I’m officially launching a new website today: Sea To Sky: Birds of the Santa Monica Mountains. When I moved to LA in 2006, I was impressed with the diversity of birds in the area. I knew there were great birds in southern California, but I didn’t realize how many wonderful spots there would be close to my home. (But I shouldn’t have been surprised; after all, Los Angeles is America’s Birdiest County!)

As I began to accumulate images of the local birds, the idea for some kind of project began to take shape. I figured that most Angelenos probably didn’t realize how much bird diversity there was right in their own backyards, and realized that I had an opportunity to share some of that diversity through my photographs. In 2008, I asked the Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society if they would support my photographic efforts, and they generously awarded me a small grant to help with the project. Between grad school and fieldwork, my “Birds of the Santa Monicas” endeavor became one of those perpetually-on-the-back-burner projects, but nevertheless, I steadily added new images to my collection.

Now, with 85 species (and counting), the site is going live. Click the banner above or click here to check it out. Most of the photographs were captured right here in the Santa Monica Mountains or on the nearby coastline, and all of them were taken in California. In addition to the images, you can read a short description of each species and link to audio recordings curated by the Cornell Library of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds. I hope you enjoy the site!