needed for her beat. Fortunately, Angela came up with Park Watch …
Angela has lived, traveled, and birded across the southern US to the Rocky Mountains, in Alaska and the Caribbean, and seven countries in Europe. Freelance travel writer is her third career iteration, following teacher and small business owner. She currently writes for several travel publications including Blue Ridge Country, Smoky Mountain Living, and cruise sites; serves as a Field Editor with Birds & Blooms; and authors the state park birding series for Bird Watcher’s Digest.
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Rolf Nessing: Birding in Germany and elsewhere
I initially asked Rolf if was interested in being profiled in our “Bird Guides of the World” series. Not only was he, but he also agreed to contribute posts covering his home patch – an area which fellow writer Jochen remarked on “I cannot stress enough how amazing birdwatching in Brandenburg (and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is”. So, we are very glad to have Rolf cover this area.
Rolf Nessing has been a voluntary bird ringing assistant in the field of scientific ringing since 1974. From 2000 onwards he has held a ringing license from the Hiddensee Ringing Centre, Germany, and has been involved internationally in ringing in the following countries: 1997 Biological Station Rybachy (formerly Rossitten) near Kaliningrad/Russia; 2000 Israel and Palestine; 2001 the island of Comino off Malta; 2003 Titreyen Göl near Manavgat/Turkey; 2005 Fuentes de Nava, Spain. His naturalist activities have also taken him to Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway), the Balkans (Bulgaria, Romania), Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Armenia, Georgia), the Mediterranean, Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), Mongolia, the island of Socotra, Morocco, The Gambia, Senegal, and Australia.
Rolf Nessing has been a freelance environmental educationalist, trainer, and environmental lecturer since 1992. He is the founder and CEO of birdingBerlin (www.birdingberlin.com) and the travel company Vogelzug-Reisen (www.vogelzug-reisen.de ) and offers guided birding tours to many locations.
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Peter Penning: Business Birding
After Peter Penning contributed an insightful and funny post on birding in Uganda, we naturally asked him to become a permanent writer. He seems to have found the perfect way of combining business trips with birding, which is why the title of his beat is “Business Birding”.
Peter Penning is a sustainability management consultant who spends many weeks abroad away from his homes in The Netherlands (work) and Portugal (holidays). Although work distracts him regularly from the observation of birds, he has managed to see a great many species regardless. He firmly believes in the necessity of birders to contribute to conservation. He passively supports BirdLife in the Netherlands and South Africa and actively in Portugal as treasurer of SPEA – Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves. Peter likes to meet people and have good after-birding lunches which has seriously hampered his ability to build up a truly impressive life list. Somehow, he doesn’t care.
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Kai Pflug: Bird Photography in China and Beyond
Kai Pflug is an excellent photographer who we are extremely pleased to have sharing his photos of birds in China (and beyond) here every Monday morning. The official title of his beat is “Bird Photography in China and Beyond.”
Kai is a German who has been living in Shanghai for the last twenty years, and who only became interested in birds in China – so he is much more familiar with birds in China than with those in Germany. While only an average birder, he aims to be a good bird photographer and has created a website with bird photos as proof. He hopes not too many clients of his consulting company read this blog, as they will doubt his dedication to providing consulting services related to China’s chemical industry. Whenever he wants to shock other birders, he tells them his (indoor) cats can distinguish several warblers by taste.
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Fitzroy Rampersand: Bird Photography in the Americas and Beyond
I have always been wanting to go to Panama for birding, so I was thrilled to be contacted by Fitzroy Rampersand, who lives there and offered to share his birding experiences there and in the broader area. His beat is Bird Photography in the Americas and Beyond.
Fitzroy or Fitz as he is fondly called began observing and photographing birds when the COVID-19 Pandemic forced border closures around the world including Trinidad & Tobago where he was vacationing at the time. Fitz used his free time to observe the many hummingbirds in his mother’s flower garden and soon, with the help of the internet he was able to identify the various species. He started putting up homemade feeders to attract the hummingbirds. His interest soon grew to include other species of birds developing a love for wildlife and especially bird photography.
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Donna Lynn Schulman: Birding Book Reviews
Donna was one of the kind Queens birders who helped Corey find his way around his adopted borough when he moved to New York City. A librarian by trade, she is the ideal person to have the Book Review Beat on 10,000 Birds.
Having been attached to books all her life, Donna Schulman is thrilled to be engaged in a passion that requires fealty to an information artifact called a “field guide.” Donna divides her birding time between Queens, NY, where she grew up, and central New Jersey, where she is on the faculty of a very large public university, and a volunteer with the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory of New Jersey Audubon. She was a Library Journal book reviewer for 15 years, reviewing over 100 titles, and has also reviewed birding books for the Queens County Bird Club’s News & Notes, which she formerly edited. When she is not birding or photographing dragonflies, or going to the theatre with her wonderful daughter, Donna travels to Florida where she attempts to turn her young nephews into birders, and contemplates writing an article for her blog, Queensgirl.
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Dragan Simic: Eastern Europe and Beyond
Dragan Simic is a name known by many of those who bird Eastern Europe. After sharing some excellent guest posts on 10,000 Birds we thought he would be a great addition as a Beat Writer and asked him to join 10,000 Birds. Dragan is now the “Eastern Europe and Beyond” Beat Writer on 10,000 Birds.
Now nearing 50 and duly lost in a mid-life crisis, Dragan Simic took to birding rather late – only half a lifetime ago, after successfully testing his inadequate skills in other life-threatening activities, such as rock climbing and vertical caving. In the end, it was birding that took him from his native Serbia, across the Balkans and Turkey, to the very borders of the Old World: East Anglia and Spain, southern Africa, and India… Besides birds and traveling in search of them, Dragan likes a good beer and the croaky voice of Shane MacGowan, hates confinements of four walls, but prefers four wheels and a lot of elbow room around. Birder by passion and environmentalist by education, he is the co-author of three common birds guidebooks, the writer and the host of one TV film on birding for beginners, a field researcher, an ecotourism consultant, a bird blogger, and a guy who always thinks that birding must be better behind that next curve of the road and that the best bird ever is the – next lifer.
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David Tomlinson: Birds and Brecks
Recently, David Tomlinson commented on one of my posts. I thought about asking David to write for 10,000 Birds – then dropped the idea after seeing his many posts for prestigious and/or well-paying sites. Just two days later, he contacted me, and I am proud to have him and his beat “Birds and Brecks” on 10,000 Birds.
David Tomlinson has been interested in birds for as long as he can remember and has been writing about them for almost as long. An annual highlight is hearing his first cuckoo of the year at home in Suffolk, England, which he rates as almost as exciting as watching White-necked Rockfowls in Ghana or Steller’s Eiders in North Norway. A former tour leader, he has seen an awful lot of birds around the world and wishes he could remember more of them.
As for the name of David’s beat, here is an explanation in his own words: “Brecks (Breckland) does need an explanation – it’s the name for the region on the Suffolk/Norfolk borders, renowned for its free-draining sandy soils. It has the closest to a Continental climate of anywhere in the UK. At its heart is Thetford Forest, which has the biggest population of nightjars of anywhere in the UK. The stone curlew is the other special bird of the region, again with the biggest population in the UK (over 250 pairs).”
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Valters Videnieks: Illustrating, Recording, and Observing our World’s Avians
Valters contacted me about writing from California, where he currently stays. I have been trying to get more writers from the US, and also more younger writers – he fits both (would be even better if he was a woman as well). And best of all, he draws the birds he sees, something I can only dream of doing in any kind of quality.
Valters Videnieks is a young birder coming from Latvia. Birds have interested Valters from about the age of 7, and his passion for windsurfing has allowed him to travel a lot and go birding in the meantime. Valters has yet to obtain a degree in biology but that is his plan in the upcoming years. Despite that, he has participated in a lot of surveys and citizen science projects. Besides just going around and listing the birds he sees, Valters has taken up an interest in audio recording and prefers that over taking photos. Bird illustration in the field has also stuck to him so on all birding trips, a good sketchbook and a few pencils are always in the bag. Valters has also obtained a license and proper training to ring (band) birds which allows him to receive intriguing information about bird migration. Valters enjoys spending morning hours, watching the sea with a scope as well as wandering through open areas such as steppes and mountains and looking for buntings, chats, pipits, and all kinds of small avians associated with these landscapes.
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Susan Wroble: KidLit Bird Books
Susan contacted me with a strong argument for adding a series of reviews of bird books for children: “Your readers are passionate about birds, and one way to pass along that love to the youngest generation is through books. Adults, not kids, are the purchasers of children’s books, and this review series would provide a valuable service to your readers”.
Susan Wroble is a Denver-based children’s author with a focus on science-based stories. When she is not writing, you can find Susan trying to transform her yard into a native plant habitat or working at Colorado Children’s Hospital with the family’s therapy dog. She has a lifelong love of birds, perhaps instilled at birth with her middle name—Burd.
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