2026 Presentations – Under Construction

All presentations are free with registration. Since we are adding presentations currently, feel free to select when you pick up your badge or, since space is limited, save your confirmation number and log in again to select.

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Wednesday, January 21

Getting to Know the Great Florida Birding & Wildlife Trail

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Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: TBD, Great FL Birding & Wildlife Trail

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Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

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Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

Why What You Plant in Your Landscape is Important to Birds and the Environment

Why is WHAT you plant in your landscape important? Here’s the science to prove how important your landscape choices are. We’ll be sharing a copy of Dr. Doug Tallamy’s presentation ‘Restoring Nature’s Relationships’ with amazing nature photography which shows the relationship between plants and wildlife.

Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Jane Higgins

About the Speaker: Jane Higgins moved to Brevard County over 45 years ago from Maine. After working at Harris for 30 years in accounting and raising two children, she started following her mother’s passion for gardening. Her motivation to go native started when she realized her youngest son would be leaving for college and she would have to learn how to use a lawnmower to mow a lawn that didn’t look very good to begin with. Jane joined the Conradina Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society 12 years ago and has been on the Board for the past 10 years. She is also on the Landscaping with Florida Natives Tour Committee. The grass and the lawnmower are now both gone and she enjoys going outside to see what’s blooming and all the wildlife, recently including a Barred Owl. Jane is a huge fan of Dr. Doug Tallamy’s work and enjoys sharing his message with others!

Using Props to Teach Nature (or, Is This Powerpoint Really Necessary?)

Would you rather see a power point presentation about how spiders eat, or would you rather see an insane old lady dress up as a spider and demonstrate how spiders eat? Come to my talk to learn how to make and use props, puppets, costumes, songs – whatever it takes to keep nature and environmental education fun and memorable.

Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: Dee Fairbanks Simpson writes and photographs a daily blog called Dee at 8 a.m. (http://www.deeat8am.com). For 9 years and counting, she has used the blog to entertain and educate people about the flora and fauna of Florida. She has self-published 2 books based on her blog. Dee is a creative contributor to her husband’s business, Birding with David Simpson. She uses her skills as a Florida Master Naturalist to design the classes that she and David teach. In addition, she creates puppets and other props used in their classes as well as her own videos and short films.

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Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

Florida Grasshopper Sparrows

Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Mary Marine

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

TBD

Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

TBD

Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

Thursday, January 22

John James Audubon’s Expedition to Florida

Come hear award-winning environmental advocate and author, Clay Henderson, talk about his book in which he chronicles Audubon’s paintings and descriptions of previously unknown birds of the Florida wilderness. The narrative retraces his journeys through swamps, encounters with Indians and pirates, and survival from violent storms. Henderson visited and searched for birds in all the places Audubon visited from the St. Johns River to Dry Tortugas..

Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Clay Henderson

About the Speaker: Clay Henderson is an award winning environmental lawyer, educator, and writer long involved in environmental policy. He has served as president of Florida Audubon Society and Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. His previous public service includes Florida Constitution Revision Commission, Florida Communities Trust, and Chair of the Volusia County Council. Until his retirement, he served as Executive Director of the Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience at Stetson University. He has been recognized with the national public service award from The Nature Conservancy, lifetime achievement award from Environment and Land Use Section of the Florida Bar, and an EMMY award for Protect Our Paradise. His book, Forces of Nature, an environmental history of Florida, received a Florida Book Award.

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Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

Scrub Habitat Restoration for the Florida Scrub Jay

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Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Brevard County Endangered Lands

About the Speaker: SPEAKER, Scrub Habitat Restoration for the Florida Scrub Jay” –Brevard County Endangered Lands

Man & Gull – A Complex Relationship

Among the world’s “seabirds”, gulls are the most accessible to humans, invading our most immediate surroundings. Gulls are sometimes perceived as 2nd class avian creatures. This, along with the identification challenges they present and their readiness to hybridize, has created a love-hate relationship for many birders. Yet some gulls species are among the most coveted bird species on any birder’s list (think Ross’s Gull and Ivory Gull). This presents us with an interesting juxtaposition. Do we like some gulls and look past others? Amar Ayyash will take us through an entertaining and intriguing exploration of the natural history of gulls, including their thorny taxonomy, and he’ll share some of their lesser-known adaptations and quirky behaviors.

Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Amar Ayyash

About the Speaker: Amar Ayyash is both an expert on the gulls of North America and an evangelist for “gull recreation”. He coordinates the Annual Gull Frolic on Lake Michigan, hosts the popular website anythinglarus.com, and is often found speaking at birding events throughout the continent. Much of his free time is dedicated to traveling the world to photograph and study gulls. Amar has published a number of papers and articles on gull identification, distribution, and molt, and his recently published book, The Gull Guide, has earned high praise around the world. In 2024, Ayyash was awarded the American Birding Association’s Robert Ridgeway Award for Outstanding Ornithological Publication.

Learn iNaturalist

In this presentation you will learn the purpose, features and community science benefits of using iNaturalist. This talk is ideal for nature lovers, hikers, educators, students and anyone curious about connecting technology with conservation. By the end of this presentation, you’ll be ready to explore, record, and share the biodiversity natural world while making your observations count for science! To get the most out of this presentation, please download iNaturalist on to your phone.

Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

Climate Change Impacts in Our Own Backyard

When you hear “climate change”, do you think about icebergs and polar bears? Join wildlife ecologist, Becky Bolt, for a look at the climate change that is happening right now in our own backyards.

Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Becky Bolt

About the Speaker: Becky Bolt is a wildlife ecologist who worked on the Kennedy Space Center for 35 years before retiring in 2022. She has since started a nature education company called Bolt Outdoors, wrote “My First Birder’s Life List”, and is vice-president of the Merritt Island Wildlife Association.

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Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

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Date: Thursday, January 22
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

Friday, January 23

Earbirding with your Phone

In this session, we will discuss apps for recording and identifying birds with your cell phone, with special attention to Merlin Sound ID. If you have a favorite app, you can bring it and discuss; if you’ve never used your phone for recording, identifying, or making spectrograms of bird sounds, we will get you set up.

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 7:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Nathan Pieplow

About the Speaker: Growing up in South Dakota, I got started identifying bird songs by studying the classic “Birding By Ear” field guides in the Peterson series. It wasn’t until 2003, when I faced the frustrations of studying sounds for my first trips to Mexico and Costa Rica, that I became dedicated to finding new and better ways to learn, describe, and catalog bird sounds. Along the way I became a sound recordist and an amateur ethologist (a student of animal behavior). I live in Boulder, Colorado, where I teach writing and rhetoric at the University of Colorado. I am a former editor of the quarterly journal Colorado Birds and one of the developers of the Colorado County Birding Website and the Colorado Birding Trail. I regularly give talks about bird sounds to bird clubs and ornithological societies.

Nature, Wildlife and Sustainable Travel in Tanzania

Join us for a fun, informative discussion with special guest Lucas Mhina to learn about Tanzania’s natural habitats and biodiversity, including the phenomenon of the Great Migration—the world’s largest overland animal migration—and its abundant bird life. Lucas will also share about his involvement with several community projects, including local schools, the Land of Nature Camp, and other sustainability initiatives. There will be time for Q&A, and we’ll be giving away locally sourced Tanzania door prizes!

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Lucas Mhina

About the Speaker: Lucas Mhina…

Finding Stories Close to Home

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Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Henry Meade

About the Speaker: Henry Meade is an award-winning nature and sports photographer based in the Chicagoland area, recognized for his sharp eye for detail and passion for storytelling. While bird photography is a particular focus, his portfolio spans a wide range of subjects—all driven by a deep commitment to visual storytelling and photographic excellence. Over the past few seasons, Henry has served as the lead sports photographer at his high school, capturing countless iconic plays and memorable moments on the field. He is also a proud affiliate of Hunt’s Photo and Video and serves as a trip leader with the DuPage Birding Club, among other organizations. Whether documenting wildlife or athletic competition, Henry brings clarity, creativity, and purpose to every frame.

Website: https://henrymeade.myportfolio.com/work

eBird profile: https://ebird.org/profile/OTcxOTMz/US

Instagram: @hm_birds https://www.instagram.com/hm_birds?igsh=ZmZlMmVvYWlzdHZ0&utm_source=qr

Restoring the Balance of the Indian River Lagoon

The current condition of the IRL didn’t change overnight – there was a recent defining moment that tipped the Lagoon from a more natural seagrass dominated system to a less natural algae dominated system. When we understand our roles in what ails the lagoon, we can better understand how to bring it back to a healthier balance.

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Heather Stapleton

About the Speaker: Heather is one of three Community Engagement Coordinators for the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, inspiring locals to love, protect, and heal the lagoon – with plenty of energy, heart, and humor. Her career is a love letter to education and environmental stewardship: 16 years as Education Director of a nature center on an island in the Indian River Lagoon. And then Executive Director of the Heritage Center and Indian River Citrus Museum. Heather holds degrees in Environmental Studies, Political Science, and French from Indiana University. She spent three years in Benin, West Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer. Off the clock, she tries to garden, sings at church, and bakes award-winning gluten-free treats. She hates folding laundry, loves waste-free homemade fizzy drinks, and believes the world could use more compost, more kindness, and a little less waste.

Using Motus to Study Bird Movement and Behaviour

Come and listen to John Kendall of SE Volusia Audubon talk about the new Motus Project, the installation in Volusia Co., its educational reach within our local Audubon Society and at Marine Discovery Center, and the critical, exciting and sometimes surprising data it is delivering to scientists. We are learning more about the birds that come through the area and how the weather, coastal geography and the Gulf Stream impact various migratory bird species’ paths through coastal Central Florida. Also, learn how to access data and navigate the Motus system for your own education and data use.

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: John is a lifetime birder and Audubon member from Indiana and has and is a member of SE Volusia Co. Audubon and lifetime member of Indiana Audubon in addition to Texas and Pennsylvania groups.
He is the former Chair and member of Indiana Bird Records Committee, theditor of Indiana Audubon Quarterly 2008-2016, and Trip Leader for various Birding Festivals and Local groups.

Amazing Sounds of Birds

What bird uses its voice to echolocate inside dark caves? Which bird sings a duet with itself? What bird sings the longest song? What bird has the largest vocabulary? In this presentation for general audiences, Nathan Pieplow answers all these questions and more, using some of the most remarkable audio from over fifteen years of recording birds in the field

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Nathan Pieplow

About the Speaker: Growing up in South Dakota, I got started identifying bird songs by studying the classic “Birding By Ear” field guides in the Peterson series. It wasn’t until 2003, when I faced the frustrations of studying sounds for my first trips to Mexico and Costa Rica, that I became dedicated to finding new and better ways to learn, describe, and catalog bird sounds. Along the way I became a sound recordist and an amateur ethologist (a student of animal behavior) I live in Boulder, Colorado, where I teach writing and rhetoric at the University of Colorado. I am a former editor of the quarterly journal Colorado Birds and one of the developers of the Colorado County Birding Website and the Colorado Birding Trail. I regularly give talks about bird sounds to bird clubs and ornithological societies.

Please Speak Up: Lessons from the Lorax, the Onceler, and Horton

Heather Stapleton has read Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax far more times than any adult should admit, and she has a surprising take. In her talk, she explores why the Lorax and the Onceler, despite their passions, fail to turn concern into action, whereas Horton from Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who is truly the unsung hero of effective advocacy.

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Heather Stapleton

Taking your Birding to the Next Level

During this presentation, we’ll explore different strategies for improving bird identification skills beyond the basics. How can bird ID experts identify a bird when it’s a mile (or more!) away, only viewing it for one-tenth of a second, or before you even know it’s there? Learn how to apply the expression “failure is fertilizer” to your birding skills and learn new ways to practice and improve. We’ll explore some benefits of eBird and Merlin but also look at ways these tools can deceive you. Come find out more about techniques to improve bird ID skill, learn more about birds, and also have fun!

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Adam Kent

About the Speaker: An Anhinga sparked Adam’s passion for birds when he was a little kid. Since then, an enthusiasm for the natural world has led him to a variety of jobs included assessing sites for the Great Florida Birding Trail, working as Florida’s first Scrub-Jay Conservation Coordinator, and as a biologist and natural history tour leader. He also conducts Breeding Bird Surveys, Christmas Bird Counts, and other bird surveys. Adam is a past President of the Florida Ornithological Society and is on the steering committee of Florida’s second Breeding Bird Atlas. Adam has been leading bird identification workshops since the 1990s.

The Language of Birds

All around us, all the time, the birds are telling us who they are and what they are doing. In this talk for any audience, Nathan Pieplow unlocks the secrets of their language. You’ll listen in on the pillow talk of a pair of Red-winged Blackbirds, and learn the secret signals that Cliff Swallows use when they have found food. You’ll learn how one bird sound can have many meanings, and how one meaning can have many sounds—and how, sometimes, the meaning isn’t in the sounds at all. This talk from the author of the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds is an accessible, entertaining introduction to a fascinating topic.

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Nathan Pieplow

My Plastic Diet

Join Heather Stapleton as she reveals the hidden flaws of single-stream recycling and why most plastics aren’t truly recycled. Hear her inspiring journey of cutting plastic use. Learn how microplastics are threatening ecosystems like the Indian River Lagoon. Discover practical tips to reduce your own plastic reliance. Connect with others committed to real environmental change — because our choices matter.

Date: Friday, January 23
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Heather Stapleton

Saturday, January 24

A Shared Vocabulary

Most attempts to teach bird sound identification rely primarily on memorization. This workshop takes a different approach. Just as beginning birders learn the different parts of the bird and how to distinguish colors like “buff” and “rufous,” we will study the different parts of a sound and how to distinguish tone qualities like “burry” and “polyphonic.” Once we have a common vocabulary for describing bird sounds, we can apply these skills to some bird sound identification challenges in the region. No matter your level of experience, this workshop will help you listen to sounds more analytically, describe them more accurately, and use them more effectively in identifying birds.

Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 7:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Nathan Pieplow

About the Speaker: All around us, all the time, the birds are telling us who they are and what they are doing. In this talk for any audience, Nathan Pieplow unlocks the secrets of their language. You’ll listen in on the pillow talk of a pair of Red-winged Blackbirds, and learn the secret signals that Cliff Swallows use when they have found food. You’ll learn how one bird sound can have many meanings, and how one meaning can have many sounds—and how, sometimes, the meaning isn’t in the sounds at all. This talk from the author of the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds is an accessible, entertaining introduction to a fascinating topic.

Disappearing shorelines: An under-appreciated threat to the Indian River Lagoon

Native Brevardian and ecologist Tim Kozusko will discuss the effects of population growth and climate change on near-shore and shoreline habitats in the Indian River Lagoon. Tim will use declining populations of birds, reptiles, and invertebrates to illustrate habitat loss and changes in species composition.

Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Tim Kozusko

About the Speaker: Tim Kozusko recently retired after a career at Kennedy Space Center as an ecologist. He was born and raised in Cocoa Beach Florida and is a board member of the Merritt Island Wildlife Association. He has 20 years experience with prescribed fire in central Florida. He resides in Melbourne Beach with wife Laura.

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Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

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Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

Discovering Colombia’s Birding Wonders

Ecotourism in Colombia has grown tremendously over the past decade, fueled by new opportunities for exploration and a growing recognition of the country’s extraordinary treasures. As one of the world’s mega diverse nations, Colombia dazzles with its stunning landscapes, vibrant cultures, and unmatched richness in birdlife—gifts that inspire both visitors and Colombians alike.
Join Mariah and Luis from Woodstars Birding and Nature Tours for an exciting journey across some of Colombia’s most spectacular birding hotspots. From the sun-soaked Caribbean coast in the north to the enchanting white-sand forests of the far eastern Amazon Basin, they will share their favorite places, unforgettable sightings, and the remarkable stories that make each region truly magical.

Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Luis and Mariah

About the Speaker: Luis and Mariah Hryniewich

Listen to Her Sing

Only male birds sing, right? Wrong! In fact, this widespread notion has a lot more to do with human cultural and geographic biases than it has to do with nature. In this talk, Nathan Pieplow explores the often-overlooked songs of female birds. You will hear the pair duets of meadowlarks and blackbirds, the musical songs of female cardinals and orioles, and the distinctive song of the female Canyon Wren, among others. In which species do females actually sing more often than males? How do you know when you’re listening to a female Blue Jay? And where did we even get this crazy idea that only male birds sing? Answers to these questions and more in this presentation.

Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Nathan Pieplow

Growing up in South Dakota, I got started identifying bird songs by studying the classic “Birding By Ear” field guides in the Peterson series. It wasn’t until 2003, when I faced the frustrations of studying sounds for my first trips to Mexico and Costa Rica, that I became dedicated to finding new and better ways to learn, describe, and catalog bird sounds. Along the way I became a sound recordist and an amateur ethologist (a student of animal behavior). I live in Boulder, Colorado, where I teach writing and rhetoric at the University of Colorado. I am a former editor of the quarterly journal Colorado Birds and one of the developers of the Colorado County Birding Website and the Colorado Birding Trail. I regularly give talks about bird sounds to bird clubs and ornithological societies.

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Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker:

About the Speaker: SPEAKER BIO

EBird Tips and Tricks: Maximizing Your Use of the World’s Largest Citizen Science Database

Join Will Johnson, regional eBird reviewer for Brevard, Volusia, and Indian River counties, for an interactive and wide-ranging discussion on how to make the most of eBird for reporting and tracking your bird observations, exploring the birdlife in your area, and contributing to impactful citizen science. In this session we will place particular emphasis on demystifying the eBird review process and learning best practices for documenting your sightings so that you can become a more skilled and intentional (e)birder in the field. Whether you’re a veteran eBird user or completely new to the program, this session is designed so that everybody will take away valuable lessons they can apply during the festival’s many fantastic field trips.

Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Bermuda Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Will Johnson

About the Speaker: Will Johnson serves as the regional eBird reviewer for Brevard, Volusia, and Indian River counties and contributes to local environmental organizations as a frequent guest speaker and tour leader. A lifelong resident and avid birder of east-central Florida, Will has developed a thorough expertise of local birdlife and is particularly knowledgeable about this area’s migration patterns, vagrancy trends, and biogeography. In addition to spending extensive time in the field, Will enjoys expressing his love of birds through art and illustration and has had his artwork featured in multiple local and national publications. Will recently graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, and he currently works remotely from Vero Beach, FL for a climate tech startup supporting nature-based carbon removal projects.

The Best Bird Sounds You’ve Never Heard

What if I told you that vultures, shorebirds, and House Sparrows are some of the most accomplished avian singers in North America? Maybe you’ve never heard them before. Or maybe you’ve never heard them quite this way. This presentation will delve into the surprising world of bird sounds that are hidden, underappreciated, and sometimes flat-out denied to exist. You’ll discover the concealed complexity inside a so-called “chirp”; hear the surprising sound of a vulture’s flight display; and learn about many common birds whose song you may have missed, including singing ducks, hooting sandpipers, and wing-clapping owls. Your guide will be Nathan Pieplow, the author of the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds, who will unravel the mysteries of some of the rarest and most startling sounds in his collection after two decades of nature sound recording.

Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Jamaica Room
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Nathan Peiplow

Birding in the Age of Technology

Date: Saturday, January 24
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Location: Radisson Resort at the Port, Martinique
Cost: Free with festival registration
Speaker: Henry Meade & Owen Woodhouse

About the Speaker: Henry Meade and Owen Woodhouse are emerging leaders in the next generation of birders and photographers, each bringing a distinct talent and passion to their craft. Henry is an award-winning nature and sports photographer from the Chicagoland area, known for his sharp eye for detail, storytelling focus, and work as lead sports photographer at his high school. A proud Hunt’s Photo and Video affiliate and trip leader with the DuPage Birding Club, he blends creativity and technical excellence whether documenting wildlife or athletic competition.

Owen’s fascination with birds began early and accelerated after a formative 2019 trip to Florida. His dedication led him to complete a Big Year in 2022, recording 279 species and solidifying his place in his local birding community. A seasoned walk leader since age 13, he brings both knowledge and enthusiasm to his guiding. Owen is also an accomplished young bird photographer whose work—shaped through Gary’s Future Frame Society—has earned national recognition, including publication in the 2022 Project FeederWatch calendar by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.