Abbott has been photographing birds, wildlife and other nature subjects since 1967. His photography benefits from his extensive career experience in areas of biomedical and computer R&D, studies of photographic technique and composition, experiences teaching and taking classes and workshops—and many hours of practice. Abbott has served as a photographer at the High Desert Museum since 2008, and has led workshops, taught photography classes at COCC, and offers 1-on-1 sessions. His work has been published in scientific and industry journals and fine art books, and is used extensively by the High Desert Museum.

Abbott’s broad range of interests, inquisitiveness, experience and outgoing personality contribute to his ability to communicate complex subjects in understandable ways. He loves to share his in-depth knowledge and encourage others in the art and skill of photography

Amanda Alford fell in love with birds at a beginning birder class in 2016 and has been a regular participant at the Winter Wings Festival ever since. She is excited to pass along her love of birds to a new group of birders! She sits on the board of directors of the Klamath Bird Observatory and her birding activities are occasionally interrupted by her day job as physician anesthesiologist. She is supported in her obsession by her husband and  children, who are all very tolerant when she is seen looking over their shoulders at that bird over there.

Christine Elder is a lifelong naturalist, artist, and educator. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biology, with an emphasis on ecological principles, and a certificate in Science Illustration from the University of California. She also completed three summers of graduate studies at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab, focusing on botany and pollination biology.

She has more than 20 years’ experience in environmental education, working in informal field settings with such organizations as the National Park Service and Forest Service, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Nature Conservancy, as well as in schools. In Christine’s current work as an environmental educator, she teaches workshops, leads nature sketching retreats, and offers online classes.

Darrel Samuels, a retired teacher, is currently President of the Klamath Basin Audubon Society. Having lived in Klamath Falls for almost 14 years, he and his wife Diana (Festival co-coordinator) are enthusiastic birders and feeders of birds and have succeeded in drawing in a wide range of species into their backyard. In addition to the more usual culprits (flickers, nuthatches woodpeckers, chickadees, juncos), some more infrequent visitors have been: White-headed and Pileated Woodpeckers, Sooty Grouse, Barred, Great Horned, Barn and Great Gray Owls.

Dave Coffman is a Fluvial Geomorphologist and the Director for Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) in Northern California and Southern Oregon.  He leads the effort to restore and revegetate the footprints of the dams on the Klamath River that are slated for removal.   Dave is a Professional Geoscientist with 14 years of experience planning and executing large landscape-scale ecological restoration projects in support of large water resource infrastructure projects.  He is a subject matter expert in fluvial and landscape geomorphology and their interface with the built environment.  Dave and his family recently relocated to Southern Oregon from Texas in order to focus on Klamath Basin restoration issues.

Dave Hays has worked more than 20 years in natural resource management for the federal government, much of that time with the National Park Service. This includes more than seven years in the Klamath Basin working at Lava Beds National Monument. His work and academic pursuits have varied widely, from vegetation and restoration ecology to cave and bat management. Dave has an MS in Ecology from the University of Washington’s Forestry School, as well as a BA in geology.

Dave has been birding for nearly 20 years, and the best of those years were spent in the Klamath Basin. After moving to Klamath from the east coast in 2008, Dave fell in love with the birds and the landscapes of Oregon’s high desert. Dave is a long-time member of Audubon and served on the Board of Directors for the Klamath Basin Audubon Society. He took pride in helping to build the birding community of the Klamath Basin and the Winter Wings Festival. Now a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alabama, Dave is thrilled to return to the festival and get another taste of real winter.

Elijah Hayes has always enjoyed wildlife and the outdoors but didn’t catch the birding bug until an ornithology class in 2019. Since then, he has spent the majority of his free time out in the field with a focus on Klamath County, where he has accrued a life list of over 250 species and is currently attempting to break the big year record of 259 species. As a former software engineering student turned environmental scientist, he has worked with a variety of apps and uses technology to enhance his birding game.

Faraaz Abdool is a wildlife photographer, author, speaker, birding guide, and environmental advocate from Trinidad & Tobago. His photographs and writings have been widely published both digitally and in print. His first book, Casual Birding in Trinidad & Tobago was released in 2020 and received widespread praise. Faraaz also provides birding tourism consultancy services for eco-lodges wishing to attract a birding clientele. He will join us remotely for the social media conservation panel.

Jeremy Neipp is a wildlife photographer and content creator whose passion is creating stories, inspiring others, and sharing nature with the world. He is also the founder of Bird Burger, which aims to create open and safe conversations about ethics and conservation as well as teach others how to photograph wildlife well.

To see some of the films that Jeremy has created, check out https://www.youtube.com/c/JeremyNeipp

Judy has been a resident of Klamath Falls, Oregon since 1958. She found a passion for painting much later in life and enjoys living in the heart of the Pacific Flywary. She has received many awards including Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year (twice) and Silver Anniversary Artist of the Year in the Pacific Flyway Show, Sacramento, to name a few.

Karl has lived in the Klamath Basin since 1989. He is an orthopedic surgeon by profession but has an MS degree in Wildlife Biology. He has  served on the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, was instrumental in creating and currently serves on the board of the Klamath Watershed Partnership, and is the chair of the Oregon Conservation and Recreation Fund.  He is passionate about birding and the Klamath ecosystem.

Kenneth Sanchez spent over 30 years in State and Federal government service, working for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on raptors, shorebirds, and seabirds. He currently works on ESA permitting strategies and other tasks for Resource Environmental Solutions (RES), the nation’s largest ecological restoration company.

Kevin has been interested in nature since an early age and focused on birds for the past 36years. He was a contributing author to Birds of Oregon: A General Reference, and an editor of the South Central Fieldnotes for Oregon Birds. For the last 24 years, he has been a compiler for the Klamath Falls Christmas Bird Count and a field trip leader for the Klamath Basin Audubon Society. Since the mid-1990s, Kevin has been involved with the Klamath Bird Observatory as a Point Count Surveyor, conducted USFWS Breeding Bird Surveys in Klamath and Lake Cos., and has been the compiler for Klamath County’s part in North American Migration Counts. His best “Big Day” in Klamath County was 171 species last spring, and has seen or heard over 315 species in the Klamath Basin.

Kevin is considered one of the best birders in the Klamath Basin. He has been involved with the Bald Eagle Conference and the Winter Wings Festival since 1992 and previously taught elementary school

Madeline Enos is a Klamath Basin Audubon Society Board Member and Head of Marketing & Social Media at the tech startup Included.ai. She is committed to empowering new environmental leaders. She served as President of the Emerging Professionals in Conservation group, led Texas Conservation Corps trail crews, and was a mentor and instructor at Portland State University and the University of Texas at Austin. Madeline loves to share her passion for environmental stewardship by volunteering in the community and was recognized as the “Best Nature-Lovin’ Conservation Warrior” by the Austin Chronicle in 2017.

Mark Bransom, Chief Executive Officer of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC), brings over 25 years of planning, engineering, and construction experience in water resources and environmental management for state and local governments, federal agencies, Tribal Nations, NGOs, and private sector clients throughout the Western United States. Prior to heading up KRRC Mark was with CH2MHill where he worked as a Senior Vice President in Water Resources & Environmental Management and oversaw a variety of large water infrastructure and environmental restoration projects. He was also previously a member of the faculty at Oregon State University, where he taught, conducted research, and consulted on natural resources management and infrastructure projects. 

Marshal leads tours in the Klamath Basin, specializing in Crater Lake National Park. Having traveled and studied natural history on 5 continents, he began naturalizing and birding in Oregon in the 1970s and liked southeast Oregon so much he moved to the area in 2006. A Certified Wildlife Biologist, he was the founding Executive Director of the Ohio Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, college biology instructor, and has owned his own environmental consulting company, EcoServices, since 1978. He works with terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, wetland and water issues, endangered and invasive species, fishing, birding, grazing, native plants and landscaping.

Matt Poole is a 19 year old wildlife photographer and conservationist based in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Matt has been photographing wildlife since he was 12 years old. He has found a special bond with owls in particular, and has been focusing on capturing their beauty the past 3 years. Matt has worked on multiple burrowing owl film productions as a wildlife specialist. A burrowing owl photo taken by Matt is being used by National Geographic/Disney+ for the promotion of their newest series Super Natural. Along with photography, Matt has been working as a wildlife intern on a burrowing owl conservation/scientific project the last 3 years. This year, the final year of the project, he lead the project to its finish. He often posts videos and updates on the project on his social media accounts. Matt’s dream is to dedicate his life to the conservation and science of owls. He is currently enrolled in school to fulfill his dream.

Stefan’s life is about birds and art. He has never worked a day in his life that he was not recreating birds in one form or another.
While taxidermy, which he has worked his way to the top of his profession internationally, has been his mainstay for most of his adult life, this multitalented artist, from a young age, has painted, carved, mounted, and sculpted birds.Sculpting in bronze is a natural progression from his taxidermy, as it provides a lasting expression of his knowledge of avian anatomy and design.Years of intense study coupled with a flair for simplistic design equates to renderings that capture the essence of his subjects in tasteful clean works of art.
Check out this video for more insight into Stefan:
https://youtu.be/8egP9B7umW0

Teresa joined Portland Audubon in April 2018. In her role as Eastern Oregon Field Coordinator, Teresa conducts and manages several inventory and monitoring projects throughout the Harney Basin, including at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.Teresa spent her childhood roaming the forests of Southern Oregon while her father climbed trees. An early obsession with birds led to hours of watching, talking to and about birds, and earned Teresa the nickname Bird. This life full of birds led Teresa to a diversity of bird and conservation-related jobs. While raptors aren’t Teresa’s only bird-related interest, Teresa does find the seasonal cycle of raptor species particularly fun. Teresa has a B.S. in Natural Resources, with an emphasis in Wildlife Conservation, has an M.S. in Environmental Education, and a PhD in Environmental Science.

Tiana Williams-Claussen is a member of the Yurok Tribe and grew up on the Yurok Reservation. She received her BA in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University, returned to serve her tribe, and is currently pursuing a Master of Sciences in Natural Resources from California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt. Instrumental to formation of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, she currently serves as Department Director. Her team’s work includes successful reintroduction of California condor to Yurok country as well as other threatened and endangered species conservation; development and implementation of holistic and sustainable Tribal forest and land management approaches to wildlife habitat restoration for a variety of species; and integrating traditional knowledge from the Yurok community into Yurok government’s wildlife management.

Tom Essex is a retired former secondary educator, specializing in physical sciences and environmental sciences. He is primarily involved in a variety of conservation organizations, including the National Audubon Society and local Klamath Basin Audubon Chapter, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and a local trout fishery conservation group.