University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 2/1996 Making a career out of birds, bats and butterflies The life of backyard wildlife specialist Scott Shalaway, Delaware '74, has been anything but dull. Shalaway has parlayed his extensive knowledge of commonly found creatures into a multifaceted career that includes publishing four books, writing a weekly column that appears in 20 newspapers and producing and hosting a radio show. Shalaway learned to appreciate nature while growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania. "I was an outdoor kid," he recalls. "It was rural and there weren't many kids around. I was out roaming the fields all the time, collecting things, like turtles and frogs, and I ended up making a career out of it." When he came to Delaware, Shalaway took a course with Roland Roth, who was then a new professor in the entomology department in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "I thought, 'Here's a guy who made a career studying birds. Maybe I could do that,'" Shalaway says. So, he studied ornithology, biology and ecology, as well as entomology. After graduating, he went on to earn a master's degree in biology from Northern Arizona University and a doctorate in wildlife ecology and management from Michigan State University. For several years, he taught wildlife and introductory biology classes at Oklahoma State University and led an intensive eight- week summer session in ornithology at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station on Lake Texoma on the border with Texas. In 1985, he and his wife, Linda Fulmer Shalaway, Delaware '76, decided to move closer to their families, so they purchased a large tract of land in rural Cameron, W. Va., and spent the next year renovating its dilapidated farmhouse. Then, Shalaway began looking for work. "What could I do? I thought of writing a nature column. I knew nothing about the newspaper business, which was a good thing. I didn't know how difficult it could be." Shalaway wrote a few sample columns, intending to sell them to some local weekly papers. Almost on a whim, he sent his work to The Pittsburgh (Pa.) Press. "Lo and behold, they liked it," he says. "They started buying it twice a month, then three times a month. By February 1987, I had picked up a couple more papers, but it was a very slow, painstaking process." Over the last 10 years, Shalaway has added newspapers (and lost a few, including the Press, which folded in 1992) to reach his current base of 20 outlets. The topics of his column vary, depending on the season. Fall is bird feeders; spring is about nesting. In November, he might write about deer; in April, about trout. He also has penned four books, including A Guide to Bird Homes (1995), Birds, Bats, Butterfliesand Other Backyard Beasts (1992) and Quiet Water Canoe Guide: Pennsylvania (1994), which he co-wrote with his wife. The couple currently is collaborating on two other books, including a volume on nature walks in the Philadelphia area. Shalaway also is researching a solo effort on the natural history of chickadees. In addition, each Saturday morning, he literally walks on "The Wild Side" of talk radio when he hosts a call-in show on WOMP-AM 1290 in Bellaire, Ohio. It's a one-person operation: Besides preparing the content of each show, he also buys the air time and then sells ads to local businesses and national sponsors. "It's a whole lot of fun," Shalaway says. "We feature a book of the week, a song of the week and teach a bird call or insect sound." His show has attracted a diverse audience over the past four years. "In the beginning, it was the nature-lover crowd. But, I hear from new people all of the time. If you have a backyard, you see things you're curious about. Chances are, I can give you some inkling of what it is." Despite his busy schedule, Shalaway has found time to identify well over 100 species of birds-from cardinals to screech owls-right in his own backyard. -Robert DiGiacomo, Delaware '88