Field Notes
Dispatches from the field.
Occasional writing on where we're going, what we're seeing, and why we chose it. No schedule to hit — when a season closes and I have something worth saying about it, it lands here.
The archive
Travel Insurance for Birders and Nature Travelers: Why the Timing of Your Purchase Matters as Much as the Policy
For birders and nature travelers, the most important travel insurance decision is often not which policy you buy, but when you buy it. Here is why the first few weeks after your deposit matter.
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A Taste of Portugal
Portugal's kitchen changes as fast as its landscape. In eleven days you'll move from the tidal Tagus to the sun-baked steppe to the wind-scoured Atlantic cape — and the food at each stop reflects exactly what the land and water around it provide.
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Berry-Stained Bills: What Western Tanagers Are Telling Us Right Now
A purple smear on a Western Tanager's bill is more than evidence of breakfast. It marks the turn from breeding season to dispersal, molt, and the long journey south.
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Birding East Anglia in England
A short field guide to why we chose Norfolk and Suffolk for our first small-group journey — the coast, the reedbeds, the Brecks, and the three mornings that make the whole trip.
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A Little About Our Philosophy
The name of the company is a clue. An ecotone is the transition between two habitats — the reedbed edge, the tide line, the treeline. Life gathers at the edges. So do we.
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Where to See a Shoebill
Africa's strangest bird stands a metre and a half tall and holds still longer than you can. A short field guide to the two places in Uganda where we look for Shoebill — and how a dugout canoe fits into it.
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Gorilla Trekking for Birders — How It Works
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is the best birding site in Africa and the home of the mountain gorilla. Here is how a permitted hour with a gorilla family actually works, what it asks of you, and why it belongs in the middle of a birding trip rather than bolted onto the end.
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Welcome to Ecotone Journeys
A short note on why we're here, what a small-group birding journey with us actually feels like on the ground, and how these Field Notes will unfold in the seasons ahead.
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