I am currently working on a literary nonfiction book called Cerulean Blues. The cerulean warbler, a small blue bird whose core breeding area stretches from West Virginia to eastern Tennessee, is one of the fastest-declining songbirds in the United States. Cerulean Blues recounts my personal search for this imperiled songbird, from the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia to the Andes Mountains of Colombia.

The bird in the picture below has just been banded and is ready to be released at the Lewis Wetzel Wildlife Management Area near Jacksonburg, West Virginia.

In October of 2008 I visited La Reserva Natural de las Aves Reinita Cielo Azul -- the Cerulean Warbler Reserve -- near the town of San Vicente de Chucuri in northeastern Colombia. (The best mandarin oranges I've ever tasted grow on the tree in the upper right of the picture below!)

Email me if you'd like to hear more about my book project.