FEATURED SPEAKERS
Pete
Dunne
When he was seven years old, Pete was presented with two instruments
that would define his life. One was a pair of binoculars; the other a
book--a book about birds. One brought intimacy with the nature, the other
understanding, and through them the woodlands behind his suburban home in
Northern New Jersey became a portal that opened onto a world of discovery
and wonders.
Now 58, Chief Communications Officer for New Jersey Audubon Society and Director of the Society's Cape May Bird Observatory, Pete uses his talents and energy to make the natural world real for others. Through books like BAYSHORE SUMMER, PRAIRIE SPRING; PETE DUNNE ON BIRDING; THE WIND MASTERS; HAWKS IN FLIGHT, PETE DUNNE’S ESSENTIAL FIELD GUIDE COMPANION; regular columns that have appeared in Birding, Winging It, Bird Watcher's Digest, Wild Bird, Birder's World, American Birds, Living Bird, the "New Jersey Sunday Section of the New York Times and frequent speaking engagements in the United States, Canada and abroad, he weaves information, insight and even fantasy into a net that captures minds and hearts.
A field birder with an international reputation, he has served on the board of the American Birding Association and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. An authority on the optical needs of birders he has been a marketing and product advisor to Nikon, Zeiss, Leica, Leupold, Swarovski Optik, Swift Instruments, Bausch and Lomb, and other companies.
As involved as he is with New Jersey Audubon's communications outreach and programming, Director Dunne makes time to lead an every Monday morning bird walk and, in season, to assist with the Cape May Hawk Count--the count he inaugurated in 1976. He has been singled out as “the person who put Cape May on the Map”–fixing it in the minds of birders, world-wide, as one of the premier birding locations on the planet.
He is also the founder of and a 27-year veteran of the World Series of Birding. Called "The Worlds Greatest Natural Treasure Hunt," the annual event attracts approximately 100 teams and has raised over $7 million dollars for assorted conservation initiatives.
In recognition of this event, and for “life time achievement” Dunne was awarded the American Birding Association’s Roger Tory Peterson Award in 2001. Other awards include the EPA Environmental Protection Award, Governor’s Conference on Tourism Environmental Award and the 1991 Winchester Good News Hunting Writer’s Contest 1st prize.
When not working, writing, or traveling Dunne spends his free time with wife Linda birding and exploring the natural areas near their hometown of Mauricetown, New Jersey.
Kevin
Karlson has been a wildlife photographer for 30 years and active
as a birder for 32 years. He has traveled from the wilds of the Alaskan
Arctic to the rainforests of South America to photograph birds.
As a noted wildlife photographer in North America, his work is widely published in numerous birding magazines and journals, as well as books, field guides, calendars and CD-ROM’s. In 1999, Tidemark Press published Kevin’s own calendar titled “Birds of the Arctic Tundra”, which was endorsed by the American Birding Association. He worked closely with Peter Thayer in creating the CD-Rom “The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Guide to Birds of North America” as head ornithologist, photo researcher and submitter of almost 800 photos.
Kevin is currently on the advisory board of Wild Bird Magazine as well as a staff contributor of the column Birder’s ID. Additional contributions include writing feature articles. He is a former photo editor of North American Birds, an ornithological journal of ABA. Besides photography, Kevin authors various articles on birds, from advice on good locations to see and photograph them to insights on natural history and field identification. He is a co-author of an innovative book called “The Shorebird Guide” (Houghton Mifflin Publishers, April 2006), which stresses an exciting and different approach to field identification based initially on physical impressions rather than feather analysis. It contains 894 photos, with many showing comparisons of similar species or different plumages of the same species in real life settings, and is one of the top selling nature guides in today’s market.
Kevin and his wife, Dale Rosselet, are completing a new book for Houghton Mifflin Co. in the Roger Tory Peterson Reference Series titled Birding by Impression. This book explains how to enhance traditional field mark ID skills with impression based field observations, and how to apply these combined ID skills to all bird families. Publication is expected in 2012. Kevin’s new photography book, Birds of Cape May NJ, was released in July, 2010. This celebration of almost 30 years of living near Cape May is accompanied by over 400 stunning bird and wildlife images, which are explained with interesting natural history captions and personal accounts.
Mr. Karlson spent the summers of 1992-95 working for Troy Ecological Research Associates as a wildlife biologist in the Alaskan Arctic, participating in research and census studies of the birds that use this fragile habitat. His photo collection from this region is one of the best in the world.
Kevin is a regular participant on the Birding Symposium and Festival circuit as a keynote speaker and workshop presenter. Recent venues include both spring and fall Cape May Birding Festivals, the Everglades Birding Festival in Florida, Central Valley Bird Symposium in California, Rio Grande Bird Festival in Harlingen Texas, Featherfest in Galveston, TX, Florida’s Space Coast Festival, and the Copper River Shorebird Festival in Cordova Alaska. He is also a regular instructor at Florida’s Birding and Fotofest in St. Augustine in April.
Currently a resident of Cape May County NJ, Kevin is a retired 12-year member of the NJ Bird Records Committee and active in the Cape May birding community. He is the founder and president of Jaeger Tours, Inc., a small birding tour company (www.jaegertours.net) with an emphasis on the enjoyment of a total birding and nature experience.
