2025 was the least successful birding year of my short birding career. The lack of blog posts would give you a clue of that, but just to quantify it, I only got 2 lifers this year. 2. Eurasian Crag Martin and Italian Sparrow. Am I even a birder anymore?
Yes, I still am. Not only that, but I think I will look back on 2025 as one of the most successful birding years yet. That might sound insane, but this year has built the foundation of some amazing future birding. That's because of two people, Christina and Sydney.
Big plans were made in May 2024. Christina and I were going to go to Turkey and Romania. We were thinking about going to Madagascar in 2025. We were shocked to put those plans on hold when we found out Christina was pregnant. That led to some recalibrations not just for travels but for our life. Obviously, having a baby means that for a least a few years, life was going to slow down. That includes weekend trips, nights out, etc. Honestly, it was really hard to come to terms with, but I didn't know how fruitful it would be, even at the expense of birding for a year.
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| February 27 was the best day of the year |
The most important thing that this led to was a deepening of my faith. I had this insane plan of making a bunch of money fast so that I could retire young and just go birding. Previously, Christina and I were always traveling over the weekends, and slowing down meant that we spent more time going to church and more time pondering the Bible. It was extremely fulfilling, and I realized that the way I was pursuing birding was making it a false idol, as I was focused on making more money but also by being selfish with my time. I've dealt with some guilt, too, in my pursuit of birding this year that I am making progress on. It's been a lot, but it's progress that I needed to make, and I am grateful for Sydney forcing me to slow down. Previous birding trips involved a lot of anxiety about maximizing my time and species seen, but that has really eased. My limited birding this year has been focused on enjoying the birds and it's way healthier. I wrote about this years ago, but I had a very profound spiritual moment at the top of Eielson Visitor Center in Denali. I missed Northern Wheatear and Gyrfalcon on that day, but I left feeling so incredible. Those are the moments I want to chase now.
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| Lincoln's Sparrow at Harry Moss Park |
A big prayer of mine has been to balance birding with my faith, especially for some conservation services opportunities to open up. Through talking with people at our church, as well as this deepening of my faith, I feel a lot more at peace with God's plan, and I think I am much more balanced now. After a lot of reflection and prayer, Christina and I have come up with an outline where I could become a birding guide down the line. I still don't know how my birding will evolve and if those bird guide dreams will come to fruition, but God forcing me to slow down has put me more at peace, and some insanely cool opportunities that otherwise would not have been there without Sydney have come up.
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| A bad pic of Prothonotary Warbler at Mineola Nature Preserve |
Life slowing down meant that this was a good time to start studying for the CFA exams. No, not Chick-Fil-A, Chartered Financial Analyst. For my job, it is the gold standard and is more valuable than an MBA or CPA. It's 3 exams that require at least 300 hours per exam, and I read somewhere that like 10% of people that sign up for level 1 will get their charter. The exams are taken in windows, and you can take each at most twice a year if the timing works out. So, the pressure is really high, but success can mean a lot for my career and these aforementioned dreams of a balanced early retirement. Studying for that, especially with a baby, is very time consuming and has also kept me off the trails. The CFA, not Sydney, has been the source of at least 90% of my stress, probably more. It's HARD, and I am only doing it because of Sydney. Before Christina got pregnant, I said I would never do it because of horror stories. But since I knew I had some extended time where I would not be as busy, this was a good time to do it.
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| Blue Grosbeak at Trinity River Audubon Center |
In January of this year, I got news that I passed level 1. Immediately, I started studying for level 2, which is by far the hardest level. Sydney was born in February, so I prepped for and took my August exam with a 6-month-old, which makes me even more proud of my passing. While my last exam is not until August 2026, there is light at the end of the tunnel. For something that felt so impossible, I am so thankful to be where I am. There is no way I am at this point with the support of Christina. Once again, her support is doing things to get me on more birds.
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| Black-and-white Warbler at Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center |
In early March, just as I was able to get out of the house, my dad I participated in a Golden-cheeked Warbler survey at Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center, a place where I occasionally lead walks. We found some, and on top of really good views, I parlayed it into leading dedicated walks to see the warblers throughout the Spring. I got some conservation-oriented volunteering, and I also got really valuable experience for potential guiding dreams. The funny thing is, my friends were in Houston for the rodeo, something I would have done with them in the alternate universe where we didn't have Sydney. I would not have had this opportunity without her.
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| Golden-cheeked Warbler at Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center |
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| Sydney was very helpful with the GCWA walk prep |
Sydney and I have flipped through a ton of bird books together, and she is nearly at the age where zoo trips are going to start happening. Obviously, her entire family is smitten with her. I am hoping to turn her into a built-in birding buddy, and hopefully she will want to spend a week birding a national park instead of a Disney cruise when she is 6 (a man can dream). How can her mom or grandparents say no to that? Her grandparents probably have no desire to go birding in Kazakhstan, but maybe they would go if Sydney told them she was dying to see an Altai Snowcock?
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| Mom even got in on the action! |
Also, at the end of September and in early October, I went to Italy and San Marino with Sydney, Christina, and my in-laws. There was a minimal amount of birding done, but I got two new countries in Italy and San Marino (a major addition on my side quest to visit every country in the world), had a lot of fun, and still got to enjoy great views of Eurasian Blue Tit. I still felt very at peace walking through the hills above Florence. And 2 lifers are 2 lifers, even if you get them at the Ponte Vecchio. While I always try to make my travel work around the birds, I enjoyed not having it be the focus, and it showed me how much fun a non-birding trip can be. I still got a lot of fulfillment out of it, and it is reshaping the way I look at 2026.
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| Squid in San Marino |
There was a really cool opportunity that I got in October of this year, when I got to guide an Australian woman for the day who was on a layover. My first real guiding opportunity! It was a lot of fun, and we covered a lot of ground, as well as getting her some lifers. I was far from perfect and was operating on a stomach bug, but I got some great experience. It's not always about the birds, but the connection with people from all over the world that makes me love travel as much as I do.
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| Gray Catbird at Mineola Nature Preserve |
As 2025 ends, I think I have built the foundation of something that is going to be fruitful. My spiritual and mental health have seen major improvements, and I feel like my birding dreams have more purpose. There are a lot of options as 2026 begins. In May I will be going on another birding trip. I don't know where yet, but Armenia/Azerbaijan/eastern Turkey or Mindo, Ecuador are the frontrunners. My dad wants to visit every state park in Texas, so we will work on that. Christina and I are deciding whether we want to try to do Taiwan or Easter Island. There is also some time for a few long weekends, so some domestic places like SE Arizona, Great Basin, or a Half Moon Bay pelagic are all being considered.
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| Easter Island prep? |
The above dreams may come to fruition, they may not. I may change directions and go or do something else. All I know is that I can't wait to go birding with the people that I love most in the world, and after a year of being on the sidelines, I am really pumped to get back to some blog posts and some more writing. 2025 was slow, but it will mean that 2026 and beyond is going to be even better than expected.
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| Ended the year on a high note with a Dallas County Burrowing Owl |
Consider this your open invitation to go birding with me!
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