I first became
interested in birds at my best friend's turkey farm when I was a child.
During my college years at Penn State, I enrolled in an ornithology class
and spent my summers watching wild birds at a summer camp while working
as a counselor. After graduation, I realized I wanted to pursue a career
in avian biology, so I accepted an aviculture internship at the Tracy
Aviary shortly after my undergraduate degree was finished. After working
for several months at the San Antonio Zoo as a bird keeper, I moved back
to Pennsylvania in 2002 for my current job as a bird keeper at the Philadelphia
Zoo. I am also working part-time on my Master's thesis at Villanova University.
My focus is on Carolina chickadee song repertoire and context at a site
in Chester County, Pennsylvania. I'm an amateur birder right now, but
I'm learning!