Ever since I was a child, I have loved observing the natural world. Although my career ended up following my love of puzzles (I am a Ph.D. in computer science), as a hobby I continue to delight in learning about all aspects of the environment. Cell phones provide a great way to capture detailed data in the moment. This site provides a powerful mechanism for sharing, validating, and integrating the observations of people all over the world. I think that the resulting database will be a valuable resource for all manner of research in the future and I want to expand the available data as much as possible. Compared to other regions, New Mexico is sparsely represented, so I'm excited to contribute whatever I can. Although I am not a biologist, I am a researcher and I appreciate the importance of accuracy, attention to details, and data provenance.