My name is Todd Ryan and I am an American expat living in Vienna, Austria since December,2022. My wife is originally from Vienna and her mother has some medical issues so after retirement in 2022, we moved here to support her and to enjoy closer association with her family here.
I've been a bird-watcher since my parents introduced me to it during weekend rides in rural Wisconsin growing up in the 60's. I worked as an outdoor guide on weekends during college along the Mississippi River and did Raptor Surveys for the BLM near Rawlins, WY in the 80's.
I was a high school biology teacher in Massachusetts prior to retirement. After the AP Biology exam was over in May, I taught a bird identification course to my high school students for about 3 weeks where I covered the basics of bird identification, the Merlin bird app and eBird. I'm proud to say that I have more than a couple of exstudents who have continued this both professionally and personally.
I do have a bit of a challenge in that I am red-green colorblind so I'm not really good at bird identification specifics but I can get to genus with size, habitat, shape, etc fairly easily.
My wife and I also like to travel so I've had the opportunity to see birds in many habitats and locations. In my retirement, I plan to continue this with many more travels.
Thanks for letting me join.
I've been a bird-watcher since my parents introduced me to it during weekend rides in rural Wisconsin growing up in the 60's. I worked as an outdoor guide on weekends during college along the Mississippi River and did Raptor Surveys for the BLM near Rawlins, WY in the 80's.
I was a high school biology teacher in Massachusetts prior to retirement. After the AP Biology exam was over in May, I taught a bird identification course to my high school students for about 3 weeks where I covered the basics of bird identification, the Merlin bird app and eBird. I'm proud to say that I have more than a couple of exstudents who have continued this both professionally and personally.
I do have a bit of a challenge in that I am red-green colorblind so I'm not really good at bird identification specifics but I can get to genus with size, habitat, shape, etc fairly easily.
My wife and I also like to travel so I've had the opportunity to see birds in many habitats and locations. In my retirement, I plan to continue this with many more travels.
Thanks for letting me join.
