Meetings 2008

January 9, 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.

Rob Fergus (NAS)
Common Birds in Decline

All over America many of the common birds are in decline. What you used to see in your backyard everyday, you may now see only once in awhile. Why is this? What is happening? Come out to this meeting and hear Rob Fergus of the National Audubon Society tell us some of the answers and inform us of what we might be able to do to help.

Rob Fergus is a Senior Scientist for the National Audubon Society. He is formerly the founding director
of the Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory (www.hornsbybend.org) and was the first executive director of the Travis Audubon Society in Austin, Texas. As a Senior Scientist for Audubon, Rob works on programs to encourage urban, suburban, and rural landowners to create and maintain habitat for birds.

He also works on a range of bird-related issues including avian influenza and windpower, and helps coordinate the Great Backyard Bird Count and eBird. He is co-author of The Purple Martin (UT Press: 2002) and lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and their three young birders.

********************

February 13, 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.

Moez Ali
Birds of Kenya

Moez Ali was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya and has always been very interested in birds and wildlife. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Martin College in Pulaski, TN>

He is an avid and experienced birder, active member and field trip leader for the Tucson Audubon Society and always entrhusiastic about any birdin travels and adventures. He came to southeastern AZ in the summer of 2003 to work with nesting Red-faced Warblers and other Montaine forest birds. he was immediately drawn to the fascinating Sonoran Desert and very intriguing Sky Island mountain ranges abundant with divers bird and plant life.

********************

March 12, 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.

Mike Quigley
Sky Island Alliance

Mike is currently focused on securing Wilderness designation for the Tumacacori Highlands. The Tumacacori Highlands (Tomb-a-cock-or-ee) incorporate three mountain ranges that converge to create the largest unprotected wildland in southern Arizona.

Mike holds a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences and a Master's degree in English literature. He has worked with various private and public-sector organizations, including as a staff assistant to the Governor of Delaware, as a laboratory chemist and a medical writer for multinational corporations, as a technical writer and manager for a small software company, as a freelance multimedia software developer, and as a diplomat in Washington and abroad for the United States government (serving in the American Embassies in Dakar, Senegal, and Yaounde, Cameroun, as the Embassy's Deputy Public Affairs Officer and the Deputy Director of the American Cultural Center). Mike has been a longtime volunteer for various environmental education and conservation groups, and an advocate for science-based conservation-oriented environmental policy.

********************
April 9, 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.
Elections will take place at this meeting.

Richard Ockenfels
South African Adventure

Richard Ockenfels recently retired from Arizona Game and Fish Department. He completed a 30 year career in wildlife management, mostly as a research biologist with the Department, where he served 26 years. He also worked for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management early in his career. He received his B.S. in wildlife from Arizona State University and his M.S. from Oklahoma State University. He is an author or co-author of over 50 scientific publications, including 2 books. Richard’s main hobby is travel combined with photography. His trip to South Africa fulfilled a life-long dream of visiting the continent to see the magnificent wildlife there. He will be showing pictures of birds, animals, reptiles and Africa.

********************
May 14, 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.
Elections will take place at this meeting.

Rob Smith
Global Warming

Rob Smith will talk about what climate change due to global warming means for people and wildlife, especially here in the Southwest.

He is Southwest Staff Director for the Sierra Club, based in Phoenix. He says. “The most important environmental issue facing us today is climate change due to global warming pollution. Fortunately there are solutions at hand, if we will just make the smart choices sooner rather than later.”

He has worked for the Sierra Club since 1981. Come out and hear what he has to say about this most important issue.

********************

September 10, 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.

Tom Gatz
Birds of the World - A Hobby That Got Out of Hand

Tom Gatz’s presentation encompasses birding adventures as well as encounters with polar bears on the Canadian tundra and icebergs in Antarctica. You will enjoy his beautiful collection of photographs taken around the world.

Tom’s 31 year career as a wildlife biologist has taken him all over the world. He has previously given two programs to the Sonoran Audubon Society and both were well received. Now retired, Tom currently volunteers at the Desert Botanical Garden several mornings each week.

********************
October , 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.

Kathy Sullivan
California Condors

Kathy Sullivan has been the California Program Coordinator for AZ Game and Fish since January, 2005. She has also worked with Whooping Cranes in Florida when she was on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Sandhill Cranes in Mississippi, Spotted Owls and Goshawks in Arizona. She also engaged in marine animal research in Mexico. She graduated in 1993 from Brown University.

What do you know about one of our most endangered species of birds? Who are its enemies? What can you do to help this magnificent bird? Join us and find out the answers!

********************

November 12, 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.
Paul & Gloria Halesworth Avian Rehabilitation - A Thousand Mouths to Feed

Our speakers at this meeting will be Gloria and Paul Halesworth. They both were members of East Valley Wildlife from 2002 to 2007, with Gloria filling the position of Director of Operations, and Paul, President of the Board of Directors. They handled the majority of hummingbirds and insectivorous birds.

In 2007, they formed their own rehabilitation organization WildWing Rehabilitation Inc. and became an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and received rehabilitation licenses from the Arizona Game & Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They focus exclusively on hummingbirds and insect eating birds which must be fed every 20 minutes for 16 hours a day, seven days a week. During their first year of operation, every waking moment was filled with birds and lots of bugs.

The Halesworths will take in other species such as quail, owls and hawks until suitable homes can be found for them.

********************

December 10, 2008
Social Time 6:30 p.m.
Meeting and Program 7:00 p.m.

Rick Wright
Birds of Bulgaria

Have you ever thought about birding in Bulgaria? Are there even birds in Bulgaria besides the European Starling?

We think you’ll be surprised. Come out and see this program given by Rick Wright.

Rick Wright lives in Tucson and in Hamilton, New York, with his wife, Alison Beringer. Rick grew up birding in southeast Nebraska and attended the University of Nebraska and Harvard Law School before taking the M.A. and Ph.D. at Princeton University. After a dozen years as an academic, he moved to Tucson in 2003, where he founded Aimophila Adventures, a guide service for birders in southeast Arizona. Now the Managing Director of WINGS, Rick is a widely published writer, a popular lecturer at birding events, and an enthusiastic tour leader in Europe and North America.