Speakers

Sibley_David_cropped

David Allen Sibley
Dinner Keynote Speaker
The Sibley Guide to Birds
, published in 2000, was the realization of a lifelong dream for David Allen Sibley, who began painting birds when he was seven years old and has continued painting them for over three decades. The Sibley Guide to Birds contains over 6,600 original illustrations by Sibley, now recognized as America’s leading ornithologist illustrator. David Allen Sibley is the preeminent brand in American birding, and everywhere he goes, hundreds of fellow birders come out to meet him for his inventive presentations and lectures. [For more information about David Allen Sibley, visit prhspeakers.com.]

Tom-Stephenson

Tom Stephenson
Workshop Keynote Speaker
Tom Stephenson has been birding since he was a kid under the tutelage of Dr. Arthur Allen of Cornell University. His articles and photographs are in museums and many publications including BirdingBirdwatcher’s DigestHandbook of the Birds of the World, and Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Tom has lectured and guided many groups across the US as well as in Asia, where he trained guides for the government of Bhutan. The Warbler Guide, co-authored with Scott Whittle is published by Princeton University Press and won the National Outdoor Book Award. The award-winning Warbler Guide App, for iOS and Android, includes 3D rotating models.

Saturday Workshop Speakers

Saturday morning speaker
10:30am to 11:30am
alternative to field trip

Sandy Morrissey
Eastern Bluebirds: An Outreach Model
Sandy Morrissey is president of Bronx River-Sound Shore Audubon. Sandy has been establishing and monitoring bluebird box trails all over Westchester County for more than 25 years engaging scouts, golf course staff and many community participants of all ages. As a licensed bird bander, Sandy has also collected valuable return data to monitor bluebird distribution and box selection for over a decade.

Saturday afternoon speakers
2:45pm to 3:30pm

Shai Mitra, Ph.D.
Seawatching on Long Island
Shai Mitra is an Assistant Professor of Biology at the College of Staten Island, with research interests in avian ecology, evolution, and conservation. Shai is Editor of The Kingbird, the quarterly publication of the New York State Ornithological Association; co-compiler of bird records for the New York City and Long Island region; Chair of the Rhode Island Avian Records Committee; co-compiler of the Southern Nassau County and Napatree, Rhode Island, Christmas Bird Counts; and co-compiler of the Captree June Count.

Julie Hart & Jared Feura
eBirding & Atlasing Tutorial

Julie Hart is Project Coordinator for the Third New York State Breeding Bird Atlas. Julie (eBird profile) works for the New York Natural Heritage Program and is housed at the DEC central office in Albany. Julie is a native Vermonter who started birding while working as a bird conservation intern with National Audubon, Audubon New York, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She traveled for several years doing field work around the globe before returning to VT to serve as the coordinator for Mountain Birdwatch with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. She spent several years chasing Bicknell’s Thrush around the mountains of the Northeast and Hispaniola before moving to Wyoming to continue her education. She received her Master’s degree studying the impacts of climate change on Cassia Crossbill in southern Idaho. She moved to Switzerland for a few years and volunteered at several banding stations where she really enjoyed seeing Wrynecks and Long-tailed Tits in the hand. After that, she moved to the Connecticut coast to work as the database manager for the Map of Life project at Yale University.

Jared Feura (eBird profile) is Assistant Project Coordinator for the Third New York State Breeding Bird Atlas. Jared is from northwestern Pennsylvania where he learned many different birds while being out in the woods as a kid, but he began truly birding during his time as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh on trips with the school’s birding and ornithology club. After completing his undergraduate studies, he spent several years working on various bird related projects across the eastern US, mostly hunting for warbler nests in eastern forests during the spring and summer, and banding migrants in the spring and fall. By chance, he found himself in Mississippi chasing wintering Yellow Rails in wet pine savannas after dark, which led him down the pathway to studying rails. He moved to Mississippi for his master’s degree assessing Clapper Rail survival rates and future impacts of sea-level rise on coastal Mississippi populations. He stayed on in Mississippi for several years to manage a project focused on determining populations of all secretive marsh birds across the Mississippi coast.

Bill Graham
Digiscoping Tips from Zeiss
Zeiss Field Naturalist Bill Graham is an active birder and bird photographer in the New York City region who enjoys sharing his birding and photography skills.

Tom Warren & Joe Walston
Improving your Bird Photography

Tom Warren was a photojournalist for two daily newspapers in Connecticut, before moving to Dobbs Ferry with his wife Bonnie, 17 years-ago. Since that time, Tom has become a “full-fledged” bird photographer and in recent years, five of his photos have been recognized by the National Audubon Society as being in the Top 100 photos, in their annual photography contest.

Joe Walston is currently the Vice President for Field Conservation Programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Prior to this position, Joe was the Executive Director for the WCS Asia Program and spent time in a regional leadership role in Zambia and as the Country Director for the Gabon Program. Prior to Africa, he was in Asia for WCS as the Director of the Cambodia Program, where had been working for eight years. In 2005 his contributions to Cambodian conservation were recognized by Prime Minister Hun Sen with the awarding of its highest civilian honor. Joe has previously worked in conservation in Indochina for ten years.

Kathleen Williamson
Writing Nature
Kathleen Williamson
won the runner-up prize in the SLAB poetry contest and was a winner in the Poetry in the Pavement project in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Her work has been published in Poetry International Online Quarterly, Newtown Literary, Ponder Review, as well other literary journals. Her first book of poetry, Feather and Bone was recently released. She is on the board of Saw Mill River Audubon and Films on Purpose.

Anikó Tótha, American Bird Conservancy
Birds and Windows
As Bird Collisions Glass Testing Coordinator, Anikó manages the American Bird Conservancy’s program to evaluate and rate bird-friendly materials. Prior to joining ABC, she spent ten years studying various bird species in the U.S. and in 2015 joined the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo’s Ornithology department as a keeper. Anikó received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science at Ramapo College of New Jersey and her Master’s degree in Biology with Miami University of Ohio.