Drew is a photographer and naturalist dedicated to sharing his experiences through photographs and writing. He has recently moved to Ithaca, NY and is exploring the local region and the world beyond.
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By Drew Fulton on November 29th, 2009
 Orange-bellied Parrot - With only a few hundred of these parrots left in the wild, how does their presence or absence effect the conservation of biodiversity. Biodiversity is a major buzzword these days, but my guess is that many people don’t grasp all that is rolled into that single word. There are multiple measures of biodiversity and yet there is really only one commonly understood definition, the variety of life in any given area or ecosystem.
Yet for scientists, biodiversity can be understood on many levels. For instance, let’s imagine three forests. Each forest has 5000 individual birds flying around. Forest #1 has 100 species of birds, each represented by 50 individuals; Forest #2 has 100 species of birds, 99 of which are represented by 2 individuals and the 100th species represented by 4,802 individuals. Finally Forest #3 has 1 species with 5000 individuals.
If we are talking strictly about the variety of life, as stated above, then wouldn’t Forests #1 and #2 have the same biodiversity? If we are talking abundance, well they all have 5,000 individuals. So what exactly is biodiversity and why is it so important to conservation? How can we distinguish between these different forests in a more meaningful way? Let’s dive in and get our hands dirty.
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By Drew Fulton on November 27th, 2009
 American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) - Everglades National Park, Florida I am currently in the planning stages of a visit back to the Florida Everglades and am getting really excited. After living in the national park for five months back in 2005, I have only been back briefly a couple of times. This January and February I will have at least three weeks in the region and I am really excited.
I plan to spend at least one day at this rather special location. It is an hour canoe ride but if the timing is right, the birding and photography can be excellent. Last time I was there I photographed numerous shorebirds, skimmers, and these wonderful American White Pelicans. As I keep planning, I just get more and more excited!
By Drew Fulton on November 26th, 2009
 Australian Brush-Turkey (Alectura lathami) - Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia Happy Thanksgiving! Amazingly, I don’t have any photographs of Wild Turkeys so I figured I would throw in a shot of the rather crazy looking Australian Brush-Turkey. These birds are very common along the eastern coast of Australia. In many of the national park campgrounds, these birds have lost all fear and will tear through trash bags and nearly anything to find some food, sort of like the avian version of a raccoon.
I hope you are able to spend today with friends and family. My wife and I will be spending the day with her family in central Pennsylvania. It will be a quick trip but it should be a lot of fun and full of great food.
Have a great holiday and travel safely!
By Drew Fulton on November 25th, 2009
 The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus) could gain additional protection if it was classified as a separate species Last Sunday, I mentioned that taxonomy could directly impact the conservation status of a species. That statement was based on personal observation but today, while browsing the latest issue of Biological Conservation, I found a great article surveying that very topic. W.R. Morrison III and his colleagues surveyed recent taxonomic changes and gauged their impact on the conservation of the associated species.
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By Drew Fulton on November 24th, 2009
 White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) - Private Ranch, Florida This past weekend was opening weekend for deer season here in central New York. I thought I’d take a moment to remind everyone that this is not the best time of year to be in the woods impersonating a White-tailed Deer. Be sure to wear hunter’s orange and be safe!
Fun Fact, did you know that the reason hunters wear the bright orange vests is because deer are color blind? The bright orange isn’t an issue for deer and that’s why you sometimes see hunting vests that have camouflage but include that brilliant orange. It’s enough for other hunters to see but it doesn’t scare aware the deer. Unfortunately, birds do see the full color spectrum. I’d love to see a study examining the reaction of birds to hunter orange vests.
By Drew Fulton on November 22nd, 2009
 Plumed and Wandering Whistling Ducks - Parry's Lagoon, Western Australia, Australia Yesterday I spent the day in the company of 4 other excellent birders as we worked our way around Lake Cayuga, into the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, and back down the far side of the lake. Over the course of the day, we tallied up 24 species of the Anatidae family that includes Swans, Geese, and Ducks. Other birders were also covering the same areas we were and at least 4 more species were seen that we missed. Two of these species were represented by 3 individuals among a flock of over 8,000 Canada and Snow Geese. These two species are essentially smaller versions of the Canada Goose (Cackling Goose) and the Snow Goose (Ross’s Goose).
So why did we not spend the time picking through these huge flocks for these few unusual individuals? What does that mean about my group’s interest in the species concept compared the other groups? Does any of this matter to the birds themselves? Ultimately, why do we care about classifying these birds so specifically?
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By Drew Fulton on November 20th, 2009
After only a few weeks of this series, I have chosen to put things on hold for a bit. I made the decision based on a number of factors I’d like to take a few minutes to explore. First, I believe that this series will be extremely valuable and become a great resource, but at this point, I don’t feel like I am doing the various habitats justice. My original plan was to include photographs, text, and even audio to help better describe the habitat. As I am new to this region, and new to many of these habitats, I don’t have the photographic library or even the natural history knowledge I would like to be able to really describe these habitats. By postponing this series for a few months, I will be able to complete a lot of research as well as further expand my photograph library to be able to better accommodate this series.
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By Drew Fulton on November 19th, 2009
This week’s Nature has an interesting article about conservation of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil and the charismatic Golden Lion Tamarin. We’ve all seen it before, conservation efforts for a particular area focus on the conservation of a single charismatic species. Whether it’s a tiger, a panda, or a beautiful monkey, the basic approach is to use this single charismatic species to gain the attention of those people in a position to save this species. If you save the species, then those efforts also result in saving other species that live in the same habitat. It is an approach used by nearly every conservation group out there and it works fairly well. But what about when it doesn’t? What do you do then?
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By Drew Fulton on November 18th, 2009
I just wanted to quickly post that I have now finished updating all of the lens pages in the Gear Bag article series. You can now learn about both the 12-24mm ƒ4 DX lens and its big brother, the 14-24mm ƒ2.8 lens. Also, I have posted about the older version of the 70-200mm ƒ2.8 and my very little used standard, 50mm ƒ1.8. I’ll start working on pages for flashes, tripods, and other accessories in the coming weeks.
By Drew Fulton on November 17th, 2009
 Taughannock Falls - Taughannock Falls State Park, New York A couple weeks back I was out for a day of birding and exploration traveling north on the west side of Lake Cayuga and into the Montezuma Wetlands complex to see the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. On the way up the lake I decided to stop briefly at the overlook for Taughannock Falls, the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi River in New York state (Thanks Earl). Having never been there before, I was expecting to have to walk a mile or so to visit the site and while that wasn’t in the cards for the day, I thought I would at least drive by. Turns out you don’t have to walk anywhere and this photograph was taken about 10 feet from the parking lot.
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