Naturalist Journeys
Small Group Birding and Natural History Tours
PO Box 16545, Portal, AZ 85632
520-558-1146; (toll free) 866-900-1146; (fax) 520-558-1142
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Peg Abbott
Peg Abbott is the owner and lead guide of Naturalist Journeys, LLC. She has been designing, guiding, and organizing natural history tours for more than 25 years, working for the National Audubon Society and other organizations before launching Naturalist Journeys, LLC in 1998. Her work has taken her from Alaska to Africa and Argentina, as well as many other locations around the world. She has conducted research on several bird and mammal species and keeps a close interest in Yellowstone and Mexican wolf reintroduction projects. Her interests include all aspects of natural history and geology. After 20 years in and around the Yellowstone area, Peg relocated in 2003 to the birding mecca of Portal, AZ.
Photo credit: Gordon Neish

 

Willy Alfaro Cervantes
Artist and photography enthusiast Willy Alfaro has been guiding natural history and birding trips in Costa Rica, Cuba, the East Coast of US and Panama since 1992. In January of 2004, Willy went as a naturalist expert to Chile, including Patagonia and Easter Island with the University of Delaware.

When not guiding, he is an active lecturer and educator, having led biology workshops for the University of Costa Rica and for the University of Delaware’s Horticulture Program in Costa Rica.

His interest in birding has inspired active participation in the Costa Rican Ornithological Association, for which he has been on the Board of Directors since 1997. With the association and other organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, Willy has participated in several taxonomy projects, documenting bird species and migration patterns of Costa Rica’s avifauna.

Willy has also volunteered for the Costa Rican Biodiversity Institute (INBio), La Selva Biological Station, and has organized guide training workshops EARTH Agricultural College.

Soft spoken, with a gentle disposition, Willy says his love of nature and science began at 6 yrs old when his father bought him an encyclopedia on Natural History. His interest in Biology bloomed in college, following a field trip to Braulio Carrillo National Park. After the trip, Willy began volunteering for the INBio herbarium and for a project studying the diet of the Scarlet Macaw in Carara National Park. He has also worked on a hummingbird-feeder project to find out the ecological impact on hummingbird populations.

A former student of Marketing, Today Willy is dedicated to ecotourism and to developing a database to map and study the populations of the birds of Costa Rica.
Photo credit: Peg Abbott

 

Bob Behrstock
Bob Behrstock is a nature photographer, writer and tour leader living in SE Arizona. He has led birding and nature tours for nearly 30 years, primarily in North and Latin America. He has compiled Christmas Bird Counts in Mexico and participated in biological surveys including the development of birding and wildlife trails in several different states. As a full-time tour leader, he birded throughout the U.S., many countries in Latin America, and in the Old World. Besides taping and photographing birds in many countries, butterfly and dragonfly photography have taken him to all corners of the U.S. and several parts of Mexico. Bob has authored or co-authored nearly 50 popular and scientific papers concerning fishes, birds, dragonflies, and butterflies in the U.S. and Latin America, and prepared several of the family accounts for The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior. His bird and insect photos appear in books, newspapers, and magazines including: Audubon, Smithsonian, Birding, WildBird, American Butterflies, and the Handbook of Birds of the World. He is a co-author of Birdlife of Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coastand Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail and has just finished an introductory guide to Southwestern dragonflies. Bob enjoys birding with tour participants of all skill levels and is equally happy pointing his spotting scope at other creatures. www.naturewideimages.com

 

 

Wynne Brown
To her parents' horror, Wynne Brown's first career goal was to be a herpetologist. However, Life had other ideas for her, and instead she is a writer, editor, graphic designer, poet, and photographer based in Portal, Arizona -- an ideal home for an avid naturalist. Her background is a mix of biology, scientific illustration, and communications; her work has appeared in numerous books, journals, and in periodicals including Popular Science, Western Horseman, Arizona Highways, and many newspapers, as well as online venues such as DiscoveryHealth.com, DesertUSA.com, and EnvironmentalNewsNetwork.com. In addition, she has developed multi-media science materials ranging from 5th-grade environmental science activities to tutorials in neuroscience for medical students.

She has taught writing, illustration, design, computer graphics, sustainable living, and horse management to learners of all ages, and she brings enthusiasm, humor, and compassion to every group.

She's the author of two award-winning books: More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Arizona Women and The Falcon Guide to Trail Riding Arizona, both published by Globe Pequot Press. You can find out more about Wynne at her website: www.wynnebrown.com.

 

 

Dan Donaldson
Dan Donaldson is an accomplished naturalist-birder based in Northeastern Ohio.  Dan has developed his skills while working as a naturalist for a local park district for 15 years as well as with his full-time job as director of the local soil and water conservation district.  With varied audiences from novices to experts, Dan incorporates much more than just identification in his tours and programs. Dan led tours for Discovery Tours and this is where Peg and Dan met.  His specialization in birding locales ranges from the Great Lakes to coastal destinations from the Maritime Provinces of Canada to the Florida Keys.

Dan has led a number of historical tours including Michigan’s lighthouses.

 

Robert Gallardo
Butterfly, orchid and bird authority of Honduras. An avid naturalist from childhood, Robert left his native California to join the Peace Corp, finding a passion for tropical nature on arrival in 1993. Author of publications, checklists and a new book on the Lago Yojoa. Built and runs La Chorcha Eco-Lodge and Enchanted Wings Nature Center with his wife, Irma, adjacent to Copan, the World Heritage Site. Vice President Honduras Ornithological Society.

 

 

Dave Jasper
Dave Jasper hails from Wisconsin, where he began birdwatching when he was four years old. For 16 years he has lived in Portal, AZ and guided birders visiting the town and nearby Cave Creek Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains. On his property he maintains a bird feeding area that is open to visitors ­ to date his feeders have attracted 218 species. Dave has led tours in the western U.S. and Mexico for a number of companies and non-profit organizations. He has also conducted numerous avian and botanical research projects for the U.S. Forest Service and other government agencies.

 

 

 

Kirk Kempter
Kirt Kempter is a field geologist, teacher, and photographer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has conducted numerous tours and geologic expeditions around the world, from Antarctica to Iceland.  Kirt received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study an active volcano in Costa Rica for his dissertation project.  In recent years he has published numerous geologic maps and academic articles related to the geology of the Colorado Plateau and Rio Grande rift boundary in northern New Mexico.  He is an avid photographer as well, and his innovative images, many of the areas we visit on the New Mexico: Geology in the Land of Georgia O’Keefe journey, can be found at www.geomosaics.com

 

 

Narca Moore-Craig
Narca Moore-Craig has always harbored a passion for exploring the wilds and sharing what she discovers through art. For 18 years, Narca has led natural history and birding tours to six continents, for clients including the Smithsonian Institution and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. A past president of Western Field Ornithologists, Narca also conducts research on birds of the New Mexico¹s Gray Ranch, not far from her home in Portal, AZ. Her award-winning art has appeared in numerous books, including A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert and A Birder¹s Guide to Southeastern Arizona.

 

Gina Nichol
Gina Nichol is a naturalist, guide, and the owner of Sunrise Birding, LLC, a birding and wildlife tour company based in Connecticut. She began leading tours for National Audubon¹s Travel Odysseys program in the early 1990s to destinations including Greenland, Scotland, Baja California, and the Pacific Northwest. More recently, she has led tours in Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, central India, and Kenya. She has studied animal behavior and animal tracking methods at the Yellowstone Institute in Wyoming and has participated in research on Mountain Lions and Eurasian Otters.

 

Ed and Seliesa Pembleton
As Aldo Leopold said, “There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”  Ed and Seliesa Pembleton count themselves among those who cannot.  The couple delights in introducing children and adults to the wonders of the natural world.  For over 30 years as educators, naturalists and conservationists the Pembletons have lead field trips to explore landscapes, celebrate wild things and marvel at the annual gathering of more than 500,000 Sandhill Cranes along the Platte River in Nebraska. As a 14-year employee of the National Audubon Society, Ed was instrumental in directing national and worldwide attention to the river and the cranes.  As director of the Leopold Education Project, he promoted Aldo Leopold’s philosophy of land ethics.  An accomplished photographer, Ed’s pictures appear in books and national magazines. Seliesa has written wildlife books for children, worked at the Smithsonian Institution and for 10 years was director of environmental studies at Hard Bargain Farm, an outdoor education facility on the Potomac River.  She has been invited to Japan several times to teach environmental education “American style.”  The couple enjoys birding, hiking, gardening and canoeing. They look forward to sharing their expertise on rivers and prairies on upcoming Naturalist Journey’s adventures.

 

Doug Pratt
Doug Pratt is currently the curator of ornithology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. An expert in island biogeography and speciation, he has co-led our journeys to Hawaii, the Galapagos, and Fiji. Being a native of Charlotte, NC, Doug also helped plan our 2005 journey to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Doug blends his research interests with writing, photography, and artwork: he has authored or illustrated 10 books, and his bird illustrations are familiar to many through the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America.

 

 

Gail Richardson
Gail Richardson is from Bozeman, MT, where she is a freelance guide and an avid conservation and political activist. An excellent naturalist and historian, Gail has led tours in Yellowstone, the northern Rockies, and the Southwest for over two decades. She was one of the first women to work as a winter snowcoach driver in Yellowstone National Park. In recent years she and her husband John have taken up scuba diving, traveling to many of the world¹s most enchanting islands and archipelagos. Gail has helped Naturalist Journeys, LLC design a number of trips, including those to Honduras and Fiji. She has a particular love of the canyon country of Utah, as her relatives helped discover and describe many of the early archeological sites for the Pueblo cultures, including Mesa Verde.

 

Greg Smith
Greg Smith has birded and searched out nature's wonders on all seven continents and has led natural history and birding tours in California, Alaska, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and Antarctica. He is recently retired after a 27-year career with the California State Park System. Formerly a park ecologist, Greg was a superintendent of eight park units, focusing on education on the importance of preserving natural and cultural resources. An accomplished wildlife photographer, he also maintains a U.S. Master Bird Banding permit. Greg plays an integral part in planning and administration of Naturalist Journeys. As our WEST COAST REPRESENTATIVE; he has designed a number of itineraries in California, Baja, Oregon and Washington. He lives in Morro Bay with his wife Karen.

 

Drs. Howard Topoff and Carol Simon
Drs. Howard Topoff and Carol Simon have been study leaders on natural history trips for over 20 years. Both are formerly professors at the City University of New York and Research Associates at the American Museum of Natural History. Howard Topoff has spent 40+ years researching the social behavior of animals. His field research has been conducted in Central and South America, Africa, and in the deserts and mountains of Arizona. In addition to his publications in scientific journals, his more popular articles have appeared in magazines such as Scientific American and Natural History. His research has been featured on National Geographic Television, and Scientific American Frontiers. Carol Simon is broadly trained in ecology, behavior and evolution. Her research on the social behavior of reptiles has taken her to many areas of North and Central America. Her current field research on reptile behavior is based in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. As an added bonus, Carol and Howard provide multimedia presentations that provide in-depth insights into the natural history of the regions visited.

Meredith Taylor
Meredith Taylor is an award-winning conservationist, educator and owner of Taylor Outfitters of Dubois, WY. For over 30 years, she has worked with many organizations, schools and agencies in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, to successfully guide a bold conservation vision. Retired, she enjoys traveling, teaching, writing and conducting research on the prehistoric cultures and wildlife of Greater Yellowstone.

 

 

 

Raymond VanBuskirk
Raymond VanBuskirk is a biology and Spanish student at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He has been birding since he was seven, seriously birding since 12. He’s currently involved in science and conservation throughout  New Mexico, serving on the Board of Directors of the Central New Mexico Audubon Society.  He’s led field trips for several  New Mexico  Audubon groups, the Rio Grande Bird Research group and various bird clubs visiting Arizona and New Mexico.  He spends considerable time in near snowy summits of the Sandia Mountains, studying three species of Rosy Finches as part of a long term project their basic ecology.

Raymond participates in Christmas Bird Counts and Breeding Bird Surveys in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.  Summer research includes the nesting ecology Gray Vireos at Kirtland Air Force Base and White Sands National Monument, hummingbird banding, Yellow-eyed Junco banding, and surveys of Burrowing Owls.  His goal is to do research and be active in conservation biology in Central and South America.   

Woody Wheeler
Woody Wheeler is a master birder, a certified interpretive guide and owner of Conservation Catalyst, a birding and natural history firm based in Seattle, Washington.  He has worked for The Nature Conservancy, Audubon, Seattle Parks Foundation, as a naturalist and tour leader.  He holds degrees in Environmental Education and Geography.  Woody is a skilled interpreter and educator with special expertise in birds.  To augment field experiences, he is a natural story teller and a former teacher.  His approach is inclusive; he enjoys working with diverse groups of people, and likes to combine physical activity with nature study.   He inspires people to appreciate nature and to have fun along the way.