Decent year for #birding. Wish I would have gotten out more locally instead of doing trips.

Goals next year include: more time for local outings, Magee Marsh in the spring (finally), and either Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic at some point.

#birdnerding

@peachfront I love this shot! It’s such a peaceful place and made me so happy!

An exciting year is about to end in which cyber security experts have reported more than 250,000 malware sites to URLhaus 🪲 and shared over 160,000 IOCs on ThreatFox 🦊

We have processed 7,844,382 malware samples 📄, conducted 41,847,925 YARA scans on YARAify 🔍 and generated almost 5 Petabyte of network traffic 👀

Our heros of the year (top contributors) have been:
👉 URLhaus: 🥇geenensp 🥈lrz_urlhaus
👉 ThreatFox: 🥇Gi7w0rm 🥈 drb_ra
👉 MalwareBazaar: 🥇andretavare5 🥈 zbetcheckin
👉 YARAify: 🥇 Casperinous 🥈 0xThiebaut

Keep up the great work! 💪

Carunculated Caracara, Many-Striped Canastero, Tyrian Metaltail and Andean Condor with Volcan Antisana in the background.

My favorite #birding experience of 2023 was birding the Pamao of #ecuador. The Paramo which is the alpine tundra in the #andes. It was full of beautiful birds in mutued but spectacular colors, all filling ecological niches in this lovely place.

Making it my New Year’s resolution to post on here more and to be a more proactive friend in general.

I have no idea how this ended up in my Wingspan box but it did.

Just a friendly reminder that I am still looking for my next role 🔍​ FT or project/contract

I'm in the SANS CTI class this week to add to my existing arsenal of knowledge and experience. 🧠​

If your org could use the services of an InfoSecSherpa :blobwink:​ LMK!

I will be speaking at RSA, if anyone wants to meet-up there. 👋​

RT for reach, if you don't mind. 🙏​Thanks!

https://linktr.ee/infosecsherpa

@jfslowik they have great birding there!

I THINK the one is the Jamaican Turquoise Anole?

Im not a #herpetologist nor do I play one on tv. I find these creatures to be delightful though. These were all species seen in #Jamaica in the last week or so. I THINK they are different kinds of #anoles but I am not sure. Any insight #herpetology friends?

#naturephotography

@peachfront I hope you keep wearing what you want! Sometimes it has a great payoff :) Membership of a group (in this case bird lovers) should never be a matter of clothing choice!

@BeazLouise My friends find it strangely delightful when I go overboard lol. Glad you still love it!

@TheMightyRuxpin Actually yes! It was harder in my 20s but there are young birders out there. There are more under 40 birders in the last five years imo.

@TheMightyRuxpin hahah a lot of the same bad behavior! Fwiw the majority of birders are AWESOME and its been a great way for me to meet people.

@BeazLouise I actually consider myself an “obsessive” birder but that does not mean you have to be unwelcoming and an asshole. Too many obsessive birders devolve into competitive assholes. I find it really sad because (like in most niche communities) the people who are the worst are the most flagrant and loud about it. Its essentially why I obsessively photograph when Im out - I got sick of people saying I didnt know enough to properly identify birds. Its sad I even got there.

I hope you still enjoy birding and havent let them ruin it for you.

Fwiw the hotel has ran out of toilet paper and I am the only one with any. I was planning on sharing (unprompted) until these interactions. You never know when your shitty behavior will become your shitty problem later on 🤷🏻‍♀️

As much as I love the #birding community and I have been able to meet such a beautiful group of people while pursuing my passion, some hardcore birders can be the apex of horrible.

I ran into a group of birders where one person straight up told me I wasnt “dressed like a birder” and they were surprised I was birding?!? Apparently bird watchers cant wear leggings and Birkenstocks? Half an hour later their guide was really firm in saying I didnt see a bird that I saw and I had to offer to grab the photos for proof.

I’ve been doing this for a while and I got it a lot worse a decade ago when I started birding but people - PLEASE! If you love birding its important to be a good ambassador for our hobby. This type of behavior can turn people off for good, despite the fact that it can make people feel like shit.

Caitlin problems:
We stopped for conch soup and curry on the drive back to Port Antonio and in a valiant effort to not spill curry in the car I spilled it all inside my purse instead. My purse now smells like goat curry.

@redteamwrangler Essentially the issue is the autofocus is too advanced and wont focus on birds deep in trees. I often like to do this so I can get a picture for id purposes later. Usually I just go back and forth between autofocus and manual when I need to shoot a bird deep in the background of a tree or shrubbery, but I cant find a way to do it quick enough with this camera. I think im going to try programming a setting or “hot button” or something to do it quicker.

Im having a chuckle about the comment because for this specific use case my older camera was indeed better!

@tildalwave this was super helpful and gave me lots of ideas! Thank you!