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Peg Abbott |
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| Peg Abbott is the owner and lead guide of Naturalist Journeys, LLC. She has
been designing, guiding and organizing natural history tours for over 25
years, working for the National Audubon Society and other organizations
before launching Naturalist Journeys in 1998. Her work has taken her from
Alaska to Africa and Argentina, as well as many other locations around the
world. She has conducted research on several bird and mammal species, was a
master bird bander for many years, and thoroughly enjoys teaching. Peg lives
in Portal, Arizona. |
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Sergio Avila |
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| Sergio Avila-Villegas, Wildlife Biologist Born in Mexico City, Sergio Avila grew up in the Southern end of the Chihuahuan desert, Zacatecas. He has a bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Aguascalientes, and a Master's degree in Arid Lands Management from Universidad de Baja California; wildlife management and conservation are his main interests. He has participated in wildlife research projects working with mountain lions, rattlesnakes, sea lions, river otters, sea birds and pygmy-owls. He tracked, trapped and monitored jaguars and mountain lions living in an isolated ranch in the Sierra Madre of Sonora. Sergio lived for several months with one of the biggest and best-preserved indigenous cultures in Mexico, the Tarahumara of the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua. Currently, Sergio works for Sky Island Alliance on the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness proposal and is implementing a jaguar conservation project in northern Sonora, Mexico. |
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Bob Behrstock |
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| Bob Behrstock is a local photographer, writer and tour leader. While living in Texas he led bird tours for 20 years and participated in the development of a number of states’ birding and wildlife trails. He has birded throughout the U.S., many countries in Latin America, and in the Old World. His butterfly and dragonfly photography have taken him to all corners of the U.S. and several parts of Mexico. Bob has authored or co-authored nearly 40 popular and scientific papers concerning fishes, birds, dragonflies, and butterflies in the U.S. and Latin America, and prepared several of the family accounts for The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior. His bird and insect photos appear in calendars, travel books, field guides, CD-ROMs, and publications such as Audubon, Smithsonian, Birding, WildBird, American Butterflies, and the Handbook of Birds of the World. He is a co-author of the recently published Birdlife of Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coast and is preparing an introductory guide to Southwestern dragonflies. |
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Jeff Bouton |
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| Jeff Bouton worked as a professional field research biologist and professional tour leader for 20 years prior to accepting his current position with Leica Sport Optics in 2004. Jeff has birded all over North America and beyond, lending his knowledge to various resources along the way including the ABA Bird Finding Guides to both Alaska and Florida. He writes many articles on birding and optics for a variety of magazines including a featured column in WildBird magazine (Adventures with Austin) and a featured blog on the Birdwatcher's Digest website. He is a contributing author on the new Houghton Miflin title "Good Birder's Don't Wear White" and regularly gives presentations and leads bird walks across the country at the many bird festivals he attends. |
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Priscilla & Hank Brodkin |
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Priscilla & Hank Brodkin live in Carr Canyon in the bird and butterfly rich Huachuca Mountains of Arizona. Their special love of the tropical birds and butterflies have taken them on trips to many places around the world especially the neotropics. In 1992 they became interested in observing and photographing butterflies. They are founding Directors of the Southeast Arizona Butterfly Association (SEABA). They have led and co-led many butterfly field trips in Arizona and in Sonora, Mexico.
Priscilla's butterfly slide presentations have been given to many organizations and at numerous birding and nature festivals in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico.
The Brodkins co-authored “Butterflies of Arizona - a Photographic Guide" with Bob Stewart and a new book “Finding Butterflies in Arizona” written with Rich Bailowitz is currently in press. |
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Cameron Cox |
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| Cameron Cox is a birding specialist for Nikon Sport Optics. For the last eight years he has lived the bird bum life-style, working on research and monitoring projects from Cape May to California. He has great fondness for SE Arizona, particularly Sierra Vista, as he once lost a transmission driving up Carr Canyon. He currently resides in Seattle. |
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Christine Hass |
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| Dr. Chris Hass has been studying carnivores, primarily coatis and skunks, in southeastern Arizona since 1995. She is currently Assistant Director of Audubon's Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch in Elgin, AZ. |
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Homer Hansen |
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| Homer Hansen has a Bachelors degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and works as an Environmental Scientist with soil and water contamination. A Willcox native with many years experience observing birds in the Southwest he is also the chairman of the annual Wings Over Willcox festival and has led many birding tours. He has an avid interest in the natural history of birds and especially enjoys the challenges of sparrow identification and teaches master birding classes for the Tucson Audubon Society. |
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Alexander ‘Sandy’ Kunzer |
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| A semi-committed birder since before the middle of the last century, Sandy’s career as a geologist was explaining geology to civil engineers and “managers”. He has retired to the much easier job of explaining geology and its biological significance to the rest of us. |
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Betsy Kunzer |
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| Betsy Kunzer studied botany in college with the result that everyone was always asking “What is this plant”. She and her husband Sandy have been taking nature photos together for over 37 years. They retired to Sierra Vista and have been busily volunteering and taking pictures in all seasons ever since. |
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Charles Melton |
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| Hummingbirds have been a favorite subject of this nature photographer for more than 17 years. Over the past six years he has captured their amazing behaviors on video and to date has video of 18 species of hummingbirds in the U.S. He leads hummingbird photography workshops and is the author of a number of hummingbird articles. Samples of his photos and video can be viewed at www.nearfamous.com |
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Cheri Melton |
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| Cheri Melton is the self-employed owner of Planthoe Garden Factory, and provides nest boxes, recycled garden art, heirloom vegetables, and raises rare chickens. A love of gardening and all things of the Earth was sealed when, at the tender age of five, she was employed as the head weed puller by her grandmother. She was later promoted to planting and harvesting when her younger sister was old enough to take over as junior weed puller. Cheri has lived in Cochise County for over ten years and has learned through practical experience how to create a backyard habitat with regional native flowers, shrubs, trees and grasses into a haven for wildlife. |
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Carl Olson |
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| Carl Olson, a UA Associate Curator of the insect research collection the last 31 years, is active in teaching many community groups the values of insect life. He has authored two books on SW insects, coauthored many extension bulletins, and is active in bringing real insect information as opposed to myths to our public schools. He serves on the Board of the Sonoran Arthropods Studies Institute. |
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Mike Overton |
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| Mike Overton is the Resident Naturalist at Frio Country Resort near Concan Texas. In addition to promoting ecotourism in Uvalde County, Mike presents seminars and leads field trips at a variety of festivals and plans and guides nature tours for several organizations. In recent years he has led tours for the American Birding Association and at many festivals and nature events. He also serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Texas Hill Country River Region, Field Trip Coordinator for the Texas Ornithological Society and is a voting member of the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union’s Iowa Birds Records Committee. His expertise extends to butterflies, beetles and other insects. |
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Brian Prescott |
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| Brian has been photographing nature for the last 35 years. Some of his work has appeared in a Sierra Club book, newspapers, postcards and “American Birds”. In this endeavor he has traveled most of the U.S., a bit of Canada, Hawaii and several countries in Central America. In South America he visited Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Trinidad. Other areas of interest were South Africa, Iceland, Spain, Thailand, Australia, Antarctica and Papua New Guinea. All this travel resulted in a life list of about 2300 species and photographs of more than 1400. |
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William Radke |
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| William Radke, a life-long "desert rat," is a wildlife biologist and is currently the refuge manager of San Bernardino and Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuges in Cochise County. A native of Arizona, and a 1980 graduate from the University of Arizona, Bill has worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1983, and has been stationed at 11 different wildlife refuges in five western states. Bill is interested in, and knowledgeable of, much of the area's natural and human history. He is an avid naturalist and photographer, working with a variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, and plants. Over time, he has learned many interesting facts about the creatures with which we share the earth. His photographs have been published in a variety of books, magazines, and other publications. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Sierra Vista. |
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Rick Romea |
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| Rick Romea has over 30 years experience with birding. He has been a field trip leader for over 10 years, specializing in birding by ear. Five years ago he retired to Sierra Vista in SE Arizona from a career in applied physics in Seattle, and has been volunteering for The Nature Conservancy at Ramsey Canyon. He was the on-site manager of The Nature Conservancy's Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve for 1 ½ years, where he studied extensively the calls of the birds of SE Arizona. |
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Angel Rutherford |
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| Angel Rutherford was born in Germany but grew up in Switzerland and studied language and traveled the world. She lived in England, Austria and on the Canary Islands, Spain. She met her husband Mickey in Berlin, Germany and followed him to Fairbanks, Alaska. Later they moved to W.Virginia and after traveling in their RV for 3 years and visiting most of the 50 States moved to Sierra Vista, AZ. Here she became a Master Gardener in 97. Angel writes gardening articles for the Master Gardeners, the SV Area Gardeners Club and the local Newspaper “The SV Herald”. She also has a little nursery for Pond Plants where she grows about 20 different kinds of water lilies and around 30 different kinds of bog plants. She has several ponds in her back yard that contain Goldfish and Koi and also a colony of the Ramsey Canyon Leopard frog, a frog that is on the endangered species list. Her garden has been on the Xeriscape Tour several times and different clubs tour her garden annually. She has been a speaker at the 'High on the Desert, Gardening and Landscaping Conference' twice, one year she spoke about houseplants and the other year about water gardening. Angel teaches classes from time to time about pond building and maintenance at Cochise College. Angel is also a nature photographer. At the jurried show of the Huachuca Art Association in November 05, one of her photographs won second prize and the other two won an honorable mention each. You can find her articles at www.angelfrogs.com. |
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Dean Schlicting |
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| Dean Schlicting has over 15 years of professional experience as a Forester and a Botanist. Dean is originally from Wisconsin, where he received his BS in Forestry from the University of Wisconsin Stevens-Point. The early stages of his career focused on Forestry and Forest Pathology, but his skills and interest in botany eventually shifted his career into ecology. Since his arrival in Bisbee in late 2003, he has gained extensive knowledge of the vegetation in Southeastern Arizona. Under a Colorado State University contract, Dean is currently the Range and Training Land Assessment Coordinator (Training Land Ecologist) at Fort Huachuca, AZ. Dean is also currently working towards his masters degree in Rangeland Ecology through Colorado State University. |
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Kate Scott |
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| Kate Scott is Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Citizen Science Project Ambassador for AZ with volunteer duties of promoting The Birdhouse Network, Project FeederWatch, and Bird Sleuth. Kate and her husband Tony Heath maintain a 30 multi-cavity nest box trail on their ranch in the Huachuca Mountains. Kate's company, Birdland Ranch EcoFashions designs and produces bird-friendly, organic cotton products for the home and garden. |
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Bill Stocku |
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| Bill Stocku a resident of Hereford AZ since 1995. Started birding over thirty-four years ago on the East coast. He is a member of the DVOC Club of Philadelphia. Bill participated in the New Jersey Audubon World Series of Birding in Cape May NJ for twenty years. His team won the competition four years and still holds the single day record of most species (229). Since 1998 he is the birding tour coordinator for Geronimo Educational Studies of Bisbee AZ. He has completed over 125 tours of SE AZ. Bill also leads private trips throughout SE AZ. |
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Tom Whetten |
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| Being a native Arizonan makes Tom a rare and maybe endangered species. He admits that his not-so-productive youth was spent chasing lizards, snakes, and other critters all over the state. After time in the Army and in 32 years with the Tucson Police Department, he became a Reserve Game Ranger with the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AGFD). Tom now works as an information officer for AGFD’s Region 5 in Tucson. Tom has been an avid nature and wildlife photographer since 1985. He has led photo tours for three of Arizona’s birding festivals: Wings Over Willcox, Southwest Wings and the Verde Valley, and is on the board of directors for Wings Over Willcox. Tom is a member of several professional organizations including the North American Nature Photography Association, Outdoor Writers of America Association, Western Outdoor Writers, and Arizona Game Ranger Association. |
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Sheri Williamson |
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| Sheri Williamson, Director/Naturalist for the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory, grew up in Texas with a passion for wildlife, chasing lizards from the time she could walk and founding a bird club at age
six. In 1988, she and her husband and fellow naturalist Tom Wood moved to southeastern Arizona to manage The Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve, where they fell under the spell of hummingbirds and joined the ranks of hummingbird banders. They left the preserve in 1996 to found
the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory. Sheri is the author of A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America in the Peterson Field Guide Series, a guide to attracting and feeding hummingbirds, and the script for the Advanced Birding Video: Hummingbirds of North America, and a number of other publications. |
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Erika Wilson |
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| Erika Wilson can’t remember ever not watching birds, starting with her California dairy farm childhood. A degree in Biology led to interesting research jobs in entomology, physiology, cancer, and parasitic diseases before she retired to bird full-time. For the next few decades Erika ran BBS routes for USF&WS, did field work for breeding bird atlas projects in several states, compiled the rare bird alert for the Chesapeake Bay Area, and led bird forays for the Audubon Naturalist Society. Erika’s world birding includes 3-year residences in both England and India, plus numerous trips to surrounding countries in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. Her trips to several Central and South American countries rounds out her world birding. Retiring for a second time in 2004, Erika and her spouse settled in Sierra Vista, drawn by southeast Arizona’s diversity of flora and fauna. Erika currently sits on the American Birding Association’s Board of Directors |
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Tom Wood |
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| Tom Wood, one of the founders of the Southwest Wings Birding Festival, is co-founder of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory, a non-profit conservation organization. A native of Texas, Tom has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and was an interpretive naturalist and director of a large nature center and wildlife refuge for 14 years before moving to Arizona in 1988 to manage The Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve. Tom and his wife, Sheri Williamson, founded SABO in 1996 and have been involved in a variety of research, education, and conservation programs in southeastern Arizona and northwestern Mexico. Tom is a master bird bander and co-author of Birds of North America, published in 2005 by Sterling. |
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Joe Woodley |
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| Joe Woodley has been living and birding in Arizona for more than 15 years. He moved to the Sierra Vista area about 5 years ago to be closer to some of Arizona's best birding hot spots. In 2006 he compiled a list of 200 bird species seen within walking distance of his home. Joe works as an actuary and is also an avid digiscoper. |
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Rick Wright |
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| Rick Wright is the Editor of Winging It and a Department Editor at Birding, the flagship publication of the American Birding Association. Rick attended the University of Nebraska and Harvard Law School, and holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University. Before moving to southeast Arizona to become a professional birding guide, Rick taught at Princeton, Rutgers, Fordham, and the University of Illinois, where his teaching was recognized with numerous awards. A frequent lecturer at birding festivals and conventions, Rick enjoys all kinds of birding, from the frantic pace of the World Series to quiet puddle-watching. |
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President: Hank Brodkin
Secretary and Education Chair: Vicki Sutera
Treasurer: Priscilla Brodkin
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Directors:
Scott Cooke
Johnnie Eskue
Glenn Frederick
Brooke Gebow
Homer Hansen
William Radke
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