2011 Leaders & Presenters A - M

The leader list on this site is partial. We invite all leaders to supply photo and small bio.
	LOUISE ABBOTT Louise Abbott is a self-proclaimed Silicon Valley escapee. She spent most of her career in the high-tech world, retiring as a program manager for Cisco Systems. Since moving to the Central Coast she has become very active as a State Park Docent, and is a past Chair of the Docent Council. Born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota, she fully appreciates the beauty and -- especially -- the moderate climate here. One of her favorite places is the heron rookery.
	PHIL and CAROLE ADAMS Phil and Carole Adams have been leading Adventure With Nature Walks for California State Parks for over 10 years. They also volunteer with Friends of the Elephant Seal, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and Piedras Blancas Light Station. They enjoy sharing their passion and knowledge about wildlife and the environment.
	LARRY ALLEN Larry is a California native who has been birding since the early 1980s. He writes, presents lectures, and leads field trips for many Southern California Audubon Society chapters and other organizations. He has led field trips to locations as varied as Southeastern Arizona to the pelagic waters off California's coast. Larry is the compiler of the Malibu Christmas Bird Count, Project Coordinator for the Los Angeles County Breeding Bird Atlas, lead author of the forthcoming Atlas volume, and presenter of annual gull workshops for Los Angeles Audubon Society and the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival. Larry's research interests include gulls, psittacids (family including parakeets and parrots), desert birds, and factors that drive the breeding distributions of land birds.
	RICK AUSTIN Rick is an 8th grade math teacher. He cautiously began birding 40 years ago and has since birded six of the seven continents in search of avian colors, vocalizations, and novel behaviors. He has led tours in Alaska and California, and recently spent three weeks "twitching" in Ecuador. He thoroughly enjoys helping beginning birdwatchers discover the joys of birding. Rick's current approach to birding reminds him of a Storm Petrel, as he/it erratically pursues sightings that move through the Central Coast.
	MIKE BAIRD Mike has been a State Park Docent since 2001 and leads Digital Photowalks (www.photomorrobay.com). He is a PhD Computer Scientist with an MBA, retired from ask.com, and author of Engineering Your Start-up (www.eysu.org). Mike is editor of www.morro-bay.com, a prolific local photographer, publishes at www.bairdphotos.com, www.birdsofmorrobay.com, and www.flickr.com/people/mikebaird/, where his images have been viewed 2 million times. He is also an active social network leader.
	BOB BARNES Bob Barnes has been birding through California for the past 35 years. His expertise in Southern Sierra species distribution and status is unparalleled. Bob has led over 200 birding tours, and he authored the section on Kern River Valley and Southern Sierra Nevada birding in "A Birder's Guide to Southern California" by Brad Schram. Since 2004, Bob has worked on birding/wildlife tourism development project teams in Missouri, northwestern and southern Nevada, and Pennsylvania. He also serves on the board of the Kern River Valley Heritage Foundation. Bob is an independent biological consultant and serves as the executive director of the Arthur & Sidney R. Barnes Foundation; which works to sustain the unique cultural and environmental character of rural communities facing rapid development, especially along California's Highway 178 Corridor from Death Valley National Park through the Kern River Valley to Bakersfield.
	JODEE BENNETT Jodee is employed at Cal Poly State University as a gardener, and has a BS degree in horticulture. She has lived and enjoyed hiking on the Central Coast for 22 years and leads hikes once a month for the Natural San Luis program which is a collaboration between ECOSLO (Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo) and the City. A different open-space parcel is showcased every month. Jodee says, "There are over 6500 acres of open space in SLO to explore!!! I have become a birder by osmosis...picking up tidbits from other birders and exploring other avenues to learn more. Since I focus mostly on plants, I team up with an "expert" to do the Felsman Loop hike on Monday of the Winter Bird Festival. Hope to see you there!"
	BILL BOUTON A retired college biology teacher, Bill has led nature trips to many locations in the USA, and foreign destinations such as Costa Rica, Peru and Ecuador, including the Galapagos Islands. Bill began birding at 11 years of age. He is now heavily involved in many aspects of nature, including photography, particularly of butterflies. Bill leads trips and uses his photographs when presenting programs at various local groups' meetings. His images are widely used by web sites, nature centers, universities, museums and environmental groups, and many can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/billbouton/sets/
	DICK BOYD After a University career teaching science and engineering, Dick retired to Morro Bay to be in a marvelous Birding Area. He started Birding through completing the boy Scouts Bird-Study Merit Badge as part of the requirements to become an Eagle Scout. He has kept up his interest and he and his wife have traveled extensively to far away places with lots of birds. He has given a number of lectures concerning these trips, illustrated with his photographs, at the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History. Since retirement he has also managed to write and have published a technical monograph related to his Science and Engineering work.
	ERIC BRUNSCHWILER Eric is a senior at Coast Union High School. He is an outdoor enthusiast and has been immersed in nature from a young age. Since the age of 7 he has shown a fascination with birds, and has been mentored along the way by experts of the likes of Maggie Smith, Doug Stinson, Al Schmierer, and other county birders. His many other interests include playing trumpet and surfing.
	JAMIE CHAVEZ Born and raised in the Santa Maria Valley, Jamie has been a lifelong birder since age twelve when he was introduced to a copy of Roger Tory Peterson's, "A Field Guide to Western Birds" in grade school. He is currently employed at Space Launch Complex-2 on Vandenberg AFB in the HVAC and automated controls field. Jamie has been a trip leader for the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival since its inception. Over the course of many years he has been an active hike leader with the (former) Los Padres Audubon Society, and was an original docent with The Nature Conservancy (later the Dune Center in Guadalupe) as a birding hike leader to the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve and Oso Flaco Lake areas. He participated in the San Luis Obispo County Breeding Bird Atlas project recording breeding birds from the south county. He has also been a trip leader for the Western Field Ornithologists and the American Birding Association during their locally held conferences. Jamie maintains the Santa Barbara County Yahoo Groups, "Sbcobirding" discussion forum, as well as a county birding website detailing much of what Santa Barbara County has to offer. He is also an eBird reviewer for Santa Barbara County. When not out chasing birds he enjoys the hobby of digiscoping birds in the field. Some of Jamie's pen-and-ink illustrations have been published in the quarterly journal, "Western Birds", and in Brad Schram's ABA/Lane guide, "A Birder's Guide to Southern California." http://www.sbcobirding.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/almiyi/
	JOYCE CORY Joyce is a volunteer for the California State Parks and active at Montaña de Oro State Park. She is a field trip leader for Easy Birding at the Cloisters Park in Morro Bay. Joyce began birding when she moved to the Central Coast in 1996. Her nature photos can be found at flickr.com/docentjoyce.
	KATHY DUNCAN Kathy is the Education/Outreach Chair of the Pacific Wildlife Care Center. She has worked with PWC for 8 years as a wildlife rehabilitator and wildlife educator. PWC holds permits from the Department of Fish & Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to possess and rehabilitate wildlife. Last year the Center, which is located in Morro Bay, took in over 1,600 animals. Kathy also conducts wildlife educational presentations throughout the county at schools, service groups, and community events. She believes passionately in teaching people to appreciate and protect the wild creatures that share our planet.
	TOM EDELL Tom has lived on the Central Coast in Cayucos since 1975, when he came to Cal Poly State University where he obtained a B.S. in Natural Resource Management. Always interested in birds, an ornithology class sparked a passion that continues today. He has been the San Luis Obispo County bird records compiler for North American Birds since 1983 and the Morro Bay Christmas Bird Count Compiler since 1988. Tom and Curtis Marantz are currently working on a book covering the status and distribution of birds found in the county and he was involved in the original preparation and oversees the periodic updates of the Morro Coast Audubon booklet "The Birds of San Luis Obispo County, California." Tom is employed as a biologist for the California Department of Transportation and works throughout Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties.
	JOHN FLAHERTY John is Central Coast Outdoors owner, 2003 to present, and an outdoor guide since 1991. He currently runs kayak eco-tours on Morro Bay and enthusiastically shares his wealth of knowledge about life in and on the bay, including shorebirds, migrating waterfowl, seabirds and many others. John's wife Virginia works at Pacific Wildlife Care and specializes in sick and injured seabirds. You can learn more about John and Central Coast Outdoors at www.centralcoastoutdoors.com.
	CLAUDIA FREITAS Claudia Freitas is a retired Biology professor. After teaching college Zoology, Wildlife Bio, Marine Bio and a variety of Natural History classes including Birding classes, for 33 years she moved back to the central coast where she had gone to college and became involved as a docent at the Morro Bay Natural History Museum. Besides teaching courses at Long Beach City College she has also taught Elderhostels, taught and trained staff at the El Dorado Nature Center, taught for Parks and Recreation in Long Beach and at Long Beach State University. She was also lucky enough to lead nature trips for a variety of agencies to many countries including: India, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Botswana. Besides those things, she loves showing people how much fun birding is. Hers is a light-hearted look at the world around us.
	JESSICA GRIFFITHS Jessica Griffiths has been working as a field ornithologist for over 10 years. She grew up in Chicago, got her undergrad degree at Wellesley College outside of Boston, and spent the next few years traveling around the country working for non-profits and government agencies in 7 states with a focus on songbird ecology. She then worked as a Wildlife Biologist for Ventana Wildlife Society, running the Big Sur Ornithology Lab for 4 years. She discovered a passion for public outreach and education, and has given presentations and bird banding demonstrations to thousands of people. She is currently getting her Masters in Biology at Cal Poly, where she also TAs Ornithology.
	RICH HANSEN Rich is a retired FDA Microbiologist. He has been a Central Coast resident for the past 30 years, where he was an Audubon board member when Sweet Springs was acquired, and where he has served in several capacities with the BirdFest over the past 15 years. His photos have been published in most major "bird" and/or "nature magazines.
	MARLIN HARMS Marlin has been birding for over 30 years, has lived in Morro Bay that entire time, and considers the bay his back yard. He has been a leader in each of the previous winter bird festivals. He has a degree in biology, assisted in research at Mono Lake and the Farallon Islands in the 1980s, and in the 1990s he coordinated numerous shorebird censuses in conjunction with PRBO. In the past decade he has been more a photographer and has used his photos in numerous San Luis Obispo county land conservation projects. Flickr photo site: www.flickr.com/marlinharms
	ED HARPER Ed Harper's interest in birds goes back to his early childhood when he was growing up in Montana. It was there his interest and love of natural history blossomed. Always a teacher at heart, Ed taught mathematics at American River College for 33 years until his retirement. With his passion for birding, Ed has also taught a variety of classes in field ornithology for the ARC Extension. He designed and taught many popular classes including bird song, migration, introduction to the birds of the Sacramento area, and various classes on field identification for birds of prey, shorebirds, and gulls. He is a popular and frequent speaker at many birding festivals and conferences. An experienced world traveler, Ed Harper has traveled to all the continents in search of birds. An avid photographer, he has photographed over 2000 species of birds. Some of his photos are found in books and periodicals whereas other images highlight talks and slide lectures. In North America alone, he has photographed over 750 species of birds. Starting out as a tour leader for the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1981, Ed now operates Sandpiper Journeys with his wife, Susan Scott. Together they have conducted many birding and natural history tours throughout the world.
	CYNTHIA HARTLEY Cynthia has been involved with birding and conservation for over 20 years. She holds a US Fish and Wildlife recovery permit for California Least Terns and Western Snowy Plovers and is the Ormond Beach WSP nest monitor. In the off-season she spends her free time in river mouths, harbors and beaches watching the shorebirds she loves. She has been the Santa Clara River Mouth site lead for the Christmas Bird count for 11 years, is an executive committee member of the Ventura Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, and works for Amgen as scientist.
	JODI ISAACS Jodi has worked in the natural resource management field for over 17 years and currently works as an Environmental Scientist for California State Parks in Morro Bay where she dedicates much of her time to habitat conservation and restoration. Since 2005 she has operated a Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) station in coordination with the Institute for Bird Population at Morro Bay State Park. Jodi completed her graduate work in Australia studying bird movements in a fragmented rainforest landscape, has worked with endangered bird species in Maui, and worked at other banding operations in Africa, Ecuador, and around California.
	ANDREA JONES Andrea Jones has been Audubon California's Important Bird Areas Program Director since 2006. She has degrees from the University of Massachusetts in Ornithology and Wildlife Conservation. Her thesis research focused on metapopulation dynamics of grassland sparrows in New England. Prior to working for Audubon California, she worked for Massachusetts Audubon for 14 years, directing the Coastal Waterbird Program and coordinating the IBA and Grassland Bird Conservation programs.
	JERRY KIRKHART Jerry is a State Park Docent for the CCNHA as well as a Pecho Trail Docent and is very active leading various AWN (Adventures With Nature) walks. Those dealing with natural history and his passion for photography include local Flora and Fauna along with Digital Photo Instruction. He teaches programs dealing with Digital Photo Walks, Birds, Estuary, Wild Flowers, Plankton, and Intertidal Hikes. A retired bio/zoo instructor, he posts both common and scientific names on flickr. He is a member of NAPP, the SLOCC, to name a few.
	JOHN MCCABE John McCabe is a docent at the Museum of Natural History at Morro Bay State Park. He is also an instructor in Community Programs and a tutor of geology at Cuesta College. He is past President of the Santa Lucia Rockhounds, a gem and mineral society. John holds a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Arizona. John and his wife Bonnie reside in Atascadero.
	RON MELCER Ron is a lifelong birder turned researcher. He currently resides in Sacramento, and is working for the Department of Water Resources to develop a conservation strategy for the river systems of the CA Central Valley. He is also completing graduate work at CalPoly San Luis Obispo, where his research has developed bird/habitat association models for many species of songbirds living in riparian habitats on the Central Coast. Ron has worked with birds in wetland, riparian, and montane systems throughout California, Oregon, Washington, and southwestern British Columbia, specifically with species such as Black Rail, Least and Western Sandpiper, Black-backed Woodpecker, Northern Sawwhet Owl, and various songbirds including Least Bell's Vireo. Outside of his school and work pursuits, he is assisting Rocky Point Bird Observatory with analysis and publication of findings from their migration monitoring efforts in the Partners in Flight Bird Conservation Region 5.

Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival

2011 Leaders & Presenters A - M