Acorn Woodpecker,
Tony Beck

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
Email

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.

 

Tony Beck
Tony Beck is an accomplished photographer and international tour guide based in Ottawa, Canada. Tony joined us for our May Point Pelee trip, offered with Quest Nature Tours. For Quest and a number of other companies he has led tours to Canada¹s great natural history destinations, as well as Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica, Belize, Hawaii, and others. An avid birder and photographer; Tony's enthusiasm for all aspects of natural history is contagious! He will join Peg to co-lead our Blue Ridge / Smokies trip (Oct. 8-15) and the 2007 South Texas / High Island Texas journeys (April 3-11 and April 15-21).

 

Alan Craig
Alan Craig, a native of Idaho, became an incurable birder when a flock of Evening Grosbeaks invaded an olive orchard near his 8th grade classroom. After earning a degree in wildlife conservation at U.C. Berkeley, he spent 10 years in the Navy, birding and banding whenever possible from the North Atlantic to Kodiak, AK and San Diego. Later, Alan was a wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish & Game; he also served as editor of Western Birds for too many years. In a moment of weakness, Narca Moore-Craig agreed to marry him in 1980. Since then they have enjoyed many birding adventures on seven continents.

 

P. D. Hulce
P. D. Hulce joins Naturalist Journeys, LLC as an instructor/guide for our Sky Island Field Seminars. P.D. brings a great depth of knowledge and a personable style to all his guiding and teaching. He is a past president the Houston Audubon Society, was the first president of the Butterfly Enthusiasts of Southeast Texas, and is a life member of the Texas Ornithological Society and the American Birding Association. He has birded extensively in the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Hungary, Russia, China, and Australia. He and his wife Melinda are building a solar-powered home, in Portal, AZ. In 2007 P.D. will lead our popular AZ Winter Birds of Prey Seminar (Feb. 1-4).

 

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. In 2007 Dave will lead the Sonoran Desert Spring journey (Mar. 17 ­24) and be a local guide for part of our Southeast AZ Spring journey (May 10-19).

 

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. Narca will co-lead our fall 2006 Utah trip; she and her husband, Alan Craig, will lead the 2007 Belize trip (Feb. 1-10).

 

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. In 2007 she will lead our Nature of Southern Costa Rica trip (Jan. 15 ­25), the Southern New England Coast trip (Mar. 3-11), and will co-lead the spring Big Bend journey (April 28-May 6).

 

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. Doug will guide our 2007 Hawaii adventure (March 17-31).

 

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. Gail joins us in 2006 for our Black Hills & Badlands journey (Sept. 30 ­ Oct. 7).

 

Greg Smith
Greg Smith is in his final year of a 27-year career with the California State Park System. Formerly a park ecologist, Greg is now a superintendent of eight park units, focusing on education on the importance of preserving natural and cultural resources. Greg has birded on all seven continents and has led natural history and birding tours in California, Alaska, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and Antarctica. An avid wildlife photographer, he also maintains a U.S. Master Bird Banding permit. Greg, who lives in Morro Bay, CA with his wife Karen, will co-lead the 2007 Death Valley / Mohave Desert journey (March 3-11) and lead the California: Sierras to Seacoast journey (Sept. ­ Oct., dates TBA).

 

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. In 2008, they join Naturalist Journeys to lead tours to Patagonia and the Amazon.