Field Trip Leaders ⋆ Tucson Audubon Skip to content

Our Field Trip Leaders

Learn a little more about the dynamic people that volunteer their valuable time to lead the varied field trips that Tucson Audubon has to offer. 

Kathe Anderson

Kathe Anderson

Kathe is an avid birder, leading bird walks, teaching classes, and counting birds for several bird surveys to help real scientists with data collection. For over 15 years, she’s led hundreds of walks for individuals, conservation organizations, private groups, and life-long learning programs, and taught dozens of hands-on birding-related classes for organizations such as the Verde Valley Nature and Birding Festival, Southwest Wings Nature Festival, Southeast Arizona Birding Festival, Mesa Community College, ASU’s Osher Life-long Learning Program, Arizona State Parks, The Nature Conservancy, the Desert Botanical Garden and others. She loves sharing her passion with others. She’s an active member of the Phoenix area and Tucson Audubon Societies. If it’s not fun, it’s not worth it.

Bowers

Bob and Prudy Bowers

We are birding buddies, looking for and photographing birds after years of pursuing a similar hobby, scuba diving. Married in Yosemite, our life has been centered on nature, and having lived in California and Oregon, we retired to Tucson, where we're just a short drive from the exotic birds of Mexico. In addition to leading field trips for Tucson Audubon, we volunteer at Catalina State Park's Saturday nature program, track birds at two parks for the quarterly Tucson Bird Count and manage areas for two Christmas Bird Counts in the Tucson Valley and the Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch. Bob is vice-president for the Board of Directors of Friends of Catalina State Park, and our articles and photographs have appeared in a number of publications including the Vermilion Flycatcher, Summit Daily News (Frisco, Colorado), Saddlebag Notes supplement to the Tucson Daily Star and Another Day in Paradise (Zihuatanejo, Mexico). These articles can be found on our blog 'Birding the Brooke and Beyond'.

Laura Couchman

Laura Couchman

Laura Couchman has been birding since 2004, and moved to Tucson from Chicago in 2014. She and her husband Bill love to bird wherever they travel and have enjoyed birding overseas and at festivals all around the U.S. During the pandemic Laura taught herself Merlin and eBird, free smartphone tech tools for identifying birds and keeping track of what you see. She loves to help other birders learn and incorporate these into their birding practice. Laura also creates and teaches online courses about birds and birding at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Tucson. Laura loves birding in Arizona because: the varied habitats and elevations attract many species; if you go somewhere with water you’re guaranteed birds will be there; and because Arizona’s trees are short and have few leaves it’s easier to see the birds!

Scott Crabtree

Scott Crabtree

Scott has been interested in birds from infancy, but it was a university course which got him started in birding in 1972. A career in the Navy had him cutting his birding teeth on pelagic species, and expanded his range around the country: the Carolinas, California, Connecticut, Texas, the Aleutian Islands, and the mid-Atlantic. He has: been on the board of directors for the San Antonio (TX) Audubon Society and the Baltimore Bird Club; conducted Breeding Bird Survey routes on the Aleutian Island of Adak; contributed to both additions of the Maryland Breeding Bird Atlas. Scott’s migratory days are over and is a full-time resident of Tucson.

Marie Davis

Marie Davis

Marie grew up with a love of birds, but didn’t realize that “birding” was a thing until her husband saw a banner downtown advertising the Tucson Audubon festival! She started birding in 2015. As a former elementary teacher, she’s thrilled to work with kids again by leading family bird walks. She enjoys volunteering with in a variety of roles. She is also a former professional violinist, loves learning, spending time with her family and friends, and praising God for the beautiful world that He’s blessed us with. Her favorite bird is the American Robin – as a child, she enjoyed watching them run through the lush yards in northern Idaho and the Chicago suburbs. Her other birdy favorites are: birds she hasn’t yet seen, places she hasn’t yet birded, and of course, the amazing friends! To new adventures!

Ray Deeney 300x200

Ray Deeney

A Brooklyn native, Ray Deeney began birding seriously about 1990 in New Jersey where he spent most of his adult life prior to moving to Tucson in 2011. At that time he retired as an attorney specializing in law and mental disability issues. Previously he had been a special education teacher, a social worker and a teacher at Seton Hall Law School for twelve years. In New Jersey he was also very active with New Jersey Audubon including field trips, Christmas bird counts and various citizen science projects. Currently, Ray regularly leads bird walks at Tohono Chul Park and seasonally at Arthur Pack Park and the Mason Center. In these roles connecting with out of state visitors looking to understand and appreciate Southern Arizona birds are a special source of fun and satisfaction for Ray.

maryellenflynn

Mary Ellen Flynn

Mary Ellen belongs to the species “homo sapiens migratorious”. Since 2005, she has been lucky enough to divide her time between the Sonoran Desert of Tucson and the rocky coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Having caught the birding bug about 15 years ago, she has suffered increasingly strong symptoms in recent years. She confesses to enjoying not only birds but also birders of any species. She leads birding programs for Catalina State Park and Pima County. Born and raised north of Boston, Mary Ellen earned a B.A. from Cornell University and a J.D. from Boston University. She volunteers at Massachusetts Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center and at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (aka “ Plum Island”), both located in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Jim Gessaman 300x200

Jim Gessaman

Jim Gessaman, an ornithologist, ecologist, and physiologist at Utah State University from 1968-2003, has authored more than 50 publications on bird migration; energetics of flight; physiological adaptations of mammals and birds (with emphasis on hawks, eagles and owls) to inclement environments; and validations of new methodologies for studying animal energetics and metabolism. Since moving to Tucson in 2006, Jim has volunteered at Tucson Audubon for several years with leading bird walks at the Mason Center and now at Arthur Pack Regional Park during the winter months, and helping survey birds in several Important Bird Areas.

Linda Hanson

Linda Hanson

Linda, a Bronx native and 2007 transplant to Tucson, has been an avid birder for more than 15 years. She spent more than 20 years criss-crossing the country as a U.S. Olympic Team Trials slalom whitewater kayak competitor and instructor. She’s led both groups and individuals down wilderness rivers. Linda is also an accomplished artist, having studied figure and portrait art and is now focusing on bird anatomy and nature journaling. Having developed a deep love of nature from an early age enjoying summer camps, she loves introducing people to birding and believes that truly enjoying the moment and having fun in nature is the best way to experience and appreciate birds.

Tim Helentjaris

Tim Helentjaris

Tim started paying attention to birds as a graduate student in the early 70’s in Utah, have since birded most extensively in the West but also on trips to Alaska, Hawaii, C. & S. America, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya. More of a biologist than a lister, I enjoy questions about bird behavior and occurrence, particularly the status of pioneering Mexican species in Arizona, as well as discovering new areas in Arizona that are under-birded. I also spend a lot of my time working on surveys of potential and existing IBA’s in AZ. Enthusiastic eBirder as I see the value of all of these data, given my previous career in science as a biologist.

Jean and Mark Hengesbaugh

Jean and Mark Hengesbaugh

Jean and Mark live near Sabino Canyon and consider the creek their back yard. In addition to leading birding field trips in the recreation area for Tucson Audubon, they also survey three Important Bird Areas along lower Sabino Creek. They are Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists for the U.S. Forest Service.

John Higgins

John Higgins

John Higgins thinks wandering outside all morning looking at birds with some other sociable people is a great way to spend his time. He has been lucky enough to have birded from the Amazon to Alaska to Austria to Australia. He has been taking out field trips for Tucson Audubon for thirty-five years. John especially likes easy-going trips with beginner birders looking for easy-to-see birds, such hawks perched on roadside poles and ponds full of ducks and shorebirds.

gerry-hodge

Gerry Hodge

A Western Washington native, Gerry has been a “rain-chicken” in Tucson for 10 years. He spent 20 years sailing, then 15 years sea-kayaking in Puget Sound and British Columbia where he led over 300 kayak trips. His close proximity to sea birds drew him to his current passion. Gerry and his wife Terry, have chased birds in 15 countries (Iceland is his favorite) and enjoy getting out in nature wherever they may be. He retired in 2003 after teaching math and science in grades 6-12 for 26 years in the State of Washington. When not birding, Gerry does astronomy outreach events for Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association. If we spot a Tufted Puffin, Cassiopeia, or Harlequin Duck, Gerry will be able to identify it immediately.

Karen Howe

Karen Howe

Karen spent the last 30 years living in Portland, OR with frequent visits to her parents in Tucson. She held program management and business operations roles for IT, energy efficiency and environmental organizations and spent the last few years on habitat protection and restoration. Now retired, Karen volunteers at Mt Rainier National Park, Tucson Audubon, Tucson’s Mission Garden and Citizens’ Climate Lobby. She’s an obsessive gardener, intrepid hiker, enthusiastic bird watcher and budding writer.

Kirsten Howe

Kirsten Howe

Kirsten (pronounced "CURSE-tin") went birding for the first time in 2019 as part of a graduate ecology course and had no idea at the time how much it would change her life. During the long months of covid lock-down, birding became an escape and a way to continue to connect with nature and community. She moved from New York City to Tucson in mid-2021 and immediately began volunteering with Tucson Audubon as a field trip leader, learning all the new birds along the way. Being involved with Tucson Audubon has allowed Kirsten to become part of the nature-loving community of Southeast Arizona, for which she is eternally grateful! Kirsten loves to help others see the beauty in birds and nature as a way of giving back. She is also a freelance bird artist who sells her art at Tucson community events.

Holly K 300x200

Holly Kleindienst

Holly is retired from the US Forest Service where she had a fulfilling career as a wildland firefighter and fire manager. Coming from a family of birders and nature enthusiasts, she is a lifelong backyard birder, and outdoor recreationist. Most every morning she is out walking and birding to increase her County Year and Life Lists, and her knowledge of local birds. She also birds wherever travels take her, which is often to the Caribbean for scuba diving with her husband, George, where they “list” fish as well. Besides leading birding field trips for various organizations, she participates in IBA and other bird surveys including Christmas Bird Counts. Holly is a great fan of eBird and other mobile birding applications. She is always willing to share how the use of these technologies has enhanced her birding experience.

Deb Locke 300x200

Deb Locke

Growing up in Maine among acres of meadow, marsh, creek, and orchards, Deb has been observing birds in a variety of habitats since childhood. She has also been greatly inspired by a cousin’s doctoral work with Sandhill Cranes. Encounters with remarkable birds is a thread woven throughout years of extensive travel, from a first guided birding experience in East Africa to paddling with Roseate Spoonbills on the Texas coast. Deb and husband Gary, both retired educators and full-time RVers, now migrate seasonally between Arizona and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. They currently serve as the on-site volunteer hosts for The Nature Conservancy’s Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve and Deb especially enjoys birding from her kayak on nearby Patagonia Lake. She values the shared experience of birding with a group…more eyes, more ears…to help spot and identify birds and to share those sightings with others.

Jennie MacFarland 300x200

Jennie MacFarland

Jennie has been interested in nature from a very young age and in birds in particular since elementary school. When she put on her first pair of glasses in second grade and looked out the window and for the first time saw a bird sitting in a tree, that was it! Jennie has been hooked on birds ever since. As a senior in high school, Jennie entered the Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair (SARSEF) with a project about Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy Owls and was a winner in the “environmental” category. The prize was a tuition waiver to the University of Arizona. In her last year of college, she began volunteering for the Important Bird Areas program with Tucson Audubon. In 2010, Jennie graduated and that same month she found work at Tucson Audubon. She is absolutely thrilled to be working there!

Linda Matson

Linda Matson

Linda is a Massachusetts native and came late to the love of birding. As a volunteer ranger patrol member at Sabino Canyon around 2015, she decided she should learn the most common birds of the canyon. Well, she quickly figured out that there’s no point at which you can say, “okay, I got it, I can stop learning now!” Since retiring from careers in aerospace engineering and law, she spends time bicycling and leading indoor cycling classes, urban sketching, watercolor painting, desert gardening and birding. Camping in the Chiricahuas and waking up to a chorus of birdsong is a happy place.

Robert Mesta

Robert Mesta

Robert is a retired ornithologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He spent his professional career working to protect, conserve, and recover threatened and endangered North American bird populations. He directed the first reintroduction of captive-bred California Condors in the wild in southern California in 1992 and in the Grand Canyon in 1996. In the 1980s, Robert established the highly successful Arizona Bald Eagle Nest-watch Program and was involved in the specie’s recovery. As leader of the National Peregrine Falcon Recovery Team, he wrote the rule that removed the species from the Endangered Species List. From 1999 to 2015 he coordinated the Sonoran Join Venture, a bi-national bird conservation program between the United States and Mexico. Robert also worked to establish a Masked Bobwhite quail captive breeding and release program in Mexico to re-establish this endangered sub-species.

Julie Michael 300x200

Julie Michael

Julie grew up on both coasts and has always been fascinated by the diversity of the natural world. As a Geography student at U of A, she interned at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with their education department, learning ways to share her knowledge and enthusiasm for the environment with others. Since then, Julie has continued to explore nature through camping and hiking, discovering her love for birding in the process. Recently retired, Julie now leads field trips for Tucson Audubon, interprets at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds, and is a volunteer naturalist at Sabino Canyon. She continues to be passionate about helping people make deeper connections with birds and nature. Whether guiding others or wandering alone, Julie looks at every birding outing as an adventure—a never-ending treasure hunt.

Marcia OBara 300x200

Marcia OBara

Marcia has been a birder since 1984, when she identified a Red-eyed vireo that was singing from the top of a pine tree in Algonquin Provincial Park. She was born in Niagara Falls, NY, where she learned to bird with the Buffalo Audubon and Buffalo Ornithological Societies. Every New Year’s Day found her birding the length of the Niagara River, looking for gulls and winter water birds. After moving to AZ in 1997 she birded all around her adopted state, enjoying the amazing bird life. She recently retired after 48 years as an RN, and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime…a Big Year! 22,000 solo miles in an RV, visiting 25 states and having an amazing time! Marcia enjoys being outside and observing all sorts of wildlife, not just birds. Marcia birds every day and is currently attempting to bird and submit an eBird checklist every day for all of 2021.

Jim Rorabaugh 300x200

Jim Rorabaugh

Jim had a 30-year career as a wildlife biologist for various federal agencies, mostly in Arizona and California. He spent his last 20 years working on threatened and endangered species in southern Arizona while employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Phoenix and Tucson. Mostly known for his work in herpetology, Jim is the senior author of A Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Sonora, Mexico, as well as many other published works in herpetology. Jim began birding in Arizona in 1979 and enjoys sharing what he has learned over the years about birds, other animals, and plants. Now retired, he lives off-the-grid in a remote area of Cochise County where the lizards are strong, the snakes are good looking, and all the birds are way above average.

Rob Rutledge

Rob Rutledge

Rob Rutledge started birding in his twenties while he was a Park Ranger at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis. He lead bird walks for the Indianapolis Audubon Society for many years and has birded in almost all 50 states and around the world. He started leading walks for Tucson Audubon in 2012 at the Arivaca Cienega and now does bird walks at the SweetWater Wetlands and Pena Blanca Lake and for the Tubac Nature Center. He loves to share the birds and make new birding friends.

Luke Safford 300x200

Luke Safford

Luke grew up in a family that loved the outdoors and quickly blossomed into a birder after his grandparents gave him his first bird book when he was seven. He was enamored with the idea of keeping track of the day-to-day bird life in his back yard near Tacoma, WA. Luke became involved in Yakima Valley Audubon and served on the board, as field trip coordinator, CBC compiler, and field trip leader. His favorite spot was along the Yakima River on the Poppoff Trail, where he led a weekly bird walk for three years. At the end of 2014 Luke and his family moved to Tucson and he quickly began attending, then leading, the Sweetwater Wetlands bird walk. This trip is one of Luke’s favorite moments of the week, catching up with the “regulars,” meeting new people from all over, helping new birders, and soaking in the bird life.

Laurel Salvador

Laurel Salvador

Laurel has been birding since 1973 when she would accompany her grandmother on local birding trips in the suburbs of Chicago. Now a retired computer engineer , she splits her time between Tucson and Wheaton (a suburb of Chicago) and leads birding trips both for Tucson Audubon and the DuPage Birding Club, in addition volunteering as a bird monitor for the DuPage County Forest Preserve. An advocate of “team birding”, she encourages everyone to get involved on one of her field trips. Also an avid cyclist and hiker, she divides her outdoor time between biking, hiking and birding.

peggy-steffens

Peggy Steffens

Peggy is a certified Chopra Center Meditation instructor, award-winning artist, and has taught photography classes at Tohono Chul and Tucson Botanical Gardens. She is a contributing member of Tucson Audubon participating in Birdathon, Christmas Bird Counts, bird surveys, volunteering, and leading field trips. Peggy became an avid birder after retirement from her thirty-year career in education at Amphitheater School District. Her love of learning, teaching, and sharing never left her and she completely immersed herself in the world of ornithology. Capturing the beauty of nature in photography brings great joy to Peggy and birding has motivated her to capture and share the essence of birds with her photos. The thing she loves best about birding is being in nature; she brings mindfulness to her birding experience by being totally present when she is out in the field watching the antics and behaviors of birds.

Karen Vandergrift

Karen Vandergrift

Karen began birding in South America 20 years ago when she and her husband purchased a guest ranch in Uruguay—the visitors demanded to know the names of all the birds and she only knew a handful. She got busy. Since then, she has been a raptor bander for the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory; a trip leader for Marin Audubon and the Point Reyes National Seashore; and a waterbird docent at Alcatraz Island. She holds certifications as a California Master Naturalist; from the Master Birding program of Golden Gate Audubon; and a certified Public Interpretation Specialist with the National Park Service. After moving to Tucson in 2018, Karen completed the Pima County Master Naturalist program. She is also a volunteer naturalist at Sabino Canyon, and a docent at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. She joined Tucson Audubon as a trip leader in 2020.

Matt & Karen Vandzura

Karen and Matt Vandzura

Karen and Matt retired to Tucson in mid 2021 to enjoy the birds and birding hotspots of Southeast Arizona. Recent graduates of the Tucson Audubon field trip leader academy, they are excited to share their new “backyard” with other birders. While they don’t think of themselves as expert bird guides, they have been birding since 1992 when a friend gifted them their first field guide. After retiring from the National Park Service and the medical field, they are exploring birding locally and internationally.

steve-vaughan

Stephen Vaughan

Steve has had a lifelong interest in wildlife and nature. Growing up in Florida he envisioned a career in marine biology. That was until his high school biology teacher showed him an Osprey nest and lent him a camera. That was the turning point. From there his passion switched almost immediately to raptors and photography. To Steve the two passions were one and the same. Studying ornithology at Colorado State University he became fascinated in bird behavior in raptors and the breeding behaviors of grouse. Instead of “watching” birds he chose instead to observe them and their behaviors. Slowing down to make detailed observations was in prefect harmony to his photographic philosophy. He didn’t want to “take pictures” of birds but to allow his subjects to share intimate moments. These moments are what he shares with others so they can see past just a pretty picture and appreciate the lives of his subjects. Steve has a passion of sharing this with his students.

Cathy Yungbluth

Cathy Yungbluth

Cathy considers herself a hiker/backpacker who also loves learning and sharing her nature experiences, and being outside and out of range of cell phone range is her favorite place to be. She moved to Tucson from St. Louis in 2017. Along with being a field trip leader for Tucson Audubon, Cathy is also a Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists. Her favorite bird is the Common Raven because it seems to have the most fun being a bird.