Bill Ashby. Bill received a B.S. in Biology and a teaching certificate from Stephen F. Austin State University. He retired from teaching Science, primarily Biology and Aquatic Science, after 27 years at J. Frank Dobie High School in the Pasadena ISD. He has been a Master Naturalist since 2008, primarily participating in field trips and beach and bay walks at Galveston Island State Park. He is also an instructor in the Junior Angler program sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife. Outdoor education is his priority!

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.

Damien Carey. Annually, Damien Carey leads field trips for Houston area birding and nature groups. He’s lead field trips throughout Texas. He founded the Lake Houston Area Nature Club in 1995. In 1999, he established and compiled the Lake Houston CBC and Sheldon Lake SP (SLSP) WBC. He also compiles the Texas Colonial Waterbird Census of SLSP’s rookery islands. Carey rewrote the “Birds of Sheldon Lake SP” in 2006. 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 Carey’s and he conducted several surveys for Project Prairie Bird. He has served as president and a director of the Friends of Sheldon Lake SP since he founded it in 2004. He speaks on behalf of conservation, birds and birding, to civic and service clubs. He is active in advocating for more access to the outdoors for families. With his wife Caroline, he established a nature club for at-risk children at a Humble ISD elementary school. Inspired by the students’ fascination of bird song, he 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. When not birding he can often be found wade fishing in the waters around Galveston. He is a business consultant and writer.

Tony Frank. Tony is a native Texan and has lived most of his life somewhere in Texas. He has lived in the Houston area for the last 27 years and has been active in birding for the last 20 years. Tony started bird watching in 1985 with his wife Phyllis. Tony’s favorite families of birds are woodpeckers, owls, and hummingbirds. In addition to birding, he enjoys camping and hiking. Favorite Texas birding locations are the Upper Texas Coast and West Texas. Recently field birding time has been limited, because he watches his daughter’s soccer games most weekends. However, he takes time whenever possible to get out doors and watch birds including participating in the Great Texas Birding Classic for the past 4 year in the state wide competition.

Bob Honig has extensive natural history experience with a focus on field ornithology and dragonflies and damselflies. He has a B.A. in Biology (ecology emphasis) from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in Zoology from the Aquatic Ecology Program at Virginia Tech. Bob has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Katy Prairie Conservancy since its founding in 1992. He has been Chairman of the Ornithology Group of Houston's Outdoor Nature Club; he was Compiler of the Buffalo Bayou, Texas, Christmas Bird Count for 21 years (1984-2005); and he was a founder and Compiler of the Brazos Bend, Texas, CBC. 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. On the job he has addressed such diverse issues as endangered species, wetlands, archaeology, 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 by Tetra Tech, an environmental consulting company.

Karla Klay. Karla is Executive Creative Director for Artist Boat. She has 15 years of experience integrating the sciences and the arts. She is an American Canoe Association (ACA) certified kayak and canoe instructor, and is certified in First Aid and CPR. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and a Bachelor of 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.

Stephan Lorenz. Stephan has been involved with bird research and guiding for over seven years. He started birding during the winter months in Texas, which invariably meant looking down at sparrows, one of his favorite groups. He completed a BS in Biology at the University of Houston. His first research position led him to upstate New York where he worked as a field assistant for the Indiana State University studying White-throated Sparrows. After three months swatting mosquitoes and getting to know the species he returned to school and completed a MS in Biology at the University of Texas. His research focused on, no surprise, the landscape ecology of wintering grassland birds, mainly sparrows. Continuing with field work he joined several research projects ranging from studying fragmentation of tropical forests in Jamaica for the Smithsonian Institute to observing the breeding ecology of fairy-wrens in Australia for the Max Planck Institute. In addition, he has worked for US Fish and Wildlife conducting seabird studies in Alaska, joined National Audubon as a Bird Biologist and Educator in southern California, and done extensive bird and mammal surveys in Texas. His love for the tropics lured him to Costa Rica where he guided for two seasons in the Osa Peninsula. During the summers he has braved the cold working as a tour guide on St. Paul Island, Alaska.

He has published over two dozen papers and articles on bird distribution, natural history, bird identification, and travel. He likes to share his experiences through regular presentations for Audubon Societies and Nature Clubs.

His own travels have taken him birding to 46 states and much of Central America, Ecuador, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Germany. Currently he works as a Professor of Biology at San Jacinto College and tries to keep up with the rarities in Texas.

Lalise and Greg Mason. Lalise chairs the Board Habitat Restoration Committee for the all-volunteer Texas nonprofit conservation organization SCENIC GALVESTON, Inc. She has been intimately involved with the incremental funding, purchase and restoration of the 3000+ contiguous acres of SG's O'Quinn I-45 Corridor and Virginia Point Preserve Complex. She also serves on the board of the International Crane Foundation. She is a trustee of the Galveston Bay Foundation, as well as a past President of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, whose mission is neotropical migrant bird conservation on both sides of the Gulf of Mexico.

Greg chairs Scenic Galveston's Birds and Birding Committee. He is also a certified fly-casting instructor with the Fly Fishing Federation.

Lalise & Greg were proud members of the Great Texas Birding Classic competition team sponsored by Reliant Energy in the whole-coast 5-Day category; this team won the competition four years in a row. They currently lead a 1-day GTBC Energy Saver team and hope to win soon, anchoring the early morning route at SG's nature preserve.

Stennie Stirling Meadours. Stennie began serious birding on the Upper Texas Coast over 30 years ago, and is still severely addicted to birding! During that time she established the Armand Bayou CBC, and has led many field trips for Houston Audubon Society and the Houston Outdoor Nature Club. She helped establish the Bolivar Bird Sanctuary and established and participated in Bolivar Bird Surveys from 2002 until 2007. She has served the UTC birding organizations in several capacities on the Houston Audubon, Houston Ornithology Group of the Outdoor Nature Club and Armand Bayou Nature Center. During her 12 years living in Austin, she started the Hornsby Bend monthly surveys, which continue today. In addition, she coached and chaperoned a Rough-wings (8-13 year olds) teams in the Great Birding Classic from 1999 to 2008. Recently she taught a birding Mini Course to students at Westbrook Intermediate School and currently is sponsoring the Westbrook Birding Club and coordinating activities and bird sightings with a youth group in Yaxha, Yucatan. The only thing she enjoys more than seeing good birds, is showing them to others!

Jim O’Donnell.  Jim 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 former teacher in Dripping Springs, Texas, Jim has led many birding trips for adults and children to the upper Texas coast. He is a licensed bird bander, with over 10 years of banding experience. Jim is currently working as a seasonal biologist for the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, monitoring golden-cheeked warblers and training staff to band birds. He loves sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge about birds.

Dr. Richard Peake. Dick has been an active field ornithologist for over fifty years. 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.

Cecilia M Riley. Cecilia is the Executive director of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory. A native Texan, biologist and avid bird watcher, Cecilia has committed her life's work to avian research and natural history in both North America and Latin America. Cecilia's educational background includes a B.S. in Ecology from the University of Texas at Arlington and a M.S. in Zoology from the University of Arkansas.  Prior to her position at the GCBO, she spent 2 years as the state coordinator for Texas Partners in Flight and 8 years as a research associate of marine studies at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.  

Currently, Cecilia's professional efforts focus on the conservation issues associated with the protection of migratory songbirds and stopover habitat in the ecologically important Gulf of Mexico region.

Bill Saulmon. Currently Field Trip Coordinator for the Houston Audubon Society, Bill also serves as a guide on birding field trips for various other nature organizations in Texas. He conducts bird surveys in the Houston area for Houston Audubon, Legacy Land Trust and others. He has volunteered for Hawk Watch International for over 10 years, identifying and counting hawks at the Smith Point Hawk Watch.

Sid Steffens. Sid is the marine biologist for the Seagull II. He also runs Island Carriages and teaches classes at Texas A & M University at Galveston and Lamar University. His career has included serving as a curator at Galveston’s Sea Arama Marine World, a member of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol, and a volunteer river diver in the San Antonio area.

Jim Stevenson. Jim 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 six books published, and also publishes three nature newspapers himself.

Nathan Veatch. Nathan was a high school Aquatic Science teacher for over 30 years. He currently volunteers at Galveston Island State Park, where he conducts interpretive beach and bay shore tours and hosts school groups. He has been an active member of the Galveston Bay Area Chapter Texas Master Naturalists since 2001.

Patrick Walther. Patrick is a native of coastal Louisiana marshes from just east of the Sabine River. He has a B.S. from McNeese State University in Zoology and Wildlife Management, and has spent the last 20 years working with fisheries, wildlife, and wetlands along the Chenier Plains in the private sector and with various federal governmental agencies. A majority of the time has been spent working with various aspects of wetland restoration, habitat monitoring, and habitat management as well as working with various species of wildlife that are dependent on the Gulf Coast marshes. He has worked for the USFWS at the Texas Chenier Plain Refuge Complex as a wildlife biologist since 1997 and has been the Complex Biologist since 2004. Current focuses are restoring hydrology to the coastal marshes and the plight of the mottled duck.

Gay York. Gay will be leading a group to the Attwater Prairie Preserve on Sunday morning. A resident of LaPorte, Texas on Galveston Bay since 1979, Gay grew up in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains of northwestern Pennsylvania. A great love and appreciation of the outdoors has made her a life long bird enthusiast. Gay participates in the HAS Christmas Bird Count each year at Armand Bayou Nature Center. Her favorite birding vacation spot is Belize.

Louise Zemaitis. Louise is an artist and naturalist living in Cape May, New Jersey, where she is a popular field trip leader teaching birding workshops as an Associate Naturalist with New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory. Farther afield, she travels extensively leading for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours and at birding festivals where she is known for her enthusiasm for all natural history subjects. Louise and her husband, Michael O’Brien, have been guiding young birders at birding events and conferences for many years. In addition to leading, Louise is coordinator of the Monarch Monitoring Project in Cape May, compiler of the Cape May Christmas Bird Count, and member of the Cape May Artists' Cooperative. An honors graduate of Temple University's Tyler School of Art, she enjoys working as a freelance artist and her illustrations have been widely published. She has done covers for BirdWatcher’s Digest, was the 2007 poster artist for International Bird Migratory Day, and recently produced the lovely American Kestrel for the American Birding Association. Her proudest accomplishment has been the raising of her two sons, Bradley, a biologist and artist, and Alec, a philosopher and musician.