Why?

A lot of people walk through aimless, unsure what meaning this short existence should entail, if it should have a meaning at all. I’ve almost been the opposite – running circles and creating so many goals or aspirations that a single individual could never keep up with them all. Sometimes, I have so much passion for things, it comes out my ears. However, there really is a single combining thread, and as I move through life I’m seeing that dream take a solid form. I love wildlife, and I love the feathered variations especially. Not only do I want to travel the world and document these amazing places, creatures, and people in picture, but I want to preserve and save them. Obviously one individual cannot do that alone. This would involve meeting up with various local conservation organizations and teams. Helping the wider world to know about them and maybe help them get recognition that could lead to funding for important work. It would involve meeting and inspiring individuals, because no one will be motivate to save what they do not know about or are not passionate about.

And that’s where this dream starts to form locally. I love my birds, and I want to share that passion locally – to help inspire people locally to care about saving birds, especially birds of prey. To start to learn about the birds around us locally and make local actions, but also to help educate about the amazing efforts being made worldwide. So here, locally, I’d like to offer personal experiences to meet a bird up close and personal, and hopefully to inspire some spark that will lead an interest or a change that will help in the long run. People won’t make efforts to save what they do not care about, what they do not know. Have you gotten to meet an owl up close? Perhaps if you get to gaze into one’s eyes, and see the intricate delicacy of their soft feathers up close, and the amazing length of those sharp talons that helps them to capture rodents – maybe you’ll think twice about using poisons that can harm wildlife in your personal life. Maybe you’ll even look up organizations that are trying to save owl species from extinction. They are amazing creatures, and each one has their own personality and light.

Anyway, it’s such a small thing, but I hope by giving people a chance to meet these birds up close, it will make a small difference, one that may radiate out in undefinable ways. In more concrete ways, I’d like to use this venture to not only fund the care of the birds themselves, but help me to continue my education in Conservation Medicine, and help me to reach out to far flung organizations to document and share them. I’ve worked with kokako in New Zealand, the Ethiopian wolf in Ethiopia, and have experienced the joy of a Kazakh eagle hunter on a hunt in the windy crags of Western Mongolia. I’d like to go back to all these places, and not only share these experiences, but support the people doing them. In 2023 I have plans to go back to Mongolia, and I’d like to bring supplies and money to the eagle hunters who are living such a traditional life in a desolate place – to support their effort to keep these traditions going. I have plans to also reach out to local conservation organizations, and see if I can help in those efforts too – both Eurasian eagle owls and saker falcons are native to  Mongolia (in fact, the saker falcon, like Pita, is Mongolia’s official country bird). Big dreams like these need resources, so I’m starting small but dreaming big.

I want to share this love, I want to share my passion, and hopefully, in the end, I’m able to do a little good.

Thank you for visiting my website, hopefully this is just the beginning!