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The Birds Seen at the
Bird Festivals
2010 Festival
2009 Festival
2008 Festival
2007 Festival
2003-2006 Festival

Mail Check to:
Great Salt Lake Bird Festival
PO Box 618, Farmington, UT 84037
(Price includes shipping)

Presenters, Workshop Leaders
& Field Trip Guides

Genevieve Atwood is an earth scientist - geographer, a former three-term state legislator and former State Geologist and Director of the Utah Geological Survey. She is currently Chief Education Officer of Earth Science Education, a small not-for-profit organization that uses local geology to teach teachers earth science principles, outdoors, in their students' neighborhoods. She is an Associate Instructor in the Geography Department at the University of Utah and teaches Geography of Utah.

Tim Avery has worked for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory and the Utah DWR doing bird surveys. He currently holds Utah's Big Year record.

John Bellmon is a life-long birder. He helped organize the 1st Ogden Christmas Bird Count 30 years ago. He is founding president of the Wasatch Audubon Ogden Chapter-1981, and founding chairman of the Audubon Council of Utah-1985. He served on the board of Directors of the National Audubon Society as representative of the Rocky Mountain Region from 1998-2004.

Randy Berger is a graduate of Utah State University and has been with DWR for 23 years working in wetlands management. He is manager of Salt Creek, the Public Shooting Grounds, and Locomotive springs WMA.

Joy Bossi, host of Joy in the Garden on 570 KNRS, has been heard on the radio for the past 13 years and seen on local television for 14 years, including 5 years on channel 4's "Good Things Utah." Joy is a Certified Nursery Professional, member of the Salt Lake Master Gardener Association and holds a degree in Botany. Her garden consulting business services home gardeners all along the Wasatch Front.

Ron Brown is co-owner of R&G Horse and Wagon with his wife, Ginger. They started doing a Roman-style rider act in a wild west show in 1970 and have wrangled horses for several major motion pictures.

Steve and Louise Brown are consummate naturalists who volunteer for the U.S. Forest Service and Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. They have completed courses in ornithology at Weber State and macro invertebrates in the Master Naturalist Program through USU.

Steve Carr earned a degree in Zoology with an emphasis in Ornithology, but wound up becoming a pediatrician (now retired). He is a member of the Salt Lake birders, Great Salt Lake Audubon and Utah County Birders. He is on the board of directors of the Utah Ornithological Society and participates in Utah's Breeding Bird Atlas project.

Lynn Carroll is an active member of Wasatch Audubon and past-president of Utah Audubon Council.

Dr. John Cavitt is a Professor of Ornithology at Weber State University. He has studied the ecology and behavior of shorebirds, woodpeckers, wrens, thrashers, starlings, sparrows and finches. He has authored articles and chapters in scientific publications as well as general interest publications including the Brown Thrasher species account for The American Ornithologists' Union series "The Birds of North America."

Terri Clemons got involved with birding when she bought a cat named Oliver seven years ago and set up a bird feeder on her balcony to keep him occupied and out of mischief. She enjoyed the birds more than the cat did, and took it up as a hobby. She especially enjoys viewing shorebirds and raptors. Terri is also a volunteer and seasonal employee at Antelope Island State Park.

Rosie Cobbley is a landscape designer and horticulturist. She is a long-time member of the Utah Water Garden Club and currently is Director of the annual Pond Tour. She is interested in the birds the water features attract and how you can plant a garden to help sustain them.

Steve Coleman is a volunteer naturalist at Farmington Bay WMA. He is an avid birder, a Scout Leader for many years and has been involved working with youth at Farmington Bay WMA for more than 5 years..

Michelle Croft graduated from Ohio State University in 2008 with a degree in Natural Resources and knew she didn't want to live in Ohio forever. The mountains have been calling her west ever since she saw them for the first time when she was ten. She loves her job as Naturalist at Antelope Island State Park.

Brian Currie is an avid birder and nature photographer. His photos have been featured on www.utahbirds.org; in the book "Hibernation" by noted Zoologist Clive Roots; www.birdnote.org; in upcoming San Francisco Bay area guide for new birders; the Idaho Bird Trails guide and more.

Nathan Darnall is an Ecologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He has served as president of Great Salt Lake Audubon for several years, and enjoys birding as a hobby.

Joseph Donnell is the Park Manager at Rockport State Park.

Kathy Donnell is the Park Naturalist at Rock Cliff State Park. She is also a volunteer for HawkWatch International and serves on the Utah Society for Environmental Education Executive Committee.

Phil Douglass has served the people and wildlife of Utah for the past 20 years. His experiences include wetland biologist, assistant manager at Farmington Bay WMA and his current assignment as Regional Conservation Outreach Manager. His current duties include managing all outreach programs for Northern Utah, which include hardware Ranch WMA, education and education programs.

Dorothy Egan is a long time member of Bridgerland Audubon and it a volunteer for Bear River MBR.

Emily Eppinger is the Education Manager at Tracy Aviary. Prior to living in Utah, she served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex as Environmental Education Coordinator. She also has a wide variety of experience in ornithological field studies gained through positions throughout the United States.

DaLyn Erickson is the Rehabilitation Specialist at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. She has 12 years of experience working with a variety of avian species, including rehabilitating individuals of most of Utah native owls.

Keith Evans is retired from the USDA and Forest Service. He is past president of the Columbia Missouri and Wasatch Audubon Chapters. He has authored over 60 publications, including the Great Salt Lake Birding Trail Map and the new "Utah's Featured Birds and Viewing Sites: A Conservation Platform for IBA's and BHCA's".

Bill Fenimore is the owner of the Wild Bird Center of Layton, Utah. He was selected as the International Franchise Association's "Franchisee of the Year 2008". Bill also won in 2008 the "Roger Tory Peterson Nature Education Achievement Award" from the Roger Tory Peterson Institute and the "Ludlow Griscom Award for Outstanding Contributions to Regional Ornithology" from the American Birding Association. He is the author of "Backyard Bird Guides", a series for each of the 50 states. Bill's Wild Bird Center was selected as the Utah Business of the Year 2009 for Environmental Education by the Utah Society for Environmental Education.

Valerie Frokjer recently graduated from Weber State University in Zoology and is currently working for Dr. John Cavitt.

Lu Giddings has been an avid birder since 2004. His love of birding dovetails nicely with his love of Utah's out-of-the-way places. He is especially interested in the avian populations of San Juan County. He enjoys photographing birds and landscapes.

Dick Gilbert has served as Vice President and Water master of the Ambassador Duck Club since 1993. The Ambassador is a 3,000 acre privately-managed wetlands and uplands habitat on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake. He is an avid birder and hunter.

Val Grant is president of Bio-Resources, a company looking for environmentally friendly solutions for industries. He has served three years as president of Bridgerland Audubon.

Ron Greer is a Habitat Restoration Biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. His master studies focused on Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse on the 4 Mile Ranch.

Jen Hajj is the Education Director at HawkWatch International and is known locally as "the Singing Bird Lady'. She joined HWI in 2005 and is currently working on a Master's Degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism. Her thesis project involves training biologists in the principles of interpretation and outdoor/expedition behavior. Jen enjoys painting, music composition and performance in her spare time.

Terry Halbert is an American Landscape photographer, motivational speaker, author and educator. "Expedition America" marked the first time a single person traveled to and photographed all of America's National Parks. Terry and wife Stevie quit their jobs, loaded their belongings into a Volkswagen Euro Van and set out for a year long adventure to see all of America's National Parks. This is their story about our National Parks and our Country.

Lucas Hall is a Zoology major at Weber State University and has participated in Snowy Plover research with Dr. John Cavitt.

Dave Hanscom is a long-time birder, outdoor enthusiast, and member of Great Salt Lake Audubon.

Rich Hansen is currently Area Manager of Farmington Bay WMA.

Sterling Herrmann has been passionate about pond building for nearly 50 years, 20 of them as owner of Desert Water Gardens in Salt Lake City, where he grows and sells aquatic plants. He also stocks all the supplies you need to build your own pond.

Paul Higgins is an avid birder and published photographer. See his photos in 'Utah's Featured Birds & Viewing sites.'

Home Depot, Centerville has been a Festival Partner for many years. They are a great asset to our community.

Dr. Frank Howe has been with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources for 15 years as the Coordinator for the Partners in Flight, Mexican Spotted Owl and Non-game Avian Programs. He is currently involved with a variety of issues in avian ecology, including riparian and shrub-steppe bird monitoring, Endangered Species surveys, bird/habitat model development and population trend analyses. Frank enjoys leading field trips that offer a mixture of bird ID and ecology.

Bob Huntington has a passion for birdwatching that takes him into the field 3-4 days a week. He leads field trips for GSL Audubon and Salt lake Birders and he participated regularly for six years in the Great Salt Lake Waterbird Survey.

Dick Hurren has always been interested in birds and birding in the US, Europe and the Middle East. He served as Outings chair for Bridgerland Audubon for 6 years. He currently is a volunteer for Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

Patrick Kelly says he has been a duck hunter since the age of 12 and a birder since the age of reason. He is a member of the Ambassador Duck Club and Great Salt Lake Audubon.

Mark Larese-Casanova is Education Specialist for the Utah Botanical Center and USU's Statewide Agent for the Utah Master Naturalist Program.

Paul Lombardi is a bird enthusiast and volunteers at Bear River MBR.

John Luft graduated from Kansas State University with a B.S. in Wildlife Biology. He has worked for DWR since 1994 at Ogden Bay WMA and Farmington Bay WMA as assistant superintendent. He is now the Project Coordinator for the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Project.

Bob MacDougal has been birding more than 20 years. He is past president of Salt Lake Birders and is an experienced field trip leader.

Shar Maki is an avid animal and bird watcher. She has had experience in working with Tracy Aviary and the RINS program. In 2004, she was invited by Antelope Island State Park to document and monitor the birds of prey located on the Island.

Wayne Martinson is the Utah Important Bird Areas Coordinator for National Audubon Society. He also serves as Chairperson for the Utah State Steering Committee of the Intermountain West Joint Venture. He has had the privilege to be associated with the Festival since it began.

Eric McCulley is manager of the Legacy Nature Preserve set up as mitigation for wetlands impacted by the Legacy Parkway.

Bonnie Messinger and her family began watching the Burrowing Owl colonies in the West Desert of Utah in the late 1980's. Over the next decade they observed ongoing habitat destruction and the gradual decline of some established colonies. Bonnie and her husband, Jim, began videotaping the 'Clowns of the Desert' in 1999. They joined a group (Raptor Inventory Nest Survey-RINS) of raptor enthusiasts tracking raptor nesting activity on the West Desert in 2000. Each spring and summer Bonnie observes and videotapes Burrowing Owl activity and creates educational video to give others the opportunity to watch the antics of these comical desert dwellers.

Dick Mueller is a professor at Utah State University and an active member of Bridgerland Audubon.

Heidi Nedreberg is Community Outreach Coordinator for the Utah Office of The Nature Conservancy.

Ann Neville has been the manager of Kennecott's Inland Sea Shorebird Reserve since it opened in 1997. She is the North American representative for Birdlife International and their Birds and the Environment partnership with Rio Tinto.

Dr. Russ Norvell has been working in the field with the birds of Utah for the past 16 years. Currently, he works with Utah's Non-game Avian program designing and conducting research on Utah's riparian and shrubsteppe bird population trends, and is finishing his graduate studies (USU) on the shrubsteppe-obligate birds of Rich County.

Justina Parsons-Bernstein is the Director of the Great Salt Lake Nature Center and Education Specialist for Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area. She has over 25 years of experience creating innovative, fun and educational programs for non-profit organizations and institutions of higher learning.

Don Paul is president of AvianWest Inc., a bird and habitat conservation business. He currently serves on the Shorebird Science Team for the Intermountain West Joint Venture. He is an active member of the Linking Communities, Wetlands and Migratory Birds, Utah Committee. He also consults for a variety of organizations interested in conservation. He is a career wildlife biologist having served 34 years in several positions for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and four years as the Great Basin Bird Conservation Region Coordinator.

Julie Ripplinger is a shrubsteppe bird enthusiast and graduate student at Utah State University. She fell in love with the sagebrush landscape in 2004 while working with sagebrush-obligate songbirds, and now spends most of her time researching the historical ecology of Rich County shrubsteppe.

Bret Selman and his family are the owners of 4-Mile Ranch. They have been caretakers of this unique land for generations and are avid birdwatchers.

Dennis Shirley is a retired Conservation Officer for Utah Dept. of Wildlife Resources. He is a well known local birder and as of 2006 holds the Utah Bug Year Record. He is an active member of Utah County Birders.

Lee Shirley has served as president of the Utah Audubon Council and is currently on the Northern Region Advisory Council of the Division of Wildlife Resources, member and president of Wasatch Audubon Society and on the Board of Trustees of Friends of the Bear River Refuge. Lee and Paula enjoy sharing their enthusiasm for birds and birding.

Doug Sims is a professional photographer from Davis County. He is the co-founder/president of the Photgraphix Camera Club of Layton, Utah and board member of the Salt Lake Photo Club. Doug teaches the Wildlife Photography Class at the Tracy Aviary.

Arnold Smith has been interested in birds, especially their nesting behavior since he was eight years old. He is a long time active member of Wasatch Audubon.

Steve and Cindy Sommerfeld are avid birders who contribute to the birding community by leading field trips for Salt Lake Birders and Great Salt Lake Audubon and serving on the Board of SL Birders.

Ella Sorensenis a well-known Utah birder and author and has worked and spoken avidly to protect bird habitats in the state. Ella is manager of the National Audubon Society's Gillmor Sanctuary on the south shore of Great Salt Lake.

Mark Stackhouse has been guiding bird tours in Utah for nearly twenty years. He is the president and owner of Westwings, Inc., a Salt Lake City based ecotourism and consulting research firm. In addition to tours through North America, mark also guides birding groups to Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru.

Sharon Stiteler was given a Peterson Field Guide to Birds when she was seven years old and snapped, she loves birds, and it’s just the way she’s wired. After ending a successful career with Universal Exports in 1997, she made it her goal to get paid to go birding. She runs one of the most popular birding blog, Birdchick.com and has been in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and on NBC Nightly News as well as making regular appearances on Twin Cities’ TV and radio stations. She’s a professional speaker and storey teller and writing can be found in several publications including WildBird Magazine, Outdoor News, and Birding Business. She wrote the books Disapproving Rabbits and City Birds/Country Birds. When she’s not digiscoping or banding birds, she’s a part time park ranger and award-winning beekeeper.

Kyle Stone is working for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources as a researcher on Great Salt Lake.

Les Talbot is a retired Biology teacher, and has been an avid birder for the last 10 years. He is the fieldtrip chairman for the Wasatch Audubon, and sits on their Board of Directors. He currently volunteers at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge teaching Environmental Education classes, and leading bird tours.

Clay Taylor is an expert birder and Swarovski Naturalist, representing that line of optics to local retailers. He frequently leads field trips for birding festivals and ABA Conventions.

Bruce Thompson is a natural science education specialist, Director of Education for Tracy Aviary and last year's GSL Bird Festival keynote speaker. He has been instrumental in spotlighting and defining the role of Great Salt Lake with his creation, The Lake Affect, an image-based program for children and families about Great Salt Lake biology, ecology and culture in CD and as a live presentation.

Al Trout graduated from Colorado State University in 1971 with a degree in Wildlife Management. For the next 35 years he was employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a Refuge Manager in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and finally at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah. His primary responsibility was the restoration, expansion and enhancement of the Refuge in the aftermath of flood damage inflicted by rising water of Great Salt Lake in 1983-87. Now retired, Al is a member of the Friends of Bear River Refuge, Wasatch Audubon, and Friends of Great Salt lake.

Bob Walters is the DWR's Watchable Wildlife Program Coordinator. He initiated Bald Eagle Day in 1990 and has led/hosted myriad Watchable Wildlife Program Field Trips for years. He instigated and continues to maintain, nurture and sustain the famous Salt Lake City peregrine falcon family in downtown SLC. With the cooperation of the LDS Church and SLC Peregrine Falcon Watchpost Team volunteers, Bob informs, educates and showcases the falcon family to passersby, spearheads the annual vigil to safeguard the first flights of the young-of-the-year birds and, since 2006, makes possible real-time, worldwide web coverage of the family via the SLC Peregrine Falcon Cam.

Roberta Wherritt is a Great Salt Lake Audubon member who has enjoyed birding on the Jordan River Parkway for the past six years since moving back to Salt Lake City.

Boyd White currently works as an environmental scientist at Deseret Chemical Depot and part time as a Wildlife Technician for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. He has a BS in Natural Resources with an emphasis in Fish and Wildlife from Oregon State University and an MS in Rangeland Ecosystem Science from Colorado State University. In 2007 Boyd worked on a master's thesis to validate a graphic information system model for predicting Burrowing owl habitat at Dugway Proving Ground and surrounding areas. While working on the thesis he volunteered to collect research data for a DoD Legacy Project for the Migratory Linkages of Burrowing Owls which required trapping and banding the owls, taking morphological data, and collecting blood and feather samples for DNA and radio isotope analysis. In 2005 - 2006 he volunteered with trapping, fitting with radio collars, and track Greater Sage-grouse in Tooele County. Boyd is Chairman of the West Deseret Adaptive Resource Management Local Working Group for Sage-grouse.

Hillary White is the Riparian Project Leader for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. She coordinates bird population data collection at some three dozen riparian sites around Utah. She volunteers with both Great Salt Lake Audubon and The Nature Conservancy.

Ben Woodruff has been training and handling raptors for 22 years. He has had the opportunity to train and work with every species of diurnal and nocturnal raptor native to Utah as a practicing falconer, wildlife educator, and aiding in raptor rehabilitation. Ben is the author of the book "Trapping Essentials", an illustrated guide for biologists, bird banders, and falconers. Ben is the Director of the John Hutchings Museum in Lehi Utah and presents educational programs featuring live raptors.

Larene Wyss has been birding for 14 years. In 2001 she achieved the Utah Big Year record and held it for three years.

Utah Water Garden Club is a social club, bringing members with common pond garden habitat interests together. Members hold pond side meetings, have speakers, provide hands on education, and offer a 'show and tell'. The valley wide Annual Pond Tour of members' ponds is in August.

Presenters, Workshop Leaders & Field Trip Guides

Presenters, Workshop Leaders
& Field Trip Guides