It has been a little while since my last update, but I can assure you that I am alive and well! I had a busy winter of travel interspersed with some quality time back home in Hamilton, Ontario. For the month of February, my wife Laura and I ventured to northern Peru. We rented a vehicle for the first 17 days and completed a big loop in the northwest, followed by a flight to Iquitos where we spent around 10 days in the Amazon at three separate lodges. The trip was amazing with innumerable highlights, and I have been posting daily blog posts on my travel blog. Royal Sunangel In March I was off ..read more

Since my latest post, I have done a little bit of wandering here and there in search of birds. Though - to be fair - I haven't done much actual birdwatching. Instead, I have been on a few rare bird twitches.  In recent weeks, I have taken advantage of the poor weather and lack of sunlight by staying inside and chipping away at the to-do list. I just haven't had much motivation at all to go look for birds; after Indonesia and Ecuador, walking around Hamilton in the cold and the rain and not seeing much just hasn't seemed that enticing. My work schedule has filled up as well, leaving not as ..read more

It has been a busy autumn for me. Field work had occupied my time all summer and by September, I was off to Indonesia to lead a birding tour of Sulawesi and Halmahera for Quest Nature Tours. I was home for a couple of weeks and then off again, this time to Ecuador to lead a tour in the Galápagos as well as to spend a week on my own afterwards, in the lower foothills of the eastern Andes. (By the way, if you want to read about these international travels, I post regularly on my travel blog Explorations Of An Ecologist, linked here). However, since my return I have been trying to get out birding ..read more

The last month and a half has been a whirlwind to say the least. Laura and I returned from Brazil on April 27, just in time for the peak of spring migration here in southern Ontario. But of course, we couldn't just drop everything and go birding as our plates had been full with other important items. Finding a rental house, for one. Becoming gainfully employed, for two. And, most importantly, reconnecting with friends and family.  Orchard Oriole - Point Pelee National Park, Essex County (May 13, 2023) As I write this now, I'm sitting in the living room of our new place in Hamilton, Onta ..read more

It has been a long time since I have posted on this blog! Life has been busy over the last few years in the time since I started ONshore Birding. I just wanted to provide a brief summary of the history of Onshore Birding, what I have been up to, and what plans I have in store.  Selfie at Salinas, Ecuador Back in the summer of 2019, I was working as an ecologist for an engineering company while my wife, Laura, was employed as a veterinarian. We were living in Niagara Falls at the time and planning a big life change. That summer, we quit our jobs to travel, mainly in Latin America, for ar ..read more

On Friday, July 23 I headed south towards Norfolk County for an evening of mothing at St. William's Forestry Reserve. I have experienced a lot of success here in the past; not surprising, really, given the high plant diversity in the general area, many with southern affinities. Tonight's weather was suitable enough (though a couple of degrees cooler than I would have liked) and I had high hopes! Aristotelia roseosuffusella - St. Williams Conservation Reserve, Norfolk Mottled Prominent (Macrurocampa marthesia) - St. Williams Conservation Reserve, Norfolk Suleima cinerodorsana - St. William ..read more

Monday, July 19 was another hot and humid day. The rain held off and by dusk the conditions were excellent for another night of mothing. This time I met up with Moe Bottos to explore the King's Forest area in Hamilton.  Olethreutes viburnanum - King's Forest, City of Hamilton Moe is a fellow moth aficionado based in Essex County. Underwing moths (​Catocala) are his passion, and we were hoping to discover a nice diversity of species in King's Forest. I had never mothed this area before and was excited for what was in store.  Hedya chionosema - King's Forest, City of Hamilton As du ..read more

For the second year in a row I participated in National Moth Week, an event hosted on the website iNaturalist. Between the dates of July 16 and 25, any observation of a moth that was submitted to iNaturalist would be added to a Project which aggregates all of the sightings. Here in Ontario, we have a province-specific Project.  Virgin Tiger Moth (Apentesis virgo) - Sudden Tract, Waterloo Region During National Moth Week in 2020 I was unemployed, allowing me to take full advantage of nearly every evening. I mothed regularly at my favourite spots in Waterloo Region, spent five nights at a ..read more

The early summer is always a busy time for a naturalist here in Canada. My June and July have been pretty typical, with long hours in the field completing bird surveys and other inventories (my day job). I have been mothing in the evenings whenever my schedule allows, while I have filled in the gaps by searching for butterflies, herping, botanizing and the odd rare bird twitch. As a result, the blog often gets neglected. When I am home and in front of a computer, I have such a backlog of photos and recordings to go through and upload to iNaturalist and eBird that a blog entry isn't even consid ..read more

Since my latest post, I have done a little bit of wandering here and there in search of birds. Though - to be fair - I haven't done much actual birdwatching. Instead, I have been on a few rare bird twitches.  In recent weeks, I have taken advantage of the poor weather and lack of sunlight by staying inside and chipping away at the to-do list. I just haven't had much motivation at all to go look for birds; after Indonesia and Ecuador, walking around Hamilton in the cold and the rain and not seeing much just hasn't seemed that enticing. My work schedule has filled up as well, leaving not as ..read more