Welcome, Mags – Our Latest Blogger

Welcome to our latest blogger, Mags Holloway.

Stealing from her words, here is her background story.

Mags Holloway came to birding the long way around.

She grew up in East Texas at the edge of a hay field and a creek that never dried up, even in August. Birds were just “there” when she was a kid, part of the scenery, like cicadas and the smell of warm dust. It wasn’t until college, during a summer job doing habitat surveys, that someone finally handed her a field guide and said, “You should probably learn their names.”

That did it.

She spent the next three decades working in environmental assessment and land-use planning across Texas, from the Pineywoods to the Hill Country and down to the coastal prairies. Birding wasn’t a hobby during those years; it was a companion. Something that slowed time, sharpened observation, and made even the ugliest roadside survey worth stopping for.

When she retired, she did not “get more active online.” Instead, she bought better binoculars, upgraded her camera, and started paying even closer attention.

Birding Philosophy

Mags is firmly in the “watch first, identify second” camp.

She believes behavior tells you more than a checklist ever will, and that a slightly blurry photo of a bird doing something interesting beats a perfect portrait of a bird doing nothing at all.

She enjoys beginners, respects experts, and has little patience for birding ego. Her writing often reminds readers that birds do not care how many species you’ve seen, only whether you noticed them.

Photography Approach

Mags is a skilled and thoughtful photographer, but she does not chase trends or gear hype.

Prefers natural light and field conditions

Minimal post-processing

No baiting, no staging, no shortcuts

Patient to a fault

Her photos often capture moments most people miss: posture changes, feeding behavior, interactions, or that split second before a bird decides you’ve overstayed your welcome.

Relationship With Social Media

She has none.

No Instagram. No Facebook. No X. No TikTok.

She finds social media loud, performative, and exhausting. Her work appears on TexasBirder.com because she values thoughtful readers, not algorithms. If someone wants to argue about an ID, she’d rather do it in the field, standing in the same light, listening to the same bird.

Check out Mags first blog post – below:

I Didn’t Start Birding to Be Impressive