Jim Stevenson is Director of the Galveston Ornithological Society, and a professional bird guide.

Raised by an ornithologist, he has been birding nearly 50 years, having traveled all over the world and seen over 5000 species of birds. His graduate work was conducted on bird migration in the Gulf states, which eventually led him to reside in Galveston. Jim has had four books published, and also publishes three nature newspapers himself. Jim is on the Board of directors of Galveston Island Nature Tourism Council Inc. and on the FeatherFest 2005 committee.

John and Gloria Tveten are full-time freelance naturalists, writers, & photographers.

They are the authors of several books including The Birds of Texas, Butterflies of Houston and Southeast Texas, Wildflowers of Houston and Southeast Texas, Vanishing Wildlife of Texas, Coastal Texas, Our Life with Birds, and their newest effort, Adventures Afar, which consolidates 24 years of their newspaper columns in the Houston Chronicle on some of their favorite destinations. In addition, their photographs and articles have appeared in several hundred other books and magazines. John also led numerous natural-history trips throughout North, South, and Central America and the West Indies for the Smithsonian Institution and other organizations. The Tvetens have served as featured speakers at nature festivals throughout Texas and have received several statewide awards for conservation and education.

Mike Moore, a resident of Plano Texas, has held a life-long interest in bird watching. He is employed at the Wild Bird Center in Plano, where he guides birding trips throughout the North Texas area.

In addition, he teaches several bird watching classes at Brookhaven College in Dallas and is a Texas Master Naturalist. This is Mike's second year of leading field trips for FeatherFest.

Bob Honig has extensive experience in natural history, with particular interests in field ornithology and the study of dragonflies and damselflies. He earned a B.A. in Biology (ecology emphasis) from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in Zoology in the Aquatic Ecology Program at Virginia Tech. Bob has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Katy Prairie Conservancy, a land trust focusing its efforts just west of Houston, since its founding in 1992.

He has conducted many bird surveys (including several seasons for the Texas Breeding Bird Atlas Project), as well as surveys for dragonflies and damselflies, and butterflies. He has served as Chairman of the Ornithology Group of Houston's Outdoor Nature Club; he has been Compiler of the Buffalo Bayou, Texas, Christmas Bird Count (CBC) since 1984; and he was a founder and Compiler of the Brazos Bend, Texas, CBC. Bob – often with his wife, Maggie – has led numerous natural history field trips and tours domestically as well as to the Neotropics, and has regularly lectured to nature and conservation organizations. Bob's professional environmental experience began with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and continued in the natural gas pipeline industry and then environmental consulting. He has addressed such diverse issues as endangered species, erosion control and revegetation, wetlands, archaeology and historic preservation, water discharges, spill prevention and control, waste minimization and recycling, and sustainable development – and his work has taken him to far-flung locales, including environmental surveys in Bolivia and the Algerian Sahara. He currently is employed in the Environmental Services Group of AMEC Paragon, an energy industries project management and engineering services company in Houston.

Richard Peake has been an active field ornithologist for over fifty years. Better known to his birding friends as Dick Peake, he began his birding early in Chesapeake, Virginia. When he was 11 years old, his fifth grade school teacher started a junior Audubon Club in her class. Two years later, Peake persuaded his parents to buy him a pair of WWII army surplus 6x30 binoculars. Imagine his excitement when one of the first birds he found in his neighborhood was a Western Kingbird.

At the University of Virginia, his roommate Renwick Kerr and Dick spent more time birding than studying for classes. The result was a good bird list for that year, and the opportunity for Dick to work his way to the West Coast delivering samples door to door, an excellent way to see birds as well as earn money to replace his lost scholarship money. Back home and attending Old Dominion University for a semester, Dick made his first significant contribution to Virginia ornithology by finding a group of Lincoln's Sparrows wintering in Tidewater Virginia, a find that led to his first article in the Virginia Society of Ornithology's publication The Raven.

Returning to the University of Virginia, Dick took a BA and MA in English. He then taught at Clemson University, the University of Georgia, and Western Carolina University, all the while continuing his birding activities. After taking a Ph.D. in English at the University of Georgia, he became Chair of the Department of English at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, Virginia, a post that he held (with a few years of) for thirty years. During that time he was active in the Virginia Society of Ornithology and served as a member of its governing board, its records committee, and its President.

From 1991-1996 he was compiler of the Wise County, Virginia, Christmas Bird Count. After retirement in 1998, he began spending much of his time in Galveston, Texas. He became co-compiler of the Freeport Christmas Bird Count, a post he has just relinquished, and for the last three years he has been teaching a birding class in UTMB's Lifelong Learning program.

Though not primarily a "lister," he has an ABA list of well over 700 and a world list of 4500 species. He is a life member of the AOU, the Association of Field Ornithologists, the Carolina Bird Club,the Houston Audubon Society, KOS, TOS(both Tennessee and Texas), VSO, and the Wilson Ornithological Society. Now Professor Emeritus of English, Dick gives illustrated bird programs and does occasional volunteer and professional birding tours in Texas and Virginia.

Karla Klay, Artist Boat's Executive Creative Director has 15 years of experience integrating the sciences and the arts. She is an American Canoe Association (ACA) certified kayak and canoe instructor and certified in First Aid ad CPR. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and a Bachelor in Science in Marine Biology. She teaches birding courses for Texas A&M University at Galveston's Elderhostel program and taught Coastal Ornithology Field Labs in 2002 for TAMUG.

Devin Taylor, who recently joined The Artist Boat staff, got started as a birder when he heard these words from an Ornithology professor on the first day of classes "I hope to share and instill the wonder of birds…" From that day on his interest in birds has grown. His first real birding began in Texas while he was working for Hawkwatch International counting migrating raptors down in Corpus Christi, Texas. After four years of various bird research jobs in the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Galapagos Islands he definitely has a sort of winged wonder in him. "It has been great to see new species of birds wherever I have traveled and I feel lucky to have witnessed entire life cycles of birds such as the Waved Albatross and Nazca Boobies in the Galapagos."

Breck Sacra holds a bachelors degree in Biology with a Wildlife Emphasis. He has worked in commercial aquaculture in the Pacific Northwest and for a River Authority in Texas.

Currently, Mr. Sacra manages ecological resources for an electric utility including the operation of a wetland plant nursery, which specializes in growing estuarine, freshwater, hammock, and dune plant species for coastal restoration projects.

Kayaking, canoeing, camping and bird watching are passions in work and play. Breck participates in several Audubon Christmas Bird Counts each year and has participated in the Great Texas Birding Classic since it's inception.

Kathy Adams Clark has been a professional nature photographer since 1995. She runs a stock agency that represents the work of fifteen outstanding nature photographers. Kathy's work has been published in many places including Nature's Best, New York Times, Birder's World, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Texas Highways and Family Fun. Her photos have also appeared in a numerous books and calendars. Her photos appear every week in the "Wonders of Nature" column in the Houston Chronicle written by her husband, Gary Clark.

Kathy teaches photography through Leisure Learning in Houston. She will give many presentations to clubs and organizations in 2005. She will lead a photo workshop to Costa Rica in March and Ireland in October. Kathy is on the board of the North American NaturePhotography Association and is in charge of their annual convention.

George Regmund George grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas spending much time on Padre Island.
He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology and joined the staff of Armand Bayou Nature Center in 1976. He served as Staff Naturalist, Senior Naturalist and Director through 2003. He returned to ABNC in November 2004 as Stewardship Biologist.

George has lead birding and natural history field trips to many areas in Texas plus Southeastern Arizona, Maine, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, New Brunswick, Baja California and the Yucatan.
He is now co-owner and Naturalist Guide for Skimmer Nature Tours, a natural history tour company.
Hobbies include playing guitar and bluegrass banjo, racquetball plus wood and metal work.

Winnie Burkett Winnie Burkett, sanctuary manager for the Houston Audubon Society and Upper Texas Colonial Waterbird Steward forAudubon Texas, was introduced to birding at age 4, by her grandmother.

She grew up looking for birds in the wetlands of South Florida and attended Florida State University. Moving around the country with her petroleum geologist husband gave her the opportunity to work on her life list while raising 3 sons. Before moving back to the Houston Area in 1991 Winnie lived in Storrs, Connecticut where she was on the board of the Connecticut Ornithological Association worked as the naturalist for the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and ran a bird banding station in conjunction with the University of Connecticut. Winnie’s main interests and concerns are waterbirds and waterbird habitat protection.

David Sarkozi David Sarkozi’s specialty is leading tours for Yellow Rail at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

He has also lead tours in Belize and Costa Rica and Statewide for the Texas Ornithological Society. David has served as chairman of the Houston Outdoor Nature Club - Ornithology Group, president of the Friends of Anahuac Refuge, and is currently the President of the Texas Ornithological Society.

Ted Eubanks grew up in the Galveston-Houston area and an early deep attachment to nature set him on a path to prominence and respect in the environmental community. He received a BA in Journalism from the University of Houston in 1978 and since 1984 has been involved in the founding and development of a series of businesses. Ted founded Fermata Inc in 1992 and since that time has been engaged in studying and promoting experiential tourism and outdoor recreation as sustainable approached to community revitalization and conservation.

Ted is on the Board of Directors of Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. He is a past President of Houston Audubon and the Texas Ornithological Societies, Chairman of the Ornithology Group of the Outdoor Nature Club and a member of the Governor's Texas nature Tourism Task Force.

For over thirty years Ted has been committed to the conservation of critical bird habitats along the upper Texas coast. He played a critical role in establishing High Island Boy Scout Woods and Smith Oaks Sanctuary (and there is Eubanks Woods there also), Sabine Woods, Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, Corp Woods ( East Galveston), and Kleb Woods in Harris County.

He and his wife are now living in both Austin and Galveston.

Dr. Nancy Greig. Nancy is a naturalist and field biologist with special interests in plants and insects. She currently works at the Houston Museum of Natural Science as their curator of entomology, after serving for 11 years as director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center. She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University.

Her background is in tropical plant ecology, and she has spent several years in Costa Rica and other neotropical countries doing research and leading field courses and natural history tours. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 1991.

Because of her years at the Cockrell Butterfly Center, butterflies have become a special interest. Nancy was a founding member and served on the board of the Houston chapter of the North American Butterfly Association, the "Butterfly Enthusiasts of Southeast Texas", or BEST-NABA. She frequently gives presentations on butterflies and/or butterfly gardening in and around Houston.

Damien Carey. On returning to Houston in 1991, Damien Carey took up birding and rapidly became an avid birder. He began developing his birder’s ear while chasing nesting Swainson’s warblers in the bottomlands around Lake Houston. Bird vocalizations opened a pleasurable dimension to his understanding and appreciation of avifauna. Mr. Carey further developed his birder's ear out of necessity. Texas has little public land and birding is often from the roadside or a fence line of private land.

Several years ago, he created a "Birding-By-Ear" presentation with the goal of encouraging birders to go beyond optics. Based on input from audience members frustrated in developing their birder’s ear, Mr. Carey revised his presentation around a strategy for acquiring the skill.

Birding-by-ear has influenced Mr. Carey professionally. He established a nature club for at-risk children at a Humble ISD elementary school. Each year he introduces fourth and fifth graders to animal vocalizations and found the students fascinated most by bird song. Mr. Carey applied for an artist’s grant and wrote The Stories of Mimm; an oral story that offers a fanciful answer to the riddle of “why mockingbirds mock” and a lesson about conservation.

As a member of the Kingwood Kingbirders, Mr. Carey put his birder’s ear to the competitive test in the Greater Texas Birding Classics. After several second and third place finishes, the team won their division in 2002 then promptly retired from competition.

Annually, Mr. Carey leads field trips for Houston area birding and nature groups. He founded the Lake Houston Area Nature Club in 1995. In 1999, he established and has since compiled the Lake Houston CBC. After completing a five year bird census, Mr. Carey rewrote the “Birds of Sheldon Lake SP.” He serves on the advisory board of Legacy Land Trust (LLT) and conducts habitat valuations and baseline bird surveys in support of its conservancy efforts. Sparrows are a passion of Mr. Carey’s and he conducted several survey transacts for Project Prairie Bird. For the past three years, he has served as president and a director of the Friends of Sheldon Lake SP, which he founded. He speaks on behalf of conservation, birds and birding, to civic and service clubs. When not birding he can often be found wade fishing in the waters around Galveston. He is a writer and business consultant.

Jeff Bouton. During 20 years as a birder, Jeff has worked as a field researcher, tour leader, festival speaker, and optics specialist. Today he represents the Leica brand. Jeff brings a great range of abilities to a festival not the least of which are ideas for making festivals he attends more relevant and exciting. Jeff is known for his articles that are focused on the needs of and opportunities for children who have an interest in the outdoors, nature and birding. His articles in Wildbird Magazine under the title “Adventures with Austin “ feature his outdoor experiences with his son Austin.

Ron Weeks. Ron grew up in Missoula, MT and became interested in birds at age 14 as a result of a high school biology class that took a field trip to what is now Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge. His interest was greatly enhanced when he attended a local Audubon meeting to help identify an unidentified sparrow at a feeder. It didn’t help sort out the sparrow (eventually determined to be a young Harris’ Sparrow), but it resulted in Ron going on his first Christmas Bird counts.

After graduating from college, Ron moved to Michigan to work for Dow Chemical and spent the next 14 years there studying the birds of the Saginaw Bay area in his spare time. He moved to Texas in December of 1997. He is currently a member of the American Birding Association, The Nature Conservancy, Brazosport Birders & Naturalists, Texas Ornithological Society, Friends of Brazoria Wildlife Refuges, Gulf Coast Bird Observatory and the Houston Audubon Society and has held leadership positions in many of them. He has co-authored or authored several books, including the recent Birdlife of Houston, Galveston and the Upper Texas Coast in conjunction with Bob Behrstock and Ted Eubanks Jr. He has articles accepted in numerous journals and periodicals and is popular speaker. Ron loves competitive birding and won first place in the Great Texas Birding Classic in 1997 and the $50k prize donated to conservation projects.

On a personal basis Ron is married with two children and now lives in Lake Jackson.

Jim ODonnell developed a passion for birding almost 30 years ago as a student of Ed Kutac. He has traveled the world following his passion from the Aleutian Islands, Australia, Iceland, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands. Jim worked for 7 years studying and banding black-capped vireos under contract for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This led to serving on the Biological Advisory Team for the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan. While serving on the team, he helped draft a plan to recover and protect endangered species in central Texas. As a teacher in Dripping Springs TX, Jim has led many birding trips for adults and children to the upper Texas coast. He loves sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge about birds.

Steve Gross leads birding trips and tours to the Upper Texas Coast, the Texas Hill Country, the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and Arizona.

In addition to work with endangered Golden-cheeked Warblers and Black-capped Vireos in the Texas Hill Country, Steve has conducted surveys in several regions of Texas. When leading field trips and tours, Steve enjoys the opportunity to work with less experienced birders, a trait well in line with his “day job” as a special education teacher. Steve is a published bird photographer and the author of the yet-to-be published “A Young Birder’s Guide to Texas.” Steve lives in Houston.