About Loren
Top of South Chinese Mtn., Quadra Island, BC.
Baxter State Park, Maine.
I offer the following services:
-Guided Nature and Birding Walks -Photography Workshops -Avian Ecology Courses -Field Ornithology Courses -Science Writing -Science Photography -Nature Photography -Seminars/Talks on a Wide Range of Topics (below are a few offerings): --Owls --Wonders of Spring Migration --The Gulf of Maine --Audubon and the Seabird Institute's Project Puffin --The Secret Lives of Cowbirds -Hidden World of Small Mammals -Diving into the Ecology of Vernal Pools Contact me here for more information and details on costs. |
Welcome! If you explore the pages of this website, you will get an idea of the work that I do and my specific areas of interest. The information here spans my academic work and my current focus on science writing, photography, and guiding. There are connective threads linking all these fields, and those threads lead back to the double helix structure at my core, a spiraling composite of natural history and ecology. Ultimately, the primary force shaping my career path is, and has been, the desire to see, experience, and understand the events taking place in the natural places around me.
In the past few years, I have become more attuned to the phenological benchmarks denoting seasonal change. I suspect this is driven in part by my return to the Northeast after many years away, and an innate interest in rekindling the feelings of excitement from my youth; the first forsythia blossoms heralding spring's arrival in our Boston backyard; the "conk-la-ree" song of the red-winged blackbird issuing the starter's gun on avian spring migration. My childhood interest in the natural world and curiosity about the "whys" and "hows" of nature led me to pursue an advanced degree in the sciences. In 2012, I received my PhD in animal behavior, evolutionary biology, ecology, and eco-physiology. My academic work was focused on understanding the causes and consequences of phenotypic variation at the individual, population, and community levels. I investigated a broad array of questions, including how early life experiences shape the adult phenotype, what factors influence wildlife health, and how species respond to natural and novel environmental stressors. Over the course of my research career, I conducted research on four continents and worked in 10 countries. Even before my life in academia - during which I was fortunate to teach some wonderful classes including Ornithology, Field Ecology, Animal Behavior, and more - I derived much enjoyment from sharing my passion for science and nature with others. Those instincts to teach and share what I have seen and learned motivate my current work as a writer, guide, workshop leader, public speaker, and photographer. My goal is to bring others - either physically through workshops or guided walks, or virtually via talks and magazine articles - outside to see and experience some of the amazing elements of the natural world around us. Peruse my work - both the photography and the writing - check out my workshops and talks and reach out to me via the email link below if you would like to connect. |
|
Loren Merrill is a freelance science writer, leads photography and field ornithology workshops for Down East, is the director of Audubon's Hog Island Photography of Maine Birds and Landscapes camp, and is a research affiliate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
|
