Christopher Rustay

Joined: Apr 30, 2021 Last Active: Mar 29, 2024 iNaturalist Monthly Supporter since November 2022

I've been a birder for almost as long as I can remember. I also enjoy butterflies and am learning about grasshoppers. I'm learning a lot about plants too. I grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina, USA but have lived the last 30 years (or so) in New Mexico, USA. I especially enjoy desert and grassland landscapes.

My initial identifications on anything besides birds are often wrong when identified down to species, genus and sometimes family and I'm thankful for those who suggest alternative identifications and let me know where I may have gone wrong. I'm grateful to iNaturalist for encouraging me to look ever more closely at the world around me.

I am very interested in developing my understanding of both distribution and timing. While not all my venturing out is planned with this in mind, I do try to visit areas not well-"iNaturalized" and at different times than I have been before. Given that I live in an area with huge variation in annual rainfall, both in terms of amount as well as timing, I also visit areas at the same times in different years.
For the last 20 years, I've worked for a bird habitat conservation group called the Playa Lakes Joint Venture. I'm especially proud of my work with this organization, working in the southern Great Plains. You can find out more about us at https://pljv.org/

My photographs are generally pretty poor. But you are welcome to use them, IF I don't have them attributed to someone else in the Notes section. I'd appreciate a heads-up if you do use one of my photographs.

My iNaturalist last three years' stats:
2023 - https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2023/christopherrustay
2022 - https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2022/christopherrustay
2021 - https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2021/christopherrustay

My eBird profile is here: https://ebird.org/profile/NzA5Mw/US-NM

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