Bob Schutsky is the owner and founder of Bird Treks, now in
its twelfth year of worldwide bird watching tours.
Photo by Mary Brenner, Manitoba Tour Participant
Bob Schutsky is the owner and operator of BIRD TREKS and leads many of the scheduled tours. Bob has been an active birder for 35 years. He has birded throughout the United States, parts of Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, Belize, Panama, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago, Peru, Kenya, and much of Costa Rica. His birding career began in 1972 with an ornithology course at the University of Miami in Florida from which he graduated with a BS in Biology. Much of his work for the next 20 years as an environmental consultant involved the identification, study, and censusing of birds. He is currently conducting a long term shorebird migrational survey on the lower Susquehanna River. He taught bird identification classes at several local schools and universities. He initiated and organized the Southern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Christmas Bird Count, wrote a bird column for the Lancaster, PA Sunday News, and helped to coordinate, compile, and author the "Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania". He wrote portions of "A Guide to the Birds of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania" and held former Pennsylvania Big Year and Big Day records. Birds and the love of nature are his life pursuits, and Bob thrives on sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm with others.
Jim Danzenbaker has birded throughout the US and the tropics. Panama is one of his favorite destinations.
Jim Danzenbaker has been a freelance tour leader for ten years. He will be leading the 2007 BIRD TREKS tour to Panama. Jim has birded since a very young age. His original home in coastal New Jersey gave him ready access to Brigantine NWR and Cape May. He progressed from birding most of the lower 48 states to building a solid background in the tropics. His first tropical birding experience was a family trip to the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad. Jim has led more than two dozen tours to Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador. His intense interest in Central and South America and his dedication to natural history have given him a willingness to enthusiastically share information and knowledge with all of his tour participants. Jim has served as a naturalist and leader on several Antarctic tours. He currently lives in Washington State where he works with the Brunton Optical and Equipment Company.
Kevin Easley organizes our Kenya Tours and many others.
Kevin W. Easley was introduced to birding by his father at a very young age but only started birding seriously when he was eight years old, Golden Guide and Bushnell binoculars in hand. He has traveled and birded extensively in many areas of the world including Africa, Central and South America, and Europe. Kevin resides in Costa Rica where he organizes and leads birding tours through his company, Costa Rica Gateway. He also helps in the organization and guiding of several BIRD TREKS tours including Classic Kenya, Southern Kenya, and Spain.
Steven Easley has birded and led tours around the globe for many years.
Steven L. Easley lived on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya from 1996 to 2000. During that time he had the opportunity to become very familiar with the amazing birds and mammals that Kenya offers. He is very knowledgeable of the calls and habits of all Kenyan birds and enjoys identifying the difficult groups such as cisticolas and greenbuls. Congratulations to Steven for reaching the 1000 mark for birds seen in Kenya during the BIRD TREKS November 2005 tour, and also for his October 2005 wedding to Magdalena in Costa Rica where they reside and where Steven leads many tours when he is not guiding in Kenya.
Mike Haldeman leads domestic, foreign, and custom tours and scouts many
our new destinations.
Photo by Debra Marsh, Trinidad & Tobago Tour Participant
Mike Haldeman has led many BIRD TREKS tours during the past eight years, including recent expeditions to Costa Rica, Belize, Peru, Brazil, Kenya, and many domestic destinations. Mike was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He is personable and knowledgeable, a great field birder, and knows how to assemble all of the necessary elements for an exciting, educational, and fun-filled adventure. Mike earned his BS in Biology at Penn State University. He spent six months as a birding guide at Lamanai Outpost Lodge in Belize and later held the same position at Sacha Lodge in Ecuador. He has conducted banding studies and censused migrants at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, conducted long term studies for the US Forest Service on the habitat requirements of the endangered Spotted Owl, and conducted bird surveys for the Bureau of Land Management in California. When not leading tours for BIRD TREKS, Mike performs habitat analysis surveys for the Rocky Mountain Research Lab, most recently in Idaho, Arizona, California, and Utah. He scouts many of BIRD TREKS new destinations and recently led our inaugural tour to Thailand.
Dan Heathcote has birded since early childhood. He has led BIRD TREKS' tours to Southeast Arizona, Mainland Alaska, and most recently to the Hill Country of Texas.
Dan Heathcote began birding as a child in Florida, going on his first Christmas Bird Count at the age of ten. Living near the coast, Dan was able to participate in many offshore birding trips, something that he still enjoys today. Travel for birding has taken Dan all across the United States. Outside the US, Dan has birded in Mexico, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and England. Since leading his first birding tour in Florida at age 16, he has lead BIRD TREKS tours to Arizona and Alaska. With his keen eye, he discovered the first United States record for Crescent-chested Warbler while birding in Fort Huachuca, Arizona in 1983. Dan added the first record for Chestnut-sided Warbler to the bird list for Yellowstone National Park in 1989. He lives in York, Pennsylvania with his wife Lori and children Cory and Amanda. Hummingbird gardening is one of Dan’s favorite pastimes, along with coaching Little League baseball.
Our expert leader in Thailand is Kamol Komolphalin.
Kamol Komolphalin is Nature Trails' main bird leader and a co-founder of the company. He is one of the keen bird observers in Thailand and is very knowledgeable of the songs and calls. He is a world-class bird artist and co-illustrated the Thai field guide. He was the President of the Bangkok Bird Club (now Bird Conservation Society of Thailand) during 1986-1994. He teaches his own nature art classes and has been an invited lecturer at Chulalongkorn University on the subjects of Nature Appreciation and Field Scientific/Artistic Sketching. He is a birding consultant and gives regular talks to the organized youth groups in the northeast for bird education and nature art. Kamol and his wife Patcharee lead our annual Thailand Tour.
Huw Lloyd has led several of our exciting tours to Peru.
Huw Lloyd was born in South Wales and began bird watching at the age of 11 with the local branch of the Young Ornithologists Club based at his school. His interest in tropical bird communities began in 1992 when he participated in the Manchester Metropolitan University expedition to Sumba Island, Indonesia, which won the 1993 Bird Life International/BP Conservation expedition award. In 1996 Huw obtained his Master's Degree in Conservation Biology, studying the ecology of lowland Tinamou species in Peru. He has recently completed a two-year research program on the conservation of forest bird communities in Tambopata, southeast Peru, developing recommendations for conservation and tourism in the region. Huw has led many tours and field courses in southeast Peru and Costa Rica and has recently published research on Neotropical bird species such as the Rufous-headed Woodpecker and Black-faced Cotinga. Between leading bird tours, he is currently pursuing his doctorate in conservation biology in relict Andean woodlands in Peru.
Mark Pretti specializes in the American Southwest, Mexico, and the Neotropics.
Mark Pretti is a perpetual student of nature as well as a humble teacher focusing on birds, general natural history, and conservation. In addition to birds of southeast Arizona and the Neotropics, my other interests and areas of expertise include the identification and ecology of plants, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects, with a particular interest in ecological relationships and conservation. I worked as the naturalist at The Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve from 1997 to 2004, and in my free time, have moonlighted as field trip coordinator and trip leader for the Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival, board member and trip leader for the Huachuca Audubon Society, and office manager, trip leader, and head dishwasher for Mark Pretti Nature Tours. While I love being out in the field with birders, butterfliers, botanists and the like, one of my favorite activities is teaching and learning about nature with kids. Both with the Conservancy and as a freelance environmental educator, I provide environmental education programs for hundreds of students each year in southern Arizona and have been leading summer nature camps for children since 1998. I've also enjoyed improving my Spanish by doing similar programs with many students in Sonora, Mexico. Along with my wife, Karen, I worked as a birding and natural history guide at the Cristalino Jungle Lodge in the southern Amazon as well as in other locations in Mato Grosso, Brazil for three months in 2004 and again for four months in 2006. In addition to our Brazilian travels, I've had the good fortune in recent years to have made about 50 trips to Mexico and more than a dozen trips to Belize where I've greatly enjoyed seeing, enjoying, and learning about the birds and natural history of these wonderful places. I have a B.S. in Zoology and have led birding and natural history trips in Arizona and south of the border since 1997. When not in the field with my binoculars, I'm usually getting my endorphin fix by swimming, running, enjoying our tandem bicycle, or mountain biking.................after which I usually satisfy my ravenous appetite with Karen's fabulous cooking. My focus on unique experiences, small group size, and love of learning and teaching has created memorable natural adventures in some of Earth's most beautiful and wildlife-rich landscapes.
John Puschock will lead many wonderful trips in 2008, including several Alaska tours and our brand new Southern California Specialties.
John Puschock has been an active birder and avian researcher for more than 20 years. His birding trips have taken him across much of the US (35 states at last count) and two Canadian provinces. Thanks to his recent trips to Adak his ABA list is well over 700. John did his undergraduate work at Penn State and earned his Master's in wildlife science at New Mexico State. For the past 15 years he has worked on research projects in many different parts of the country. His most recent position was on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker search team in Arkansas. John's specialty is Alaska, and he is helping to open Adak Island as the new Aleutian birding destination. He operated four banding stations in northwest Alaska and authored two sections of ABA's "A Birder's Guide to Alaska" (Kotzebue and Kelly Bar). John is also writing a section of the new update to the ABA Florida Guide. John loves to take people birding and is especially fond of finding and photographing rare birds, such as the Zenaida Dove and Mangrove Swallow published in recent issues of North American Birds. Check our tour listing to see what John has to offer.
Luis Segura is our leader in Argentina and is an expert throughout much of South America.
Luis Segura's homeland is Patagonia, Argentina, where he spent most of his life. He started to work as a naturalist guide in 1982. Based in Buenos Aires at that time, he joined the Argentine Ornithological Society (AOP) and the Argentine Wildlife Foundation (FVSA), taking several courses on birds, bird watching, marine mammals, flora, and geology, and he soon started guiding groups of Argentine birders and naturalists in a variety of National Parks and Nature Reserves within the country. At age 20 Luis led his first group of foreign birders throughout Argentina and ever since he has been working as a tour leader for this kind of group in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands. In 1987, Luis decided to move back to his hometown, Puerto Madryn. Based here he continued working as an independent tour leader and locally as a tour guide specialized in birding and nature tours. In 1997 he founded Seebirds, a birding tour company focused on Patagonia. In 2000, together with Miguel Castelino, he founded Birding Argentina/Trogon Tours, combining his own field and office experience with that of Miguel, and so giving birth to this highly specialized Destinations Management Company, which is currently successfully running birding, nature, and cultural tours in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Antarctica. Luis has also been involved in many wildlife conservation projects, mainly with shorebirds and seabirds. He has been working as a volunteer with the Magellanic Penguin Project in Punta Tombo for 4 seasons and has been in charge of a rescue station for penguins affected by off-shore oil spilling in Puerto Madryn in 1991. That same year, Luis helped found the Austral Ornithological Society, of which he became the first president. Ever since, he has been organizing and dictating bird watching courses in Patagonia, encouraging other tour guides and the general public to start birding, and so helping to create in the local community a bird sensitive conscience. Luis lives in Puerto Madryn with his wife Nancy.
Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia are the focal point of Barry Walker's birding and ornithological studies.
Barry Walker M.B.E, was born near Manchester, England and started bird watching at the age of 13. After birding extensively in Europe and the Middle East, Barry switched his attention to the Neotropics and has extensive birding experience in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, and particularly Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia. He has participated in numerous ornithological expeditions and contributed to many scientific and general publications concerning birds in Peru. Living in Cusco, Peru for 22 years, Barry has visited every corner of the country as a trekking guide, natural history guide, and specifically as a bird tour leader, and he is the author of the well received book “A Field Guide to the Birds of Machu Picchu, Peru”. He has been leading bird tours for private groups and well known bird tour companies for the last 15 years. Having seen 1650+ species in Peru alone he is well known for his field craft when leading tours. He is married with a 9-year old daughter and, with his wife Rosario, is owner of Manu Expeditions, a pioneer eco-tour operator in Manu specializing in bird watching, natural history, archeological, and cultural tours. Barry also occupies the post of British Consul in Cusco, and received an M.B.E in the Queens New Years Honors list 2004.
Dan Watkins can hardly wait to search for Neotropical migrants with you on Dauphin Island.
Dan Watkins has developed a brand new tour to Dauphin Island, Alabama and the eastern Mississippi Gulf Coast that he first conducted in April 2006, in the midst of the northbound migration. Dan lives in Binghamton, New York with his wife, Jane. They have four daughters and nine grandkids that are the joy of their lives. Dan is a retired high school biology teacher and basketball coach. He is an active board member of the Broome County, NY Naturalist Club and veteran of the World Series of Birding. Dan has been an avid birder for more than 25 years, leads many field trips for his local bird club, and birds extensively in the lower 48 states. His biggest joy in birding is helping a birder to find a new species, and he always enjoys the search for that next special bird.