Sue Carnahan, November eBirder of the Month

Please join us in congratulating Sue Carnahan, of Tumacacori, Arizona—winner of the November 2024 eBirder of the Month Challenge, sponsored by ZEISS. Sue’s name was drawn randomly from the 4,815 eBirders who submitted 20 eligible shared checklists during November. Sue will receive a new ZEISS binocular for her eBirding efforts. Lastly, thank you to everyone who participated in the November eBirder Challenge, we are grateful for your support and continued dedication to data collection and conservation. Here’s Sue’s birding story:

I was introduced to birdwatching at a young age by my parents. Our house in Connecticut had birdfeeders, a birdbath, several pairs of 7×35 binoculars, and hardcover Peterson field guides. As I got older, I observed the birds around me, made a few paper lists, and checked off life birds in the back of my National Geographic field guide. But I didn’t get serious about birding—and calling myself a birder—until years later. I met my husband, Curtis Smith, on a birding trip to Texas in 1995, and we have birded together ever since.

When eBird was first launched, I started using it right away to keep my yard list and life list (a more permanent record than the Nat Geo field guide that has since gone missing…). Birding and eBirding are pretty much equivalent in my mind: if I’m looking at birds, I’m probably making an eBird list. And submitting lists to eBird has made me a more careful birder, requiring specific attention to field marks, behaviors, vocalizations, and range maps. How do I know this is a Crissal Thrasher, or a Costa’s Hummingbird, or an Ash-throated Flycatcher? If I’m adding it to a public database, it needs to be right.

I’m a huge fan of community or citizen science and the public databases that it feeds, and I’m passionate about identifying and documenting wildlife and plants wherever I go. My bird sightings go to eBird (of course!), my plant records (I’m a field botanist) go to the University of Arizona Herbarium and SEINet (https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php), and my photos of everything that moves, grows, or photosynthesizes—and isn’t human—go to iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/home). I recently started photographing birds, which is a fun, fresh challenge, and very useful for rarities. Sometimes I get lucky with a good shot, but I still prefer to spend more time watching and listening to birds than working for that fabulous photo.

I have used eBird and Merlin around the world, carrying everything I need in my pocket (except for binoculars, water and a sunhat). I am grateful to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for making these wonderful tools and databases freely available, and I thank Zeiss and the Cornell Lab folks for this award, which came as a complete surprise!