I am a biology professor at Warner University in Crooked Lake Park, Florida. My primary interest is the nocturnal flight calls of birds. I am currently monitoring two NFC stations in Hardee County, FL and have documented NFCs extensively in Polk County in recent years.

I have audio documentation of 247 species - mostly birds, but there are a few frogs in there too, and like maybe one insect =P

Thanks to my particular obsession with this research, I've become the top iNat reporter of Gray-cheeked Thrush (7.9% of all reports for the species as of 8/14/26) and Grasshopper Sparrow. I've also documented four Bicknell's Thrushes in Polk County. Hoping to get one in Hardee someday!

I am most knowledgeable about birds, from being a hobbyist birder all my life, but my professional background is in amphibians and reptiles. My Masters thesis was on deforestation tolerance in the Streamside Salamander (Ambystoma barbouri).

My student Hope Abercrombie and I collaborated on publishing documentation of a population of Panther Chameleons in Polk County that was, at the time, the northernmost confirmed established chameleon population in the US.

Hope and I also published - in collaboration with Michelle and Natalie Ferrera - the first confirmed introduced population of Giant Toads (Rhinella horribilis) in the world. Our morphological work in that study was later confirmed genetically by another group working on the same population.

Incidentally, the first confirmed individual Giant Toad from this population was found by my daughter, so shout-out to her for that 😁

I'm also interested in reef fish and corals. I snorkel reefs whenever I get the opportunity, but I'm still a relative n00b in that field.