2019 FEATURED SPEAKERS
Doug Hitchcox, a Maine native, grew up in Hollis and graduated from
the University of Maine in 2011. The year he graduated, he travelled
to every corner of the state trying to observe as many species as
possible in what is known as a ‘Big Year.’ He ended the year having
seen 314 species in the state, a new record for Maine. Throughout
college Doug worked at the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center running
their store and leading walks and tours. Doug was hired as Maine Audubon’s
Staff Naturalist in the summer of 2013, a long time “dream job” for
him. In his free time, Doug is one of Maine’s eBird reviewers, owner
and moderator of the ‘Maine-birds’ listserv, York County Audubon board
member, and Secretary of the Maine Bird Records Committee.
Raymond VanBuskirk is a passionate birder, environmentalist,
and vegan whose love for feathered creatures (dinosaurs included)
was born in the mountains of the Land of Enchantment. His career experience
includes president of the Central New Mexico Audubon Society, owner
and lead guide of BRANT Nature Tours (www.BrantTours.com), researcher
in field and lab ornithology, ABA youth camp instructor and manager
of Redstart Optics. Since age seven Raymond's travels have taken him
to ten countries (he's only 28) where he has had the great privilege
of deepening his connection to the natural world through multi-cultural
outdoor exploration. His international travel experiences have not
only deepened his admiration for the natural world but have further
fueled his desire to protect it and share it with all generations
of humans.
Abby McBride is a sketch biologist and
Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow. She travels
globally to sketch wildlife and write stories. With degrees in biology
and science writing from Williams College and MIT, Abby took the obvious
career path and did some farming in Spain, took up nature illustration
in New York City, manned the helm of a lobster boat in downeast Maine,
bird-blogged across the western United States, studied siblicidal
boobies on an uninhabited Galápagos island, worked as a piano instructor
and pastry chef in western Massachusetts, wrote for the Cornell Lab
of Ornithology, did communications for Bowdoin College and the American
Ornithological Society, sketched icebergs in Iceland, sketched babblers
in Borneo, sketched giraffes in Kenya, and went bicycling across eastern
Europe. She recently returned from a year in New Zealand writing and
illustrating stories about seabirds for National Geographic.
Photo by Edin Whitehead
