Download MOS Speakers List

———

Please note: This list is current as of September 2020. Updates appreciated – contact the webmaster or president.

———

ABDY, MARK

Contact Information:

301-432-7696

mjabdy@yahoo.com

Distance: Statewide on a case-by-case basis

Fees: Mileage

Equipment Needed: Can supply own AV and computer

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Birds of Southern Africa – He leads safaris to southern Africa each year and is compiling a slide presentation on the various bird species he has photographed.
  • Southern Africa Wildlife Highlights– Slide show and stories about various mammals and birds seen in the wildlife hotspots of Southern Africa. Mark grew up in Southern Africa and has been traveling to Africa on an annual basis since 2000. These photos will give a nice representation of what you can see.

BAICICH, PAUL

Contact Information:

410-922-9736

paul.baicich@verizon.net

Distance: 100 miles

Fees: gas and honorarium

Equipment Needed: PowerPoint projector

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • The Dozen Most Important Things You can do for Birds and Bird Conservation
  • Access Matters: Why Birders Should Care About This Growing Concern
  • Appreciating and Expanding the Federal “Duck Stamp”
  • The Amazing Breeding Biology of North American Birds
  • Bird Feeding in America: A Story of Wild Birds, Innovation, and Conservation
  • A Shade-grown and Bird-compatible Coffee Future
  • The Travel-and-Birding Network in North America: How it Evolved and How it Works
  • Rice is Nice – Lessons for Bird Conservation
  • Birders, Conservation, and Refuges: Making Better Connections
  • Birding and Beyond in Cuba

BELL, WAYNE – Past President MOS

Contact Information:

410-820-6002

wbell2@washcoll.edu

Distance: 100 miles one-way

Fees: none, except overnight lodging for distant engagements

Equipment Needed: Self-contained; use PowerPoint so show slides. Require a screen &

Table for laptop computer and projector.

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • 30% fewer birds in North America: lost from Maryland’s Eastern Shore? 
The Chesapeake working landscape: what our history and our birds tell us

BREWER, GWEN

( See also JETT, GEORGE )

Contact Information:

301-843-3524

gbrewer@dnr.state.md.us

Distance: 1 hour of Annapolis or Waldorf, further negotiable.

Fees: None

Equipment Needed: LCD Projector if possible. She will bring her own if necessary.

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Birds, Landscapes and Cultures of Ecuador
  • Birds and Bats of the Brazilian Amazon – A joint program with George Jett.

CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION – Anna Mudd

Contact Information:

301-848-5173

a.mudd@cbf.org

Distance: Anywhere within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed area

Fees: None

Equipment Needed: Projector & Screen for a PowerPoint Presentation

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • State of the Bay and How the Bay is Doing
  • Bay-friendly Landscaping
  • Oyster Gardening/Restoration
  • Maryland environmental legislative priorities at the state level
  • Science and biology of the Chesapeake Bay

COSKREN, DENNIS

Contact Information:

410-381-7344

coskrenj@gmail.com

Distance: 100 miles

Fees: $100

Equipment Needed: Computer

Virtual: No

Programs:

  • Maryland’s Himalayas – how habitats are influenced by the geology of an area
  • Birds and Natural History of Northwestern Mexico
  • Birds and Natural History of Ecuador
  • Birds and Natural History of Northwestern Peru
  • Birds and Natural History of Costa Rica
  • Birds and Natural History of Panama- Birds and Natural History of Kenya

CURSON, DAVID, PHD – Director of Bird Conservation, Audubon MD-DC

Contact Information:

410-558-2473 (office), 410-675-4963 (home)

david.curson@audubon.org

Distance: Anywhere in the state

Fees: Donation to IBA Program welcomed.

Equipment Needed: Has own computer and projector. Only needs a screen.

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Audubon’s Salt Marsh Bird Conservation Initiative
  • The Important Bird Area Program in Maryland and DC
  • The Brown-headed Cowbird – a conservation challenge

DERRICKSON, MR. KIM

– Professor Department of Biology, Loyola University Maryland

Contact Information:

410-617-2197

kderrickson@loyola.edu

Distance: 120 Miles one way

Fees: Negotiable

Equipment Needed: PowerPoint & Projection Systems; can bring his own if

necessary.

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Playing Dr. Doolittle: Understanding Bird Song and Social Behavior

ELLISON, WALTER

Contact Information:

410-778-9568 home, 410-778-6576 office, 410-708-8089 cell

rossgull61@gmail.com

Distance: 200 miles round trip

Fees: $50

Equipment Needed: PowerPoint projector, screen

Virtual: Unknown

Programs:

  • Twenty Years of changing Birdlife: Results of the 2002-2006 MD-DC Atlas Project
  • The History of Ornithology and Birding – Form, Function and Bird Identification

GEMMILL, DAPHNE

Contact Information:

202-546-3624 up until 10PM 
dgemmill@mac.com

Distance: One hour from DC

Fees: Mileage

Equipment Needed: Can bring  own projector if necessary.

Virtual: No

Programs:

  • Birdlife of Vieques, Puerto Rico as Told by Old Field Nots
  • Southeast Asia, Birds, Culture, and Food
  • Zanzibar to Lake Victoria: An Unforgettable Tanzanian Wildlife Safari
  • The Challenges of Birding the G’s in West Africa (Gabon, Gambia, & Ghana)
  • Follow “Our” Birds to the Greater Antilles (Jamaica, Hispaniola, Cuba & Puerto Rico)
  • Midway Island, One of the Newest Birding Destinations
  • Birding the Four Corners of South Africa/New Frontiers in Birding S. Africa
  • The Birds of Midway Island in the Hawaii Island Chain
  • Wildlife Viewing Opportunities Beyond the (fill in the local area): The Flora and Fauna of our National Forests
  • Madagascar: A Conservation Challenge
  • The Shearwaters of Rhum, Scotland
  • Sound Recording Darwin Finches, the Galapagos Islands
  • Banding Snow Geese on the Tundra in Manitoba–What did We Learn?
  • The Birds of the Falkland Islands, S. Georgia and Antarctica
  • Birds of the New Zealand Subantarctic
  • The Shy Albatross: Two Weeks on a Very Small Albatross Island off Australia
  • Birding at the End of the Earth, Attu, Alaska
  • Banding Warblers in the Bahamas
  • Earthwatch Ornithological Expeditions
  • Birds of High Altitudes and Latitudes
  • Birds of Remote Tropical Islands

HARRIS, CLIVE

Contact Information:

301-320- 9769

clivegharris@yahoo.com

Distance: check w/Clive

Fees: none

Equipment Needed: He will bring a PPT file and need a computer & projector.

Virtual: No

Programs:

  • Gull ID

HARVEY, DAVE

Contact Information:

410-795-3117

tangara@comcast.net

Distance:

Fees: Negotiable – up to the host club

Equipment Needed: Computer and Projector

Virtual: No

Programs:

  • Big Bend, Texas
  • Bosque del Apache, New Mexico
  • Peru- Southern England
  • Southern Spain
  • Mallorca
  • Birding in Turkey
  • Chile   2015
  • Thailand    2016
  • India   2018
  • Scandinavia    2016
  • Colorado   2017
  • Borneo

HERSHBERGER, WILBUR

Contact Information:

wilhershberger@mac.com

Distance: – any distance

Fees: $75

Equipment Needed: Large Screen

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Songs of Insects
  • A Celebration of Bird Song
  • Nature Sound Recording – Why and How (includes a discussion of Cornell Lab developments)
  • Vesper Sparrow Song Project

JACKS, LINDSAY

Contact Information:

256-493-7393

lightsoutbaltimore@gmail.com, lightsoutbaltimore.org

Distance: No restriction

Fees: Donation to Lights Out Baltimore

Equipment Needed: Projector and Screen

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Saving Birds One Building at a Time
  • Saving Birds One Building at a Time (for younger audiences)
  • Creating a Community Based Monitoring Program
  • Impacts of Light Pollution
  • Pollination 3 B’s: Birds, Bats and Bees

JETT, GEORGE

( See also BREWER, GWEN )

Contact Information:

gmjett@verizon.net

Distance: Any MOS Chapter

Fees: Compensation for travel and, if possible, dinner, or a good bottle of Scotch.

Equipment Needed: LCD Projector

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • The Big Picture – My big photo year in 2008 – A fund raiser for the American Bird Conservancy. See article in May/June 2009 issue of Yellowthroat for details.
  • Ethiopian Adventure
  • A Snapshot of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX – Going Digital
  • Out of Season, Out of Range Hummingbirds – recaps the historical information of generally winter hummingbirds with images. How to attract and feed them, etc.
  • I’m Number One – Maryland’s first records with pictures and a story about the bird. How to document the first records and get the message out
  • An Abridged Natural History of Southern Maryland

JETT, GEORGE & GWEN BREWER

( See also JETT, GEORGE and BREWER, GWEN )

Contact Information:

gmjett@verizon.net, 3wigeons@verizon.net

Distance: Any MOS Chapter

Fees: Compensation for travel and, if possible, dinner, or a good bottle of Scotch.

Equipment Needed: LCD Projector

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Conservation and Birding in Columbia
  • Winter Birding in Arizona
  • Bats, Birds, and Things of Trinidad
  • Birds and Bats in the Brazilian Amazon
  • Cuba 2011 – Culture and Natural History
  • Gambia & Senegal – Culture and Natural History
  • Grand Argentina and Chile
  • Ghana, west Africa

KEARNS, GREG – Park Naturalist Patuxent River Park

Contact Information:

301-627-6074

greg.kearns@pgparks.com

Distance: Will discuss

Fees: Honorarium for gas preferred

Equipment Needed: None

Virtual: No

Programs: Too many to list all. Contact Greg for details.

  • Of Rice and Rails: A Report on Rail Populations at Jug Bay and the Importance of
  • Wild Rice
  • Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.
  • South Africa
  • The Pantanal and Brazil
  • Galapagos
  • Ospreys on the Patuxent – 35 years of research, population trends, and study
  • Banding and Telemetry Studies Using Motus on Fall Migrant Soras on the Patuxent River, Jug Bay, Md   2017 – 2020

MACKIERNAN, GAIL

Contact Information:

301-989-1828

katahdinss@comcast.net

Distance: 1 1⁄2 hours

Fees: Travel expenses reimbursed

Equipment Needed: Digital projector/laptop computer (can supply if necessary). For

some programs, Slide projector: Screen.

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Bhutan
  • Uganda
  • Philippines
  • Ethiopia
  • Madagascar
  • Panama

MCCANN, JIM – DNR, Natural Heritage Program, Frostburg, MD

Contact Information:

301-689-7105

james.mccann@maryland.gov

Distance: Statewide, depending on audience and time of year

Fees: Not required. Honorarium can be donated to Natural Heritage Program

Equipment Needed: none

Virtual: No

Programs:

  • Ecology and Conservation of Freshwater Mussels
  • Dragonflies and Damselflies
  • Forest Interior Bird Conservation
  • Rare, Threatened and Endangered Animals

MESSERSMITH, DR. DONALD

Contact Information:

301-890-1952

dmesser28@icloud.com

Distance: Unlimited

Fees: Variable

Equipment Needed: Will bring his own projector.

Virtual: No

Programs (call for additional programs):

  • Changes in Birding in China over 25 Years
  • Birding and/or Natural History in Australia
  • Birding and/or Natural History in China
  • Birding and/or Natural History in Europe
  • Cruising for Birds in Antarctica Waters
  • Birding in the Falkland Islands
  • Birding in the Cook Islands
  • Birding in Southeast Brazil
  • Insects of the World
  • Natural History of Belize
  • Natural History of the Galapagos Islands
  • 70 Years Finding & Studying Birds: My Life as a Naturalist
  • Venezuela is For the Birds
  • Wildlife of East (or South Africa) Africa
  • The Big Trip – A 22,000 mile Cross-country Birding Trip
  • Cuba
  • Pribilof Islands, Alaska

MILLENSON, JANET

Contact Information:

(301) 983-9337

janet@twocrows.com

Distance: Not specified

Fees: Not specified

Equipment Needed: Laptop plus digital projector for the PowerPoint program.

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Three Centuries of Birds – Artists and writers before Audubon

OMLAND, KEVIN – (PhD) Associate Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, UMBC

Contact Information:

301-332-7749 (Cell, preferred) 410-455-2243 (phone) 410-455-3875 (fax)

omland@umbc.edu

Distance: Anywhere in the state

Fees: None

Equipment Needed: Can provide his own computer & PowerPoint Projector

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Conservation Biology of the Bahama Oriole
  • Comparison of Tropical and Temperate Orioles
  • Evolution of Female Song Across Songbirds

SCARPULLA, GENE

Contact Information:

301-464-3861

ejscarp@comcast.net

Distance: statewide

Fees: none

Equipment Needed: laptop and projector; tables for displays

Virtual: No

Programs:

  • Native Bees of Maryland

SCALLION, MARK

Contact Information:

410-770-4585

mark.scallion@audubon.org

Distance: Check with Mark.

Fees: Payment for mileage if location is off the Eastern Shore.

Equipment Needed:

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Pickering Creek

SCHWARZ, KURT

Contact Information:
410-461-1643  – home, 443-538-2370 cell

krschwa1@verizon.net

Distance:  Happily within 1-2 hour drive. Will consider farther.

Fees: none

Equipment Needed: Projector for PowerPoint

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Trogons and Mot-Mots: A February 2008 Trip to the West Coast of Mexico around San Blas. Mangroves, Mountains and Beaches.
  • Aimophila Adventures: Most birders travel to southeast Arizona to seek such showy birds as Elegant Trogon and Flame-colored Tanager. Howard Bird Club Member and MOS Conservation Chair Kurt Schwarz spent the summer of 2009 in the region, and did look for such birds, but he also took time to study those little brown jobs that make Maryland sparrows appear downright gaudy. Kurt will show uncharacteristically in-focus pictures of many of Arizona’s specialties such as Scott’s Oriole and the ultimate LBJ, Botteri’s Sparrow.
  • Cape May Capers: Kurt will show just why Cape May is a wonderful and rich birding destination, and also discuss the many birding locales in Cape May and nearby counties.
  • California Dreaming’: From Mono Lake to Big Sur via Yosemite.  Up close and personal with California Condor.
  • The DMV’s Kaliedescope of Bird Life:  Birds of Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Intended for beginners.

VAN VELSIR, GARY

Contact Information:

410 544-7971  858-356-9160 – for the winter, 433-381-8770 cell

gvanvelsir@msn.com

Distance: 150 miles

Fees: If possible, dinner, or $50 to defray expenses

Equipment Needed: Can provide his own projector & screen if necessary.

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • Travel: Birding Trip to Australia
    • Birding Trip to Costa Rica
    • Birding Trip to China
    • Birding the Low Countries (Europe: Belgium, France and the Netherlands)
    • Birding Magee Marsh and Point Pelee (Ohio and Ontario)
    • Birds and Orchids: New Hampshire and The Gaspe Peninsula
    • Organ Pipe National Monument (Includes Cabeza Prieta NWR, Arizona)
  • California:
    • Birds of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Sonny Bono NWR (near the Salton Sea)
    • Birds of Solana Beach and San Elijo Lagoon
    • Alpine Wildflowers of the Sierras (I, II and III)
    • Alpine Wildflowers of Northern California
    • Desert Wildflowers of California (I and II)
    • Carrizo Plain National Monument (Wildflowers and Birds)
  • Maryland:
    • Maryland Breeding Birds
    • Warblers and other Neotropical Migrants
    • Maryland Wildflowers
    • Native Orchids of Maryland
  • Birding:
    • Hummingbirds (Eastern US, Western US, Costa Rica and Ecuador)
    • Western Warblers and other Neotropical Migrants
  • Orchids:
    • Native Orchids of North America
    • Native Orchids of Maryland

WATSON, MARCIA

Contact Information:

301-464-3170

marshwren50@comcast.net

Distance: Statewide

Fees: mileage

Equipment needed: Possesses own laptop; need digital projector, screen, small table or

podium for the laptop.

Virtual: Yes

Program:

  • Mountains to Saltmarsh: The MOS Sanctuaries

WINEGRAD, GERALD (Former State Senator and Policy Director for American Bird Conservancy)

Contact Information:

410 280-8956

gwwabc@comcast.net

Distance: Will discuss; depends on schedule at time of request.

Fees: $150-$250 depending on distance

Equipment Needed: laptop, digital projector and screen

Virtual: Yes

Programs:

  • 50 Years of Fighting for Birds and Other Wildlife: My Life in Politics and with American Bird Conservancy
  • Horseshoe Crabs, Red Knots and other Shorebirds: One of Nature’s Great Phenomena and Efforts to Conserve the Horseshoe Crab
  • The Amazing Wildlife of Madagascar and the Urgent Need for Conservation (From a Trip)
  • Expedition to the Artic: The Amazing Birds, Walrus, Polar Bears and Whales of Svalbard
  • Eco-expedition to Costa Rica—400 Birds Species including Resplendent Quetzal and Three-wattled Bell Birds
  • Communication Towers as Deadly Threats to Birds: How to prevent Avian Mortality at Towers
  • Eco-expedition to South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana: Amazing Birds and Wildlife Adventure
  • The Decline of the Chesapeake Bay and What Needs to be done to Restore the Bay.
  • Wind Energy and Birds: Threat or benefit to Avian Species?
  • Back from the Precipice of Extinction: The Fascinating Story of Efforts to Save the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike
  • Pesticides and Birds: The Remarkable Story of International Cooperation to Prevent the Poisoning of Thousands of Swainson’s Hawks in Argentina from Pesticide Poisoning and the Death Toll for Birds of Commonly Used Pesticides.