Eric W. Greisen

This page was last updated July 12, 2009.

I am a Scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. I have been stationed at NRAO's headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia since 1972. This job put me in a lovely location for birding with mountains only 30-minutes away and the ocean only 3 hours down Interstate 64. It also required me to travel a good bit to Socorro, New Mexico and has now transferred me there on a permanent basis (see new house). My job has also required me to travel occasionally to Tucson, Arizona (see TAC for example). I was a member of the Charlottesville, VA Monticello Bird Club and am a member of the New Mexico Ornithological Society, the American Birding Association, and the Friends of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

My main hobby is the photography of birds. I am not a patient, professional sort of photographer. Instead I used to haul along my Celestion C-90, 1000-mm focal length, f11 lens on a shoulder stock and shoot pictures when birds allow me the opportunity. On Central American and pelagic trips I have used a light-weight, hand-held 400mm lens instead. Nonetheless, I now have at least vaguely recognizable photos of over 1416 spieces of birds which is 75 per cent of my total world list. I used 800 speed Fuji professional print film and only occasionally converted my negatives into slides. I now have four hour-long talks which I am willing to give to bird clubs and other groups for a nominal honorarium. These are Birds of Australia I and II, Florida and the Dry Tortugas - the Accesible Tropics, and Costa Rica and Panama - the Real Tropics. I could prepare talks on Virginia, California, Arizona, and New Mexico since I have a lot of photos from those states. In fact, my Arizona and New Mexico lists are as long as my Virginia list. I also include pictures of the famous Kelp Gull in Sandgates Maryland and my October 1999 trip to Hawaii. Although I got a number of nice pictures there, I did not get enough for a full hour's talk. I have some pictures, all taken under difficult lighting conditions, of Virginia hotline birds as well.

I have digitized my recent (2000+) photos into the computer and I attach a selection below. Click on the small picture to see a larger collection of small pictures. You may click on these small pictures to see the full, more detailed versions.

In October 2006, I acquired a digital camera (Canon 350D) with a 70-300 mm IS lens. For details and early, more personal pictures click here. Nature photographs with this camera appear for all photos from that time until July 2009. I have now purchased a more advanced camera (Canon 500D) with a 100-400 mm IS lens. These promise 3.3 times as many pixels on the bird, the possibility of movies, and more. Watch for pictures from this outfit beginning with Namibia.