I am a naturalist from Ontario,
Canada. At the moment, my main interests include birds, herps and Lepidoptera, but I am interested in just about every facet of the natural world. I lead birding and nature tours in Ontario, and my website is ONshorebirding.com.
I grew up in Ontario and my home province's ecology holds a special place in my heart. However in recent years my interests have grown outside the confines of Ontario's borders. The tropical regions of the world, particularly the Americas, hold a particular allure to me and I am always looking forward to my next trip.
I love visiting remote places. Some of my favourite activities include watching bird migration in the autumn on the shores of James Bay, night-hiking in the tropics, picking through a mixed flock of birds in Central or South America, spending time with a population of Eastern Massassaugas at a location I've visited for years, setting up my moth sheet and seeing what curiosities appear, and searching for endemic bird species in far flung locations.
Seeking out ecological curiosities was only part of my passion; I also loved to share these experiences with others. In 2015 the perfect opportunity came up - a chance to guide for Quest Nature Tours. I now lead several tours a year for Quest; many of my tours are in South America, while I also frequently guide in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. It has been a wonderful opportunity to visit some amazing places in this world with other travellers! Here is a link to my upcoming tour schedule with Quest Nature Tours.
In the autumn of 2019, Laura and I quit our full-time jobs to spend several years traveling in Central and South America, a long-awaited dream of ours. The trip started off well, with three months in Ecuador, two months in Colombia and one month in Costa Rica. Then Covid-19 hit, and all of our plans changed. Fortunately, we have been able to get back to our travels since September 2021 and we have explored throughout South America, Central America and Southeast Asia in the months since. We returned to Canada in April, 2023 and I have been leading tours locally in southern Ontario regularly since then.
I can be reached at joshvandermeulen (at) live.ca.
