Neil first fell in love with birds as a child, spending summer mornings at the breakfast table watching finches, woodpeckers, and nuthatches flock to the bird feeders strung about the sweetgum tree in his backyard, and afternoons after school listening to his grandfather talk at length about ducks he hunted in his youth. Obstinate teenage years and college life came and went, and it wasn’t until his former college roommate took him to Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary to see a Snow Bunting that he fell headlong into birding. For the past four years, Neil has been hitting parks and ponds nearly every evening to see what warblers, thrushes, gulls, and ducks might make themselves a spectacle.
Originally from Southern Illinois, Neil first came to Indiana to attend college at the University of Evansville, where he got his Bachelor’s Degrees in Psychology and Creative Writing. He moved to Indianapolis in 2018 and has been working as a technical writer in the environmental consulting industry for the past three years.
Aside from birds, brains, and books, Neil’s interests include meteorology, astronomy, wildflowers, salamanders, cheese, and especially arachnids. During the height of the pandemic, Neil spent his year of lockdown and the year that followed raising widow spiders and studying their behaviors.
These days, when he’s not at work, out birding, or at home arguing with his cat, Neil is often traveling across state lines to visit local wonders, attending trivia and game nights with friends, or engaging in surrealist creative pursuits that must never see the light of day. Neil is especially grateful for the natural spaces Indy has to offer, including Fort Harrison State Park and Eagle Creek Park.