Interests

I've always come at science from a natural history perspective.  Being raised outdoors, it's easy to be amazed by the natural world and the organisms that live there. As a result, I consider myself an avid naturalist, birder, and contributor to citizen science platforms. 

Working with Dr. Jim Quinn in 2019 sparked my interest in birds, all thanks to the charismatic gull, tern, heron, and cormorant colonies of Hamilton Harbour.  Since then, birding has become one of my favourite hobbies and I've become a religious user of eBird (slowly approaching 300 Canadian species). 

More recently, I've branched into using iNaturalist, which I've found to be equally enjoyable. It turns out that birds aren't the only cool things living out there, and I've loved observing and documenting all kinds of taxa, especially insects and fungi. 

Citizen science is not only super fun, but also contributes significantly to meaningful work in ecology and conservation. I'd encourage anyone with an interest in science and nature to try it out! 

No surprise that my love of nature is paired with a love of outdoor activities. Hiking, camping, surfing, skiing... basically anything that gets me outdoors. Recently, I've been getting more into thru-hiking, and have a long list of trails that I want to hike in the future. 

Photography is fun and happens to compliment my other interests perfectly. I've always been interested in photography, but only really got into it through taking pictures of birds. Since then, I've acquired a passion for macro photography, for insects and other small things, and film photography for landscapes and everything else. Please check out some of my photos!