Loving birds and "anything in nature" goes back to my earliest memories. My dad helped build nest boxes and bird feeders before I was able to do so myself. As a kid I had several wonderful bird adventures on foot with a friend. Then at age 14 my first list of species with date and place cemented this life-long passion. Over the years I've been keenly interested in conserving several prime birding spots and also had many projects providing nest box support for challenged cavity nesters. I tentatively ventured into photography late and have now added a Canon EOS R6 Mark ii with a Cannon 100-500mm lens making my captured images much more rewarding. Photography has also made the study of butterflies and dragonflies more interesting, so those have been added to the focus of various excursions and trips.