Mia Grundy

Well, I've always been a lover of nature and being outdoors.

I did my wildlife and conservation biology degree a couple of years ago and then over time I found myself drawn to birds in particular.

So I used to like go hiking and walking just for some fresh air.

But then birds gave me a deeper meaning to be outside.

And yeah, I think in 2021, I bought my first field guide, the Simpson Day one.

And then it became like a passion of ticking off checklists and learning which species were in each areas.

I didn't know the difference between a rainbow lorikeet and an eastern rosella at the time.

So we had a lot of work to do.

And then over time, I've just fallen in love with all different species and even going interstate or overseas to find different birds.

It really becomes a mission now to be like, oh, where am I going to go?

Oh, what birds are going to be there?

Yeah, I find when I go walking with my friends now, we go away for a weekend, I just give them a heads up of telling them, you know, oh, this might not be a 30-minute walk this time.

It might be two hours because, you know, I might get fixated on taking a photo of one little species that looks like a brown bird, but it's actually really exciting.

I think I like started off every time I'd go birding, I would bring out the checklist.

I'd bring out eBird.

I'd even write a list of species that I wanted to see.

And I do that.

I do that still.

But sometimes, you know, I just I'll be out on my walk at lunchtime at work and I'll notice birds without even, you know, recognizing that I'm doing it.

So it's not intentional birding.