I am Steve Hampton. I’ve been birding since I was 7 years old. Here I am on the Bolivian Altiplano in 2010.

Though I have a PhD in natural resource economics, I confess I know more about birds than I do about economics. I recently retired as Deputy Administrator at the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response, where I was involved in natural resource damage assessments, seabird restoration, tribal relations, and regulating the oil industry (among other things).

My special bird interests are avian responses to climate change, gull identification, and Fox Sparrows subspecies identification. I have recently migrated from Davis, California to Port Townsend, Washington.

I maintain two birding web pages and two birding Facebook groups:

I also have two other blogs:

Occasionally there will be posts from these other blogs that I will re-post here.