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Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival May 5-8

2011 Festival Speakers & Guide Bios

The Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival Committee would like to thank each and every one of our presenters for their energy and enthusiasm, and for sharing their passionate wealth of knowledge during this year's Festival.

Aaron Lang has been addicted to birding since age 11 and his passion has taken him around the world in search of birds. Since 2002 he has been a tour leader for Wilderness Birding Adventures, an Alaskan based bird tour company. He lives in Homer with his wife and two dogs.

Andrea Swingley is a Fairbanks-based birder and the former education coordinator for the Alaska Bird Observatory. She works for the University of Alaska Fairbanks and has been an avid birdwatcher in Alaska for nearly 20 years.

Aurora Firth has been drawing since she can remember and has been teaching art for five and a half years. She was born in Pennsylvania, but moved to Alaska with her family in 1996 and has been in Anchor Point since 2001. She is the oldest of eight siblings and she, her siblings, and her art students have placed in the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Competition. Her hobbies include ice carving, reading, playing the violin, and studying and collecting baby names. Her work is available at her family's studio, Ben Firth Studio, at Mile 161 Sterling Highway.

Beth Peluso is the Communications Manager for Audubon Alaska in Anchorage, and works on bird conservation across Alaska. She has worked or volunteered for many bird research projects, including studies of owls, murrelets, and shorebirds in Southeast Alaska, Icy Bay, and Prince William Sound. She also enjoys exploring natural history as a writer and illustrator.

Beth Trowbridge is the Program Director for the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies and has been leading natural history and science education programs for youth and adults in Homer for over ten years.

Betty Siegel is the Volunteer Coordinator for Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and a long-time volunteer for Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The festival theme Wild Birds, Wild Places describes this birder's passion for birding and traveling to remote or special places to see them. Bhutan is one of her top three most special places in the world.

Brian Sullivan has conducted fieldwork on birds throughout North America for the past 20 years. Birding travels, photography and field projects have taken him to Central and South America, Antarctica, the Arctic and across North America. He has written and consulted on various books, popular and scientific literature on North American birds, and is a co-author on the forthcoming Princeton Guide to North American Birds. Research interests include migration, raptor biology, and closing the gap between science and birding. He is currently project leader for eBird (www.ebird.org) and the Avian Knowledge Network (www.avianknowledge.net), photographic editor of the Birds of North America Online (http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA/) at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and photographic editor for the American Birding Association's journal North American birds (www.americanbirding.org/pubs/nab/index.html).

Buzz Scher has been passionately watching birds for well over 40 years, having now birded on all the continents except Africa. He is a professional civil engineer in Anchorage, as well as the Audubon regional editor for all of the Alaska Christmas Bird Counts. This year will be Buzz's 19th year presenting the Shorebird Identification workshop during the Festival.

Carl Safina is this year's Festival keynote speaker. Carl grew up fascinated by the ocean and its creatures. His childhood by the shore led to scientific studies of seabirds and fish, and to his doctorate in Ecology from Rutgers University. For twenty-five years Carl has studied the ocean as a scientist, stood for it as an advocate and conveyed his travels among sea creatures and fishing people in lyrical non-fiction writing. He has great empathy for the plight of both animals and people, but he knows that each is served by maintaining abundance and neither by creating scarcity. He strives to convey a Sea Ethic to complement Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic, wherein our sense of community extends beyond humanity to encompass the wider living world. Carl believes in using the oceans, but not in using them up. His current work explores and communicates how the ocean is changing and what it means for animals and people. His organization - Blue Ocean Institute - seeks to inspire people with hope and the knowledge that all current problems are solvable using what we already know.

Carl is the author of over one hundred publications, including the books Songs for the Blue Ocean, Eye of the Albatross, and Voyage of the Turtle, his writing has been featured in National Geographic. His conservation work has been profiled in the New York Times, on Nightline, and in the Bill Moyers television special "Earth on Edge". He is a recipient of the Pew Scholar's Award in Conservation and the Environment, a World Wildlife Fund Senior Fellowship, the Lannan Literary Award for non-fiction, the John Burroughs Medal for Literature, National Academies Communications Award, Chicago's Brookfield Zoo's Rabb Medal, and a MacArthur Prize. Carl is an adjunct professor at Long Island University and State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is president of Blue Ocean Institute, a non-profit that he co-founded in 2003. Inspiring ocean conservation, Blue Ocean Institute uniquely works through science, art, and literature to inspire solutions and a deeper connection with nature. The Institute shares reliable information that enlightens personal choices, instills hope, and helps restore living abundance in the oceans. For more information and to lend your support, visit www.blueocean.org. 

Carla Stanley is a retired teacher. This is her 41st year in Alaska, and she had a garden every year ... some big, some small, but always shared with whatever wildlife wants to come and visit.

Carmen Field is a coastal science educator and naturalist with the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, providing educational programs for Alaska students and visitors to the Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center.

Conrad Field is a professional naturalist, biologist, and artist residing in Homer, Alaska. Since 1989 Conrad has been a naturalist-lecturer aboard a variety of expedition vessels, primarily in polar and sub-polar regions, including over 70 voyages to the Antarctic. On these voyages, he has lectured on seabird biology, marine mammals, whaling, the art of Scrimshaw, marine invertebrate life, and local flora and fauna. He also works as a seasonal field botanist with several government agencies throughout Alaska and teaches marine science to elementary students for various educational organizations.

Daisy Lee Bitter has lived in Alaska for 56 years, having taught science in Anchorage for 29 years, produced an award-winning TV series, administered educational programs for Alaska Native students, and served as a school principal. By 1986 Daisy Lee had become a regular on public radio's Kachemak Currents. She set up an award-winning program for Homer's Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, helped organize the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, and she still volunteers for many non-profit organizations.

Dale Chorman is a lifelong birder who lives in Homer and has worked as a naturalist in Alaska for over 26 years.

Dave Erikson is a professional biologist with over 38 years of experience of birding in Homer. He complies data for the annual Christmas Bird Count in Homer, and has volunteered with the Shorebird Festival since its beginning at the viewing stations, leading bird walks, and giving presentations.

George Matz is an avid birder and conservationist who has been a resident of Alaska since 1976 and Homer since 2004. Before moving to Homer, he was active with the Anchorage Audubon for many years. In Homer, he serves on the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve Community Council, Kachemak Bay Conservation Society board, Homer Fish & Game Advisory Committee, Kachemak Bay Birders, and teaches a course in birding at the Kenai Peninsula College. In the Spring or 2009, he organized the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Monitoring Project which seeks to get a better understanding of Kachemak Bay shorebird populations during spring migration.

Jason Sodergren is an electrical engineer, birder, and bird bander living in Homer. He has recently initiated an owl banding project in Homer focusing on the Northern Saw-whet and Boreal owls and in the past has worked with raptor, passerine and owl banding and migration monitoring projects in Ontario, Canada and in Michigan. He has served on the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival committee for five years and also serves as a board member of Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. Jason is also involved with the Hawk Migration Association of North America, managing a continent-wide raptor migration database and website.

John Wenger is a wildlife biologist/naturalist. He holds a M.S. in Nature Interpretation, and held positions with ADF&G, USFWS, and the Alaska Division of Parks. While off-duty from field operations, he taught natural history classes for the University of Alaska Anchorage. Now, after a marvelous 35-year career, he is retired but active with a 3,000 acre nature preserve he established in Bolivia. As his business card says: "Now retired - just sniffs flowers and gawks at birds all day".

Keith Ramos is the Deputy Refuge Manager for the Koyukuk/Nawitna National Wildlife Refuge in Galena, Alaska. During his spare time, Keith enjoys nature as an avid birder and amateur photographer. Some of his work has been published in various local, regional and national publications.

Laurie Daniel is a wildlife restoration biologist with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and a Board member of the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society (KBCS). After many years of field work in coastal and interior Alaska, she presently works on impact assessment and restoration for wildlife and wildlife habitat from oil spills and invasive species. Through KBCS, Laurie was very involved in the local effort to establish Overlook Park and has led the springtime hikes during Shorebird Festival for too many years to count now.

Lisa Matlock is the Education Specialist for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Lisa has educated children and adults about Alaska's amazing coast for several federal agencies, universities, private nature centers and eco-tourism companies for almost two decades.

Lynn Marie Naden is this year's Festival artist. Her original artwork "In Turn" - Black Turnstones of Kachemak Bay can be found on the Festival t-shirt and signed art print. Lynn is a multi-medium artist who has lived in Homer since 1990. Her commissioned Public Art pieces include the Homer Public Library with "The ABC's of Kachemak Bay" and the "Sea Farer's Memorial". Lynn has facilitated numerous art installations in public schools throughout the State of Alaska. She is delighted to have been asked to design the artwork for the 2011 Shorebird Festival.

Marc Webber is the Assistant Manager of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Marianne Aplin is the visitor Center Manager for Islands & Ocean, the headquarters of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Matt Kirchoff is Audubon Alaska's Director of Bird Conservation. He leads Audubon Alaska's efforts to conserve Important Bird Areas and Alaska Watch List species, as well as Audubon's research on Kittlitz's and Marbled Murrelets. Matt has spent the last 30 years in Alaska, working as a wildlife biologist for various state and federal agencies before joining the Audubon staff in 2008. His specialties include Marbled and Kittlitz's Murrelets, Northern Pintails, forest ecology, and the effects of forest management on Sitka black-tailed deer.

A native of Rochester New York, Matt has a BS in Wildlife from the State University of NY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and an MS in Zoology from the University of Maine. He also has taught at the University of Alaska Southeast. Matt is a recipient of the Olaus Murie award for longstanding professional achievement in the field of conservation in Alaska. He has served on a variety of volunteer boards and is former Chairman and Trustee Emeritus of the Alaska Conservation Foundation. Matt is an outdoors enthusiast who enjoys camping, hiking and rowing.

Michael Hilchey is this year's Tim Schantz Memorial Scholarship recipient. Michael has been an avid birder and biologist ever since his grandmother started taking him out birding at age eleven. Currently a Biology undergrad at the University of New Mexico, Michael can pretty much always be found in the field. He spends his mornings and evenings chasing rare birds, his afternoons searching for butterflies, and his nights out involved spotlighting owls and/or road cruising for snakes and toads. Michael loves to lead bird tours and has many years experience doing so in the Southwestern USA for various Audubon groups and birding festivals. Michael also spends a lot of his time conducting biological research (mostly with birds). He has been involved with many projects in and around New Mexico over the years; most notably he is the co-lead of the Sandia Rosy-Finch Project in Albuquerque. This long-term study of Rosy-Finches in the Sandia Mountains was recently featured in the May/June issue of National Audubon Magazine. Click here to learn more about the Tim Schantz Memorial Scholarship.

Miranda Weiss is the Author of Tide, Feather, Snow: A life in Alaska (HarperCollins 2009) which was a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association bestseller in hardcover and paperback.

Mossy Kilcher has lived in Homer, Alaska her entire life, and is an artist, photographer and an avid, lifelong birder. Mossy is a member of several bird organizations and participates in many local bird activities, including feeder watch, bird counts, and bird walks. She also contributes material to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Mossy's main passion is filming and photographing birds, especially songbirds, documenting their habits, and collecting their songs.

Mr. Whitekeys grew up in South Dakota, Iowa and Arizona. His fondest childhood memories were the days his father, a doctor, would bring home jugs of unusable blood which he would pour on the rose bushes for fertilizer. No one in town grew better roses. Whitekeys appeared as part of "The Oosik Music Company" which was the house band for five years at Chilkoot Charlie's bar in Anchorage, Alaska in the early 1970's. During that period, he gave Chilkoots the motto, "We Cheat the Other Guy and Pass the Savings On To You!". In 1980, he opened Mr. Whitekeys' Fly By Night Club in Anchorage, Alaska. The bar was designed to employ other ridiculously over-educated people who just did not like getting up early in the morning. Since opening The Fly By Night Club in 1980, his life has been a fairy tale which has come true. In February, 1995. Whitekeys was invited to the Alaska Governor's Inaugural Ball where he was honored to be the guy who introduced the guy who introduced the guy who introduced the Governor. In his spare time, Whitekeys is addicted to trout fishing, illegal fireworks, and coral reef marine biology. He knows the location of a species of reef fish which has a vocal language.

Nathan Senner started preparing for his career in ornithology very early on in his life and fell head-over-heels in love with shorebirds at the are of eight on the mudflats of south coastal Alaska. Since that time he has pursued research throughout much of Arctic Alaska and Canada and, more recently, South America. For the past eight years, Nathan has focused his efforts on tracing the migration of Hudsonian Godwits from their Arctic breeding grounds to their wintering sites at the very southern tip of South America. Nathan first attempted to do this tracking by foot and by bus - spending a year trekking the length of the western hemisphere in pursuit of Godwits. Now, though, housed at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Nathan is content to use the advent of geolocation tracking technology to do much of that work for him. Nathan's only remaining migration is one that will hopefully lead him back to the greener tundra of Alaska after the completion of his PhD.

Nils Warnock is Audubon Alaska's state director and holds a PhD in Ecology from the University of California at Davis and San Diego State University. Nils has studies shorebirds and waterfowl across Alaska, including Spectacled Eiders, Dunlin, Bar-[tailed Godwits and Bristle-thighed Curlews, from the North Slope to the Seward Peninsula to the Yukon-Kuskokwim and Copper River deltas. He has published extensively, especially on the ecology of shorebirds, including more than 50 scientific articles in peer-reviewed books and journals, as well as articles in popular magazines including Natural History and Birding.

Pat Pourchot came to Alaska in 1972 to conduct wild and scenic river studies for the Department of the Interior as part of Alaska lands legislation, He has served as a former Alaska State House Representative and State Senator, Legislative Director for Governor Tony Knowles, Commissioner of Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Policy Advisor for Audubon Alaska, and is currently the Special Assistant to Secretary of the Interior for Alaska Affairs. Pat is an inveterate birder obsessed with expanding his life list.

Poppy Benson is the Visitor Services Manager for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Poppy was among a handful of individuals who were instrumental in the creation of the very first Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, and she has been involved in a variety of capacities ever since.

Rich Kleinleder is a wildlife biologist who has lived in Homer for 21 years. He is the author of the Homer Birding Hotspots Guide and website - www.birdinghomeralaska.org.

Steve Delehanty is the Manager of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and has worked for USFWS for over 25 years on refuges in five states.

Taz Tally is a professional landscape and wilderness photographer living in Homer, Alaska. He has authored numerous books and online training courses about Photoshop, digital photography and related digital imaging topics. His latest book 50 Hikes in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula is available at major bookstores. A nature photographer and outdoor enthusiast, Taz draws on his background as a PhD geologist and former University of North Carolina professor. Taz also offers custom Alaskan photography adventures and training. Visit www.taztallyphotography.com for more information.

Tim & Erica Craig Tim was a wildlife biologist for the Central Yukon Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management for eleven years and Erica Craig worked in the same Field Office for three years. The Central Yukon Field Office manages the Dalton Highway Corridor and both biologist conducted raptor studies in the Corridor. Tim and Erica are from Idaho where they went to graduate school and conducted studies on raptors for 25 years. Tim is currently a wildlife biologist on Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge. Erica runs her own consulting company, Aquila Environmental, and is currently conducting studies of Golden Eagles in the Intermountain West.

Tom Kuenzli's love of nature was sparked at an early age in Madison Wisconsin. He attends birding festivals across the country for Eagle Optics, and is thrilled to be at this year's Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival.