The Oak Ridge Bird Man

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Oak Ridge, TN
The Oak Ridge Bird Man

I'm an ornithologist and TWS Certified Wildlife Biologist® located in beautiful Oak Ridge, Tennesse

09/13/2026

Our website is SO BACK, BABY!

Shop, calendar, etc. are all back up and running, though if you experience any issues, please let me know ASAP.

https://www.oakridgebirdman.com

09/05/2026

Another great pawpaw hunt! They've got about two weeks left till they're all gone, so you've still got time to get out and get some!

09/02/2026

Pawpaw season is passing by fast, and my schedule's getting filled up even faster! Message me here if you want a trip to the patch!

My website, sadly, is completely down at the moment, so to book, DMs and email are currently the only options. I'm thinking we've got two more weeks of America's largest native fruit in the works, but fear not - when the pawpaws have passed their prime, persimmon season is right on their heels! And of course, I'm always ready to show you whatever kind of nature is to be had here; all you have to do is ask!

Big thanks to husmus studio | coffee + home goods for the photo from their recent trip ♥️

08/27/2026

There's been a lot of terrible news out there this week, so if you need any kind of pick me up, I've got three words for you: it's pawpaw season. Book a trip through https//www.oakridgebirdman.com/shop/ (or just DM me here) and by land or sea, I will hook you up.

08/24/2026

Boring news, everyone!

I've been very lax about keeping our events calendar up to date on the website this summer, but that changes TODAY: we're now up to date through the end of November! We're currently waiting on formal approval for a bunch of holiday markets, so as soon as we get that, we'll be up to date through the end of the year!

07/31/2026

So I would never want to be accused of trying to give anybody ... ideas ... but à propos of completely nothing, here's a selection of the pawpaws growing on one of my regular hiking routes.

Come the end of August, these tree potatoes will be ripe and ready to fall off the tree, so I'm reminding everybody now that in my online shop - https://www.oakridgebirdman.com/shop/ - under "services," we have both expeditions on foot and expeditions by boat. I do these all year, and am ready to tell you every bit of natural history you can fit in your ears, but in a month I can promise you that these fruits pictured here are gonna be all anybody wants to see and sample out there in the woods.

Don't fancy a forced march? I know plenty of trails and patches at several levels of difficulty, so whatever you want to get yourself into, I'll make it happen. I can tell you now that as much as I love a little afternoon hike, there's nothing quite as fun as knocking pawpaws right off the trees and scooping them out of that cold, cold water (the ripe ones float!).

Take your pick, book online or simply write me here, and I'll get you set up for an adventure you won't forget!

06/02/2026

We're at peak fledge right now - baby birds are leaving their nests in droves - and so I'm getting calls every day about what to do with them. Which is great: please, call me! I'm very, very happy to advise if you find a baby bird. But I can tell you that in 99% of cases, the absolute best thing you can do is act like that youngun is my man Brak here, and do exactly what he tells you to in this old banger: https://youtu.be/9os7eSj2KJo?si=9J7PhE6XKwShBu1O

Birds often leave the nest before they can fly, because it's actually safer for them to disperse and hide rather than hang out in the same spot for weeks on end. They may look helpless, but they're really quite capable, and you can be sure that Mom and Dad are keeping a watchful eye on them and bringing a steady supply of food, too. If you or I come along and take them away "for safety," no amount of good intentions is going to reunite them - we'll have effectively orphaned them.

So if you see a baby bird you're worried about, call me - but let the extent of your interaction with it be through your eyes, or better yet, your binoculars. Enjoy getting to see these pivotal moments! And let the professionals - that is, their bird parents - do what they do best.

05/22/2026

Spigelia marilandica is the most acid goth plant I know.

There's a (sadly) good chance you've never seen this plant before in your life; or even more so, that you've heard of it under one of its seemingly dozens of different names, but didn't have a face to go with it. I've seen it named Indian pink ("pink" in the sense of pinking shears - literally "having a perforated/scalloped edge"), woodland pink/pinkroot, Carolina pink/pinkroot ... the list goes on. None of these names really evoke the aura this utterly unique herb has in my eyes, so as it stands, it's Spigelia in my book.

Most of the year the aboveground portions of this plant are completely unassuming, but in May, when the blooms finally emerge, it sheds its corporate normie exterior entirely. Each of its blood red arrowheads splits open like a xenomorph egg, revealing chartreuse tentacles surrounding a central spike as proud and pointed as a hornet's sting.

It only looks severe, though - each of these features has a wonderful purpose.

The red color is to catch the eye of its primary pollinator: hummingbirds!

That long, arrowhead shape is to project them as far above the ground and stem as they can, given that this plant only grows a foot or so high.

The radial petals, in their vibrant yellow-green, are to guide the hummingbirds in on final approach to the nectaries located at the very base of the flower. And those nectaries, in turn, are way down at the bottom to maximize the amount of pollen that the hummingbird moves from flower to flower as it feeds.

But when I say this herb is "acid goth," that's all just aesthetic right? Well, FWIW, there's one name for it I left out in the list above, and that's "wormgrass." This plant, especially the root, is absolutely chock full of a compound called spigiline that will absolutely blast your guts out if you take too much. ... But at *just the right dose*, it'll only massacre those squiggly little unwanted hitchhikers whose names end in "-worm." Thus, wormgrass.

So yeah: blood red; acid green; Alien egg; utterly toxic; and pollinated by the Aztec god of war?

How much more street cred do you need?

04/28/2026

We've got just one event this weekend - come find us!

Address

Oak Ridge, TN
37830

Website

http://www.oakridgebirdman.com/

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