Derek Lovitch
Derek is a career biologist with a lifelong passion for birds, having worked on avian research and education projects in nine states from New Jersey to Hawaii and from Florida to Michigan. He also spent three summers as a tour guide on Alaska’s Pribilof Islands; he servd as tour director in 2003, and organized and conducted the first comprehensive Fall Avian Survey in the island’s history. Derek and his wife Jeannette have settled down in Pownal, Maine, where they opened the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth, a retail store that caters to birders of all levels. The store serves as a vehicle for Derek to continue to share his enthusiasm for birding, birds, and bird conservation.
Derek serves on his town’s Environmental Commission and on the Board of Directors for Merrymeeting Audubon, and with Jeannette founded the Bradbury Mountain Raptor Research Project. Yet somehow he still finds to time to bird just about every day: whether guiding for private clients, organizing pelagic trips, or simply working on his local patch list, hardly a day goes by when he isn’t in the field. He writes about his adventures, big and small, on his “Field Notes” blog for Mainetoday.com.
Derek is the “Tools of the Trade” Department Editor for Birding Magazine, and his writing has also appeared in Bird Observer, Bird Watcher’s Digest, and Winging It. He the author of A Birder’s Guide to Whitefish Point (Michigan). Along with birding, Derek enjoys hiking, exploring new natural areas, developing his native plant garden, and eating.