About

"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth." 

- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Welcome from The Vagrant Ecologist!

I am Andrew Townsend and I am a trained (and certified) ecologist, as well as a wanderer. Just like a vagrant bird well outside its normal range, I too have traveled far from my home and outside my original field. For me, the past decade has been one of continual motion. In that time, I have set fires in the Everglades, studied predators in Pennsylvania, repelled poachers in Belize, chased shorebirds in New York City, tracked park visitors in the Rockies, and taught high school students in Los Angeles. 

Still, the things I have done aren't nearly as important as the experiences, friendships, insights, and perspectives I have found along the way. This goal of this site is to capture some of these discoveries and stories and to pass at least a few of them along to you.

My Mobile Lifestyle

My choice of career keeps me constantly on the move. It is the norm in the wildlife sciences for young professional biologists and technicians to jump from place to place, going to wherever the jobs are, especially when they are getting their start. 

Many of of colleagues grow weary of this life and seek to settle down whenever they snag that ever elusive “permanent” job. I tried this out for a while, but quickly discovered something unsavory about many of those permanent jobs, at least to me — they are typically the type of jobs where you spend most of your life behind a desk. Needless to say, that was not the lifestyle I was looking for. 

So, after a few years of swirling and self-growth, I committed to a lifestyle of motion and exploration, and I couldn't be happier. In the past years, I have lived an even more mobile lifestyle, van-life. Honestly, I am shocked I didn't consider this as an option sooner. It was a perfect fit for my career, interests, predispositions, and spirit.

This site holds snapshots from my life on the road: anecdotes from my field jobs, pictures from my travels, how-to-videos of my van build, frequent musings about why this lifestyle works for me (and just might work for you) and a whole lot more. 

So, settle in, take a look around, and enjoy yourself. Maybe I'll see you out on the road.