OUR LEADERS

LEADERS, GUEST LEADERS & CHUMMERS

Passionate, Knowledgable, Friendly & most of all, FUN!

A small portion of a flock of SOOTY SHEARWATERS!

It's messy out there!

It helps to have a leader, or two, or three!

Shearwater Journeys is proud of our assemblage of leaders, many of whom have worked with us for decades. All leaders are volunteers. They LOVE to find seabirds and share their knowledge with you. Our leaders are chosen for their friendliness as much as their knowledge. They are approachable and love to answer your questions, whether you are a beginner sea or advanced sea birder. Many of them have "regular" jobs not only in the biological field, but also in education and seabird conservation. Some are award-winning educators. Our leaders have written and illustrated many field guides. Of course, there's nothing more exciting for a leader than spotting a mega-rare seabird, but their first job is spotting all of the normally occurring seabirds (and marine mammals). This is why you'll notice that the leader often does not make eye contact with you during a conversation. Her eyes are focused on the horizon and seabirds! Make no mistake about that! 

STEVE N. G. HOWELL, above, will be co-leading the JUL. 31, MONTEREY & SEP. 18 CORDELL BANK & BODEGA CANYON trips in 2015. 

STEVE N. G. HOWELL is an acclaimed field ornithologist and prolific writer. He is an international bird tour leader with WINGS and a research associate at Point Blue Conservation Science in California. His books include Petrels, Albatross & Storm-Petrels of North America (2012), the Peterson Reference Guide to Molt in North American Birds (2010), Hummingbirds of North America (2002), A Bird-finding Guide to Mexico (1999), and A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America (with Sophie Webb). He is a world renowned expert on seabirds, and has spent over four years of his life at sea and encountered over 95% of the world's tubenoses. Interests beyond birds include butterflies, tequila and chocolate. He has a wicked sense of humor. Steve has been a leader with Shearwater Journeys for many decades.

STEVE ROTTENBORN, Ph. D., above.

Steve is an avian ecologist and wildlife biologist who has built an impressive professional career that is highlighted by a particular interest in wetland and riparian communities. He has contributed to 400 projects involving wildlife impact assessments. He has also conducted studies of shorebird use of agricultural fields, an assessment of habitat associations and population dynamics of colonially nesting birds, and a study of partitioning among members of an oak woodland foraging guild. Steve is a Principal at H.T. Harvey & Associates, Ecological Consultants. He has a Ph.D. from Stanford Univeristy and a B.S. from the College of William and Mary. 

TODD MCGRATH, above. 

Todd is a very popular bi-coastal pelagic trip leader. He is the co-author of the 2005 monograph Pelagic Birding in the Southern California Bight and the 2010 scientific paper, The Occurrence and Identification of Leach's Storm-Petrels off Southern California. He is extremely knowledgable about identification, status and distribution of marine mammals as well. Now, residing in Texas, he still manages to fit pelagic birding trips in on both the East and West coasts, including Southern California. Todd is an excellent photographer who has traveled to Antarctica, South Georgia & the Falkland Islands with Shearwater Journeys. He has been a leader with Shearwater Journeys for many decades. 

SCOTT TERRILL, Ph. D. will be teaching a workshop, "Pelagic Bird Identification" for the Monterey Bay Birding Festival on Friday, September 25; 3:30 - 5 p.m.

Scott is an internationally recognized ornithologist with extensive experience in avian ecology and behavior; he has made major contributions to the study of bird migration and movements. 

Scott is a Vice President and Principal at H.T. Harvey & Associates, Ecological Consultants. He has a Ph.D. from the Stte University of New York, an M.S. and B.S. from Arizona State University. He was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Germany. He served as Director for the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory for a decade, as well as serving 12 years on the California Rare Birds Records Committee. Highly qualified and completely down to earth, Scott has tremendous patience in explaining any aspect of ecology. 

Scott & Linda Terrill will be co-leading the following trips: JUL. 31, MONTEREY; AUG. 2 & 16 HALF MOON BAY; SEP. 12 ALBACORE; SEP. 26 MONTEREY. 

Scott & Linda served as leaders on Shearwater Journeys's charter voyage to Antarctica, South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and Weddell Sea, 2010. 

LINDA TERRILL, above. 

Linda is a life long birder and keen seabirider who has developed a strong interest in botany and photographing plants. She has been leading pelagic trips with Shearwater Journeys for nearly three decades. Together with her husband, Scott, they have observed seabirds off Alaska, New England, North Carolina, Florida, and west Mexico. Linda was an on board naturalist on Shearwater Journeys's 2010 charter Antarctica, South Georgia, Falkland Islands and Weddell Sea voyage. Linda has a bachelor's degree from Purdue University.  There is no place in the world Linda would rather be than on the bow of a boat — any boat! Her enthusiasm and eagerness to share the natural world with others is infectious.

BRIAN SULLIVAN, above, is an eBird Project Leader at Cornell Lab of Ornithology and photographic editor for the Birds of North America Online at the Lab. eBird is rapidly becoming the worldwide depository for bird data and conservation. Brian has written and consulted on various books, popular, and scientific literature on North American birds, and is co-author on The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors, and the forthcoming Princeton Guide to North American Birds. He has conducted fieldwork on birds throughout North America for the past 20 years. Brian has a passion for seabirds which has led him to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. Other birding travels have taken hi to Central and South America, and to the Arctic. He is a keen photographer and frequent speaker at bird festivals, and other birding events. His pelagic schedule for 2014 is flexible to allow for time with his family. Brian will be co-leading the JUL. 31 & AUG. 7 MONTEREY trips.

STEVE HAMPTON, Ph. D, above, will be co-leading the following trips: HALF MOON BAY: TBA.

Steve works for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife where he assesses injuries from oil spills and implements restoration projects in their aftermath. He has been involved in projects benefiting a wide range of California's seabirds from Marbled Murrelets in the Santa Cruz Mountains to Rhinoceros Auklets on the Farallon Islands to Cassin's Auklets in Mexico and Sooty Shearwaters in New Zealand. He has been birding since he was seven years old, has a passion for gull identification and a Ph. D. in Resource Economics. He is extremely knowledgeable and approachable. Ask him how the current breeding season for Marbled Murrelets is going locally!

TIM MILLER, above and below, is an all around naturalist who grew up in Pennsylvania, but moved to Santa Cruz, California five years ago. He is an graduate student and the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Tim specializes in birds, plants, herps and pollinating insects. He is currently teaching a class on plant taxonomy at UCSC. He is doing fieldwork in Colorado, but will return for the fall pelagic season soon. 

PETER PYLE, below, will be co-leading the following trips: HALF MOON BAY: AUG. 2; FARALLON ISLANDS: AUG. 9 (SOLD OUT) and OCT. 18 FARALLON ISLANDS GREAT WHITE SHARK TRIP (Spaces available); BODEGA BAY: SEP. 18. 

Peter is a staff biologist at the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP), where he has worked since 1996. Formerly, he was a biologist at Point Reyes Bird Observatory. He is a great white shark expert who has developed a new interest in bats. With a couple friends, he is hoping to set a North American Mammal Big Day on the August 3, 2014 Farallon Island trip! Peter has an extremely keen interest in seabirds and has taught three IFO workshops (Institute for Field Ornithology) with Debi Shearwater for the ABA (American Birding Association). 

Peter attended Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania during the 1970's while also working seasonally on the Hawaii and other Pacific Forest Bird Surveys. He first worked for Dave DeSante in 1980 when he did internships for PRBO's Palomarin and Farallon Island Landbird Program. In 1985 Peter became a biologist of the Farallon Islands, a post which he held until 2003. From 1996-2003, Peter split time between PRBO and IBP. Since 2003, he has been a full-time biologist at IBP, doing scientific research, writing reports and conducting bird banding workshops. Peter is also a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences and the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers, four books, and an on-line monograph of the Birds of Hawaii. Among bird bankers he is best known for his Identification Guide to North American Birds, Parts 1 and 2, which includes detailed criteria for aging and sexing all North American birds in the hand and the field. In 2011 he had the good fortune of describing a new species of seabird, BRYAN'S SHEARWATER, naming it after his grandfather. He has been a leader with Shearwater Journeys for many decades. 

STEVE TUCKER, below, will be co-leading the following trips: TBA.

Steve Tucker is a seasoned biologist who has spent much of the last 20 years birding obsessively. He is inspired by all birdlife, but has always held seabirds in especially high esteem. He has crossed whiskers with Whiskered Auklet, lounged among albatross in the shade for a noon siesta, and had the privilege of having an impossibly small Ancient Murrelet chick leap over his foot on it's daunting journey to the sea. Currently residing in Oakland, CA, he is grateful to be living a stone's throw from some of the best seabirding destinations in the country. Getting to see the joy on a birder's face when they get a life bird never gets old for him, and he hopes (and expects!) to see that a lot on our trips in 2014. Steve really wants to find you a Hawaiian Petrel this year, although any Pterodroma will make us all happy. He blogs regularly about all things birding at Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds.

JIM HOLMES, above, will be co-leading: TBA.

Jim is an Emergency Medicine physician at the UC Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento, California. He currently works in the UC Davis Medical Center Emergency Department, one of the busiest trauma centers in the United States. His academic interests are primarily focused on training junior investigators  in research methodology and studying the initial evaluation and treatment of children. 

Jim began birding at the age of 12 around his hometown of Mandeville, Louisiana. Despite growing up  along the Gulf Coast of the USA, he developed a love for seabirds following his first pelagic birding trip with Shearwater Journeys, September 1988. In 1994, he moved to California and has subsequently made many pelagic trips off the California coast. Jim also enjoys world birding and has spent may days at sea off Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Micronesia, Japan and Hawaii. He incorporates his medical career with his birding hobby by serving as expedition ship physician. He has also authored a paper on the medical requirements of passengers on expedition ships to Antarctica. He will serve as the ship physician on Shearwater Journeys's Birding Down Under Voyage, November 2014. 

CLAY KEMPF, below, AKA, Lt. Jaeger, affectionately known as "Lieutenant Jaeger," although some think that stands for "Long-tailed Jaeger."

Clay is Excecutive Director of the Seniors Council, a non-profit senior service organization operating in Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey and Santa Clara Counties. He has served as the president of numerous state and regional organizations, receiving a variety of accolades, especially in the areas of collaboration and specialized transportation. 

Clay really enjoys helping new birders improve their identification skills, but tries to remind birders of all skill levels to chrish and enjoy the grandeur of nature, be it the discovery of a mega-rarity, the spectacle of 100,000 Sooty Shearwaters filling the seas, or the simple beauty of a breeding Rhinoceros Auklet in perfect light. He has been co-leading trips with Shearwater Journeys for many decades. 

RICK FOURNIER, below, will be co-leading the following MONTEREY trips; TBA.

Rick has been an avid birder for over 30 years and has a full appreciation for all aspects of nature. For the past 19 years, he has owned and operated Monterey Birding Adventures, leading personalized and small group tours specializing in Central California and beyond. Rick leads field trips for local Audubon chapters and the Santa Cruz Bird Club. He has conducted extensive avian wetland monitoring of Elkhorn Slough for Moss Landing Marine Labs and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation. As a past bird banding associate for the Big Sur Ornithology Lab, he spent nearly 5 years working with their mist net program, monitoring avian productivity and survivorship of resident and neotropical migrants. 

JENNIFER GREEN, below, will be co-leading these 2014 trips: TBA.

If you have been on a pelagic trip with Jennifer, you'll recall how she often orients everyone on the boat with her handheld chart of Monterey Bay, showing the Monterey Submarine Canyon. Jennifer has been involved with seabirds and marine mammals ever since she spotted an Atlantic Puffin near the Isle of Shoals in New Hampshire. She has traveled to many far flung regions of the Earth including the High Arctic, Antarctica, New Zealand and Australia, in search of seabirds and other wildlife, not to mention, galloping across Mongolia! When not on boat trips, or birding elsewhere, she works as an occupational therapist. 

DAVE PEREKSTA, below. 

Dave is an avian biologist for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, where he studies and analyzes the effects of offshore oil and gas, and renewable energy development on birds and bats in off the Pacific coast. Throughout his career with various Federal and State agencies, he has studied several imperiled bits species including snowy plovers, piping plovers, least terns, ospreys, northern goshawks, brown pelicans, and spotted owls. He also assisted Cornell University in their searches for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas. Dave has been an avid birder for well over 30 years. He is a pelagic trip leader for the SoCal trips and on east coast trips. He is an accomplished bird photographer, as well. 

NICK LEVENDOSKY, below, will be co-leading Jul. 31, Aug. 21, Sep. 9, 10, 12, 25, 27 MONTEREY trips; HALF MOON BAY: SEP. 20. 

Nick  was first introduced to the idea of birding while taking a natural history and ecology course at Prescott College in 2001. Although he found this idea rather silly at first, the puzzle and game of identifying birds quickly piqued his interest and he was hooked. From that point on he has worked to transform from a casual birder to an intentional observer. Since moving back to Santa Cruz 6 years ago after obtaining a job with the San Jose Fire Department, Nicholas has devoted a significant amount of time getting into the field to "simply learn birds." He most appreciates the relationship between species and habitat — believing birding lends itself to building a sense of place and physical community around one's home. Nick has a BA in Environmental Policy with a minor in Outdoor Education. 

ABE BORKER, below.

Abe is a Ph.D. student and National Science Foundation Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research involves applying automated sensors to wildlife monitoring challenges. His focus has been on the efficacy of acoustic monitoring with seabirds because they represent a highly threatened and ecologically important group. Their colonial nature, sensitivity to disturbance, secretive nesting and patterns of nocturnal attendance make them very challenging to monitor. His research could  profoundly influence seabird conservation.  

Abe is a very fun guy— just look at the charming caricature of him above!

Abe has been photographing birds for 15 years. His first pelagic trip in 2009 on Monterey Bay with Shearwater Journeys opened his eyes to the joy of watching and photographing pelagic birds. He is continually amazed by the extreme life histories of seabirds, their ecological significance, and their dire conservation status. During the fall he can be found balancing research and leading pelagic birding trips with Shearwater Journeys. In 2014, he will voyage to Antarctica during the austral winter for the second time. Click here, to see some of his splendid images of seabirds, or Trip Report, for October 2, 2011 Half Moon Bay, and Trip Report, November 22, 2011. 

JIM DANZENBAKER, below.

Jim was born into a birding family. He grew up in southern New Jersey and was quickly introduced to birds, their breeding habits, migration patterns, and daily activities. He soon made his first pelagic trip off Virginia Beach, Virginia and has been hooked ever since. Forays off New Jersey, North Carolina, and Maine only strengthened his appreciation of all things pelagic. He moved to the west coast in 1987, and immediately became an active leader with Shearwater Journeys. He also added life birds, instantly, including HAWAIIAN and GREAT-WINGED PETRELS! Tropicbirds and the vast variety of marine life in the Monterey and Bodega Bay regions further hooked Jim. He ventured off on journeys to Antarctica and Japan. During this time, he began leading birding and wildlife tours to Guyana, Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela for Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris. Nevertheless, he is continually drawn to seabirding most often.  Jim lives in Battle Ground, Washington, and leads pelagic trips whenever he visits the central coast of California. He has a BS in finance. Birders who travel with Jim appreciate his friendliness, enthusiasm for finding wildlife, and willingness to share information

SOPHIE WEBB & her super-dog, Daiya, below. 

Sophie is a biologist and artist who has been studying and painting birds all her life, from the Amazon to the Arctic and Antarctica. She is the co-author and illustrator of A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America (with Steve Howell). Recently, she illustrated forty species of marine mammals for the Field Guide to the Marine Mammals of the Pacific Coast. Sophie is an award-winning author of three children's books which she wrote and illustrated: Looking for Seabirds: Journal from an Alaskan Voyage, Far from Shore: Chronicles of an Open Ocean Voyage and My Season with Penguins: An Antarctic Journal about studying Adelie Penguins in the Antarctic where she worked for five years. Sophie loves being on the ocean, having worked at sea in the Central Pacific, Eastern Tropical Pacific, Atlantic, Antarctica, Aleutians, Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. She is a director of Oikonos: Ecosystems Knowledge and a research associate of Point Blue Conservation Science and a part-time employee of NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. 

SOPHIE WEBB, below, is also an accomplished photographer. 

Forty of SOHPIE WEBB'S illustrations can be found in this new field guide.

SARAH ALLEN, below, author of the above field guide. She was a co-leader on our 2013 Farallon Islands trip, where she also help set the Mammal Big Day record for North America. 

Sarah Allen, a scientist with a federal environmental agency, has studied marine birds and mammals from the Gulf of the Farallones, California, to Antarctica. She is featured in an article, "Connecting the Dots for Pacific Marine Life," Bay Nature magazine. 

TOM JOHNSON, above and below. 

Tom Johnson grew up watching birds in central Pennsylvania. Interested in science and the outdoors from a young age, Tom became involved in a variety of field projects throughout his school years, including banding migrant landbirds and conducting point counts for the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas. He was fortunate to pursue undergraduate studies in biology at Cornell University, where he became even more excited about learning about systematics and migration while surrounded by the amazing ornithologists and birders of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Since graduating from college in 2010, Tom has spent much of his time studying seabirds off the east coast of North America, conducting line transect surveys from NOAA ships between Nova Scotia and the Bahamas. When he's not offshore, he loves to spend time wandering, taking photos, and searching for vagrants and hybrid birds.

Tom has long been interested in sharing his enthusiasm for exploring bird identification, distribution, and migration dynamics; he is a regional editor for North American Birds magazine and writes a regular column on identification for Birding magazine. Perhaps most of all, he loves sharing his passion for the natural world with others out in the field, and he's excited to have the opportunity to do this while leading for Shearwater Journeys.

JOHN GARRETT, above and below, is a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

He has been a leader and chummer with Shearwater Journeys for several years. 

JENNIE DUBERSTEIN, above, was a guest chummer with us in 2013. 

LEADERS chumming and checking their images. 

From left, TOM JOHNSON, ADAM SEARCY, JOHN GARRETT

MARISSA ORTEGA-WELSH, above, works as a naturalist and educator, co-ordinating education programs for The Golden Gate Audubon Society in the Bay Area. She has conducted bird surveys in California, Washington, and Alaska, working for such agencies at the U.S. Forest Service and the Institute for Bird Populations. 

COURTENAY RAY, above, will be chumming on the following trips: HALF MOON BAY: OCT. 5 & 12; MONTEREY: SEP. 28. 

Courtenay's fascination with birds took off in high school and was soon followed by a series of avian research positions in Washington, California, Arizona, Mexico and the Mariana Islands. She is currently a graduate student at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) where she is studying plant invasion in the Columbian alpine regions. 

ANNIE SCHMIDT, above, after she had recently defended her Ph. D. in 2013.

AL DE MARTINI, above.

Al worked for the Department of Fish and Game, Alaska on a salmon weir for many years. He knows a lot about salmon! He's a life-long, avid birder and graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. 

GERRY MCCHESNEY, above, works for U.S. Fish and Wildlife as the refuge manager of the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, part of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex. He has been involved with seabird studies and research for many decades since completing his MS. Current plans focus on restoring the Farallon Islands by eradicating non-native mice. Gerry will be co-leading: AUG. 9 & OCT. 18 FARALLON ISLANDS; SEP. 6 & 20 HALF MOON BAY trips.

DENA SPATZ, below, chatting with a sea birder, recently completed her MS at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Dena will be co-leading: HALF MOON BAY: OCT. 5 & 12.

Dena has a background in avian ecology and conservation. She is a graduate student in the Coastal Conservation Action Lab at UC Santa Cruz. Her research investigates the global distribution of threatened island species, focusing on seabirds, their threats, and conservation priorities on breeding islands. When not at school she enjoys birding, hiking, surfing and traveling. 

ADAM SEARCY, below, is a popular pelagic leader on many southern California trips.

He also leads for Shearwater Journeys,where he began his seabirding trips. 

MARY GUSTAFSON, below. 

Mary was a guest leader on several of our 2013 trips and will be returning to co-lead the following trips in 2015: . She is a popular bird trip leader who lives in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. She loves to bird and has been involved with the world famous Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival for many years. See her blog, Mary Birds,  here. 

JAMES P. SMITH, above, is a professional bird tour leader who originally hailed from Yorkshire, but now lives in the northeastern USA. He leads tours for the British bird company, Birdfinders, in the USA, and Gambia, India and Israel. James will be on board our September 16, 2015 Monterey Bay trip. His blog is Pioneer Birding. 

JERI LANGHAM, Ph. D., above, has been doing pelagic trips with Shearwater Journeys for nearly four decades.  He will be guest leading a VENT group on the AUG. 21 MONTEREY BAY trip. Jeri is a professional bird tour leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours. Jeri retired from California State University in Sacramento in 2008. He was a professor of biological sciences, and received not only the first Outstanding Teacher Award, but also the Outstanding Faculty Award, as well as other awards. He leads birding tours for VENT and private tours. What can we say? Jeri IS outstanding!

ABE BORKER & JERI LANGHAM celebrating a GREAT-WINGED PETREL which they spotted on the
August 26, 2011 Monterey Bay trip.
The very seabird, below! One of only a few records for North America, first documented on a Shearwater Journeys's August trip from Bodega Bay, 1998. Not only was that individual the first North American record, but the first NORTHERN HEMISPHERE RECORD!

GREAT-WINGED PETREL, image copyright, Abe Borker. 

The sea is full of surprises & delights! 

Our leaders are outstanding in every way! 

Jump on board with us!

Debi Shearwater