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Trip Leaders - 2007 Festival RITA CARRATELLO is a Monterey County bird specialist. She participated in the County’s breeding bird atlas project, wrote species accounts, and designed the publication published in 1993. She was the voice for the Monterey rare bird alert before the automated BirdBox, and served on the Audubon Society Board for 16 years. She and her husband also travel the world in search of bird families, and enjoy giving multi-media presentations of these adventures. See more at http://montereybay.com/creagrus/trips.html. DAVID EKDAHL has been birding and guiding trips for the Santa Cruz Bird Club for over 20 years. He began his birding in Humboldt County and has birded in Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Canada, Alaska, New Zealand, and South Africa. He is a section leader in the Santa Cruz/Moss Landing and Pinnacles Christmas Bird Counts. BRUCE ELLIOTT has been an active birder for 55 years. He is a retired Senior Biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game and has taught classes relating to biology at the University of California for the past 35 years, many occurring at Elkhorn Slough Reserve. SAYRE FLANNAGAN is a Wildlife Biologist for Ventana Wildlife Society with the Species Recovery Program. She acts as field supervisor for VWS’ California Condor reintroduction effort where she cares for the health and well-being of 35 free-flying condors in Big Sur. Sayre has 6 years of experience in wildlife management having worked on ranches and at zoos, but her true passion is working in the field. In addition to condors, Sayre has worked with bats, Spotted Owls and Goshawks. RICK FOURNIER has been an avid birder for over 20 years and has a full appreciation for all aspects of nature. Rick owns and operates Monterey Birding Adventures, leading personalized and small group tours. He leads tours for regional Audubon Societies, the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, the Santa Cruz Bird Club and a popular outing each month at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. Working for the Moss Landing Marine Labs he conducts avian wetland surveys, and as a past banding associate for the Big Sur Ornithology Lab, spent 4 1/2 years participating in their mist net program, recording the health and distribution of resident and migratory bird populations. STEVE GEROW has been birding and studying other aspects of the natural world since the late 1960's. He has participated in numerous bird studies and surveys around the Monterey Bay Area, and regularly monitors bird populations and trends in the vicinity of Santa Cruz. He has contributed to several publications, and often leads field trips for the Santa Cruz Bird Club and other groups. JENNIFER GREEN has been happily birding since 1976 when a chance view of Atlantic Puffins hooked her. Since then she has been seeking whales and seabirds in as many oceans as she can reach. Along the way she started Green Otter Guiding which has allowed her to lead trips on and offshore in California for the American Birding Association, Elkhorn Slough Safari and Shearwater Journeys for the past 12 years. Other stints have included volunteer work for Coyote Creek Riparian Station's banding lab, shorebird census work with Point Reyes Bird Observatory, local breeding bird atlas and count work in Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito and San Mateo county and helping Britain's Wildfowl Trust band barnacle geese in Spitzbergen. JESSICA GRIFFITHS is a Wildlife Biologist for Ventana Wildlife Society, with the Conservation Ecology Program. She is responsible for the day-to-day operation of VWS’ Big Sur Ornithology Lab. Jessica began working full-time for VWS in December 2002, two years after graduating with a B.A. in Biology from Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA. She has worked for both government and private organizations in seven states from coast to coast, including New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Mississippi. She has over 6 years of experience in songbird research and monitoring. CLAY KEMPF has been teaching classes and leading California birding trips for over 20 years. He is a regular leader for Shearwater Journeys offshore expeditions, and has conducted trips involving the American Birding Association, Elkhorn Slough Foundation, and a variety of Audubon Societies and bird clubs. He has contributed to bird-finding guides to Santa Cruz County and the Panoche Valley in San Benito County. Clay is a former Watsonville Wetlands Watch Board member, and credits Wetlands Watch for much of the success in the preservation of the Watsonville Slough Systems. EARL LEBOW has been birding and leading bird trips on the Central Coast of California since he moved here from the East Coast in 1986. Though he had been birding for many years in and around NYC, his skill and passion for birding increased exponentially when he moved to California. He has birded extensively throughout the United States, Central America, Africa and Europe. He has led trips for the Santa Cruz Bird Club for many years and enjoys leading trips locally and sharing his love of birds and birding with others. TODD NEWBERRY, a lifelong birder, has taught biology for forty years at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He leads frequent and popular bird walks throughout our region, including regular walks in the university's arboretum and others along the coast for the Santa Cruz Bird Club. He is the author of the recent book, The Ardent Birder. BARBARA & KEVIN MONAHAN have lived and birded in Santa Cruz for over 20 years. Kevin is a skilled bird photographer and former President of Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. Barbara is currently involved in banding Hummingbirds at her residence in the Santa Cruz mountains. MARK PAXTON has been a docent at Elkhorn Slough since the 1980's. He leads local tours for area bird clubs, including the Santa Cruz Bird Club and regional Audubon Societies. He also assists avian research studies throughout Monterey County and is the land steward for a 2300-acre ranch at the center of one of Audubon California's Important Bird Areas. Speaking about the Monterey Bay region, Mark says, "While I do travel to chase birds, there is such rich diversity here that several lifetimes wouldn't do our home patch justice. For a birder, this is paradise." BERNADETTE RAMER began her studies in shorebird ecology of Elkhorn Slough as a student at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in 1977. She has coordinated a number of censuses of shorebirds in and around Elkhorn Slough and is currently a volunteer for the Elkhorn Slough Shorebird Monitoring Project. She has led Elkhorn Slough birding field trips for many local birding groups and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She spent over 20 years as a field biologist for Point Reyes Bird Observatory studying the Monterey population of the Snowy Plover. Bernadette and her husband, Bob Ramer, are co-compilers of the Moss Landing Audubon Christmas count. BOB RAMER has been birding in the Monterey Bay area for over thirty years and has done volunteer work with the Nature Conservancy, the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation in monitoring the bird populations in this area. In 1976, he was one of the founders of the Moss Landing Audubon Christmas Bird Count; and he and his wife, Bernadette, continue as co-compilers of this count. JENNIFER RYCENGA has been a birder for over twenty years, first seduced into this passion by a White-tailed Kite hovering over the hills of Marin. She has led trips for Sequoia Audubon (San Mateo County), and currently serves on their board of directors. Join her for the Big Sit! on Sunday October 14th at Bayfront Park in Menlo Park. When not looking for the next bird for her multiple lists, Jennifer is a professor of Humanities at San Jose State University. MICHELLE SCOTT has been actively birding since 1990. She has done Snowy Plover monitoring for Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties and surveys for Santa Cruz county. She was an employee at the Birdfeeder in Santa Cruz from 1994 to 1998, and enjoys introducing people to birding. DEBRA SHEARWATER. Debra is the founder of Shearwater Journeys, a name synonymous with seabirding trips from Monterey, California. Over 50,000 birders from all over the world have joined her on boat trips since 1976. A full-time marine naturalist-birder, she has logged close to 1800 days at sea, visiting countless places from the Bering Sea to Antarctica. Enthusiastic about all marine life, Debi has worked as research associate on programs focusing on blue whales, several dolphin species, and leatherback sea turtles. Featured in numerous books and television programs, Debi co-produced her own DVD, Through the Seasons: An Introduction to the Seabirds and Marine Mammals of Monterey Bay. Debra is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Birding Association, and invites you to visit her website at www.shearwaterjourneys.com KAREN RITCHIE SHIHADEH is a Senior Wildlife Biologist for Ventana Wildlife Society and is director of the Conservation Ecology and Habitat Restoration Programs. As such, she administers and oversees research at the Big Sur Ornithology Lab, 6 MAPS stations on the Carmel, Salinas, and Nacimiento Rivers and 4 other bird monitoring projects in Central California. She is the Director of Conservation for Monterey Peninsula Audubon Society. She has participated in bird projects in North Carolina, Maryland, Texas, Tennessee, California and Hawaii. In that time she has banded over 1500 songbirds, traveled to great birding destinations throughout the U.S. and Europe, and published the Black-tailed Gnatcatcher species account for the Birds of North America series. DAVID SUDDJIAN works as an environmental consultant and has studied birds in the Monterey Bay area for over 20 years. He has compiled the Santa Cruz County bird records since 1986, and has developed and coordinated many studies documenting bird populations, distribution and habitat use in the area. MICHELLE TEMPLETON is a local educator and naturalist who has been working on conservation issues throughout the area for over 10 years. In 1997 Michelle developed the Natural History Guide to the Birds of Wilder Ranch in conjunction with Native Plant and Living History sections published by California State Parks. Since then Michelle has been developing and providing environmental education programs and curriculum in Watsonville, Seaside, Salinas and Marina. NELLIE THORNGATE is a Wildlife Biologist for Ventana Wildlife Society with the Conservation Ecology Program. Since starting with VWS in 2002, she has supervised several major field projects, presented research at regional workshops and symposia, and co-authored several technical reports. Nellie completed her M.S. degree in 2006 through San Jose State University on landbird diversity and abundance in native Monterey pine forests. She is currently supervising VWS’ satellite banding operations on the Carmel, Salinas, and Nacimiento Rivers. ROGER WOLFE is a 40-year resident of the Monterey Bay area. He works as a marine naturalist for Monterey Bay Whale Watch and Monterey Seabirds. He enjoys working with eco-tourists from all over the world on a weekly basis. Roger was recently featured on the National Geographic Channel's program Whale Attack! He is a loyal patch birder and visits most of Watsonville's premier birding areas at least once a week and looks forward to sharing them with you. |
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