Event registration is required for all participants wishing to sign up for field trips.
Welcome Reception, Keynote Speakers, Seminars and Kiskadee Kordial are all included in your registration. Please sign up for the activities you wish to attend.
Birder's Bazaar (tradeshow) and family and children's activities are available to the public for free.
Whitney Lanfranco
"Optical Clarity: The Right Binocular for You"
Thursday
2:00 PM-3:00 PM
Whitney Lanfranco from Land Sea & Sky will walk you through the ins and out of optics you can use for birding and beyond. There are many different manufacturers and models, all built to serve certain needs. Find out more about the latest technology, questions to ask when optic shopping, what optics might work best for you, and learn how to get the out most of the optics you already have.
Whitney Lanfranco is a long-time birder and binocular user. She went from ecotourism to the optics industry in 2020 first as the National Sales Manager for Leica Sport Optics and is now the Birding and Nature Manager for Land Sea & Sky.
Devin Johnston
"Birding for Native Bees: Enjoying the Little Things"
Friday2:00 PM-3:00PM
Insects are ubiquitous and despite having over 4,000 species in a rainbow of colors, the native bees of North America remain underrated and under documented. Butterflies, dragonflies, and beetles reign supreme in the world of insect enthusiasts, while the love of bees generally begins and ends at European Honey Bees. Nestled in flowers or zooming past with a loud buzz, native bees can be a rewarding photography subject. In the Rio Grande Valley alone there is estimated to be as many as 800 species of native bees, many of them undescribed by scientists.
Hunting for native bees can be a fun adventure to complement any nature activity. Hiking, birding, or even a family trip to a local park can offer great little moments to snap a quick photo of native bees. Not only is bee hunting a way to fill in spare time, but uploading photos to online databases can help scientists conducting native bee research.
Explore the colorful world of Rio Grande Valley bees with Devin Johnston, a professional beekeeper and hobbyist “bee bother-er”. She spends her weekdays working to remove feral honey bee colonies from homes and commercial properties but enjoys hiking to document native bees on the weekends.
Jeff Bouton
"Digiscoping Big Year.
Quest to photograph over 1,000 bird species through a spotting scope!"
Quest to photograph over 1,000 bird species through a spotting scope!"
Friday
3:30PM-4:30 PM
From bird biologist and bird guide to optics professional with Kowa Sporting Optics, Jeff Bouton has been in the industry for over 35 years - writing articles, speaking and guiding and pioneering digiscoping techniques since the early 90’s.
He first tracked digiscoped year birds during the pandemic and captured images of 518 bird species in 2021. Working at various birding events in 2023, he broke his own record in just over 4 months and jokingly quipped, “I wonder if I can double this by year’s end?”
Join Bouton as he recaps chasing the elusive 1,000th digiscoped year bird in this entertaining talk!
Amar Ayyash
"Man & Gulls – A Complex Relationship"
Friday
6:00PM-7:00PM
Of all the world's “seabirds”, gulls are the most visible to humans, gaining admission into our most immediate surroundings. Often approached with apprehension, gulls have earned a love-hate relationship with many birders, and they're sometimes perceived as 2nd class avian creatures. But among these larids are some of the most coveted bird species in the world, presenting us with an interesting juxtaposition. Amar Ayyash will take us through an entertaining and intriguing journey of their natural history, along with some of their less known adaptations and quirky behaviors.
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 website anythinglarus.com, administers the Facebook group “The Gull Guide: North America”, and is often found speaking at birding events and leading trips throughout the continent. Much of his free time is dedicated to traveling the world to photograph and study gulls. Ayyash has published a number of articles on gull identification, distribution and molt, and is the author of the upcoming book, The Gull Guide. Amar lives in northern Illinois where he teaches mathematics.
Evan Farese
"The Effects of Urbanization on Gray Hawks in the Lower Rio Grande Valley"
Saturday
2:00 PM-3:00 PM
Urban development has the potential to negatively impact wildlife, including birds of prey, which occupy higher trophic levels. As urban development continues to expand, it is important to understand how species will react to novel environments to predict how they will fare in the future. The Gray Hawk (Buteo plagiatus) is a neotropical raptor whose range extends north into the subtropical latitudes of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of extreme south Texas. The LRGV is one of the fastest growing regions of the United States; the population of the area doubled between 1980 and 2013. Though the Gray Hawk is a widespread raptor, there is a dearth of information about the species,especially regarding its use of urban habitats and its ecology in the subtropical part of its range.
This study aims to investigate three central questions related to urban dwelling
Gray Hawks:
Gray Hawks:
(1) Does Gray Hawk nest success differ in urban areas compared to rural areas?
(2) Does Gray Hawk diet differ in urban areas compared to rural areas?
(3) Do ambient temperatures at Gray Hawk nest sites differ between urban and rural areas?
This study provides the first in-depth look at Gray Hawk diet outside of Arizona and is one of the first to investigate the species in an urban setting.
Evan moved to south Texas to study raptors. Originally from California, he initially came down to help study the nesting ecology of White-tailed Hawks. Now he is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
His current research focuses on our local population of Gray Hawks and how they are affected by the rapid urbanization taking place here in the Valley. Specifically, Evan is monitoring the success of nesting attempts in urban versus natural areas as well as potential differences in diet.
Evan worked a number of field jobs prior to moving to Texas, highlighted by opportunities to work with Golden-cheeked Warblers in central Texas, Capuchin Monkeys in Costa Rica, and Greater Sage-Grouse in California. He also spent time in Montana counting migrating raptors and spending two years as an outdoor educator at Glacier National Park. Evan, who currently works as an associate guide for Nature Ninja Birding Tours, is always excited to share the birds he’s come to know so well in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, as well as lead tours that take him farther afield.
Ruth Hoyt
"A 25-year Romance with the Rio Grande Valley"
Saturday
3:30 PM-4:30 PM
Ruth Hoyt studies birds, but not the way most folks do! She arrived in the Valley 25 years ago as a participant in a six-months-long wildlife photography contest and ended up staying. She fell in love with the south Texas thorn scrub, wildlife, local people,
and—of course—the variety of birds.
and—of course—the variety of birds.
Through her photography, take a peek into the secret lives of birds such as the green jay, great kiskadee, and other Valley specialties. She focuses on their subtle behaviors and antics that you might not notice if you are birding or hiking along a trail. Ruth will share some of her favorite stories and photos about what she noticed and how she captured astonishing, unanticipated images.
Kenn Kaufman
"The Texas Birds That Audubon Missed"
Saturday
6:00 PM- 7:00 PM
Kenn Kaufman burst onto the birding scene as a teenager in the 1970s, hitch-hiking all over North America in pursuit of birds—an adventure later chronicled in his cult-classic book Kingbird Highway. After several years as a leader of birding tours worldwide, he transitioned to a career as a writer, editor, and illustrator. Most of his energy currently goes into book projects and painting bird portraits. His 14 books include his latest, The Birds That Audubon Missed, published in May 2024. Kenn is a field editor for the National Audubon Society, a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society, and the only person to have received the American Birding Association’s lifetime achievement award twice.
The Texas Birds That Audubon Missed
In 1837, shortly after the Republic of Texas gained independence from Mexico, John James Audubon paid a visit here. His goal was to discover new subjects to paint for his monumental Birds of America. But he didn’t find a single new species—a remarkable result, considering what we know now about Texas birdlife. What were the reasons? In this talk, based on a chapter from his most recent book, Kenn Kaufman will discuss the early days of Texas bird study, and how that history relates to birding, travel, and discovery in our own time.
