Matt Belanger
David Bonter (Vice President)
Linda Boutwell (Secretary)
Betsy Brooks
Mark Deutschlander (President)
Richard Marks
Cindy Marino
David Mathiason
Robert McKinney (Treasurer)
John Waud

Membership Committee: Chita McKinney (chair), Linda Boutwell, and Bob McKinney.
Development Committee: Matt Belanger (chair), Mark Deutschlander, and Richard Marx.
Education Committee: Linda Boutwell (chair), Patricia Lovallo, Cindy Marino, Bill Michalek, and Doris Waud.
Research Committee: David Bonter (chair, Cornell Lab of Ornithology), Betsy Brooks (Braddock Bay Bird Observatory), Mark Deutschlander (Hobart and William Smith Colleges), Kristi Hannam (SUNY Geneseo), Sara Morris (Canisius College), Chris Norment (SUNY Brockport), John Waud (Rochester Institute of Technology).
Merchandise Committee: Ruth Stork (chair), Patricia Lovallo, and Cindy Marino.
House, Building, and Grounds Maintenance Committee: David Mathiason (chair), Betsy Brooks, Chris Gates, and Doug Smith.
Gardening Sub-committee: Kelly Dockery, Virginia Duffy, Chris Gates, and Carol Southby.
House Sub-committee: Linda Boutwell and Cindy Marino.
Communications Committee: John Waud (chair), Matt Belanger, David Bonter, and Jeanne Skelly.

  

Elizabeth (Betsy) Brooks, Master Bander, Board Member

Betsy has held a Master Permit since 1975, after serving as a sub-permittee on Donald Clark's permit. Until 1985 she was strictly a backyard bander in Alfred NY. In 1985, she began occasional banding at the Kaiser-Manitou Beach (K-MB) site and since then has done intensive banding at K-MB during the spring and fall migration seasons. Altogether, Betsy has banded over 80,000 birds. During the rest of the year, she conducts Breeding Bird Censuses on two plots near Alfred, one of which she has done every year for 33 consecutive years. In addition to participating in two Fish & Wildlife Breeding Bird Surveys each June, Betsy has documented over 6500 nests for the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's North American Nest Record Card Program. She has completed seven years of a study documenting nesting success or failure of birds on a 50-acre Christmas tree plantation in Allegany County. She and her husband travel in the southwest during the winter. She is a Past President of BBBO, Past President of the Eastern Bird Banding Association, editor of the Spring and Fall Atlantic Flyway Review published in North American Bird Bander, and an alternate representing EBBA on the North American Banding Council. She is an NABC Certified Trainer, and has taught a Bander Training Course to 81 students.  
  

David received his Ph.D. from the University of Vermont School of Natural Resources in 2003, using data collected at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory in his dissertation. David received grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The Nature Conservancy, and the Great Lakes Research Consortium to fund migration monitoring and radar studies of migration throughout the Great Lakes basin.  He works at the Cornell Lab or Ornithology, where he is in charge of a continent-wide bird monitoring program, Project FeederWatch. He is currently Vice President and Director of Research of BBBO, a faculty member at Cornell's Shoals Marine Lab, and Vice President of the Association of Field Ornithologists.
 

Linda Boutwell has been a volunteer at the Kaiser Manitou Beach banding station since 2003, and successfully participated in the Spring 2004 Bander Training Course. Professionally she co-founded the not-for-profit Migration Research Foundation, which specializes in scientific studies of at-risk and endangered avian and mammalian species. After leading the US-Canadian organization for 5 years as Executive Director, she now serves as the Treasurer and head of all US projects and programs. Linda spent the first 20 years of her career in the financial services industry. In her spare time, Linda enjoys wildlife-friendly gardening, birding, and photography.

Mark received his Ph.D. in Zoology in 1998 from Indiana University, where he specialized in Animal Behavior and minored in Neuroscience. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in nearby Geneva, NY. Mark’s research over the past 12 years has focused on sensory aspects of migration and navigation, particular the use of visual cues and the earth’s magnetic field in animal orientation. He has conducted experiments on a wide variety of organisms including salamanders, trout, hamsters, and, of course, birds. His research repertoire extends from field studies to behavioral and neurophysiological experiments. Mark’s research interest in birds and migration began while he was an undergraduate student with Dr. Robert Beason at S.U.N.Y. Geneseo, where Mark and Bob studied the magnetic sense of bobolinks. He has also studied magnetic navigation in Australian silvereyes, as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Technology in Sydney. Mark is currently President for BBBO and has held a sub-permit since 2002. He will bring new research initiatives to the observatory as he explores the orientation mechanisms in warblers and the ultraviolet reflectance patterns in the plumage of North American passerines. For more information on Mark’s professional activities, please visit his home page at http://people.hws.edu/deutschlander/.

Jon began birding in 1995, and in the spring of 1998 he completed a bander training course under Betsy Brooks at the Kaiser-Manitou Beach station. Since then he has been a volunteer at K-MB each spring and fall. Jon received his subpermit in 2001. He is also active in the Rochester Birding Association, where he serves on the Board and as membership chairman.
 

Erin started banding as a volunteer for C.J. Ralph in Northern California in 1992. After graduating from Humboldt State University, she moved to Oregon where she worked as a wildlife biologist for the Bureau of Land Management in Roseburg, Oregon, monitoring threatened and endangered bird (and other) species and helping to manage MAPS efforts. Since moving to New York she has traveled to band on Bon Portage Island in Nova Scotia, banded at BBBO since spring 2001, and started two MAPS stations. Erin was certified as a NABC Trainer in October 2004. 

Ryan Kayhart , Sub-permitted Bander

Ryan Kayhart became interested in birds when he watched Cardinals at his feeder in Vergennes VT. In the spring of 1999, Ryan came to BBBO with Rodney Olsen’s science class from Middlebury, VT. In the spring of 2001 Ryan took his first bird out of a mist net (a Least Flycatcher). Ryan was a volunteer intern for BBBO by 2002, and by 2004 he was a paid intern. Ryan received his banding sub-permit in 2006 and he is now Research Assistant at BBBO. During the summer Ryan runs a MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) Station at Dead Creek Bird Observatory in Addison, VT. Ryan also enjoy Banding in his backyard and his favorite bird is a Scarlet Tanager. Ryan is also the staff photographer at BBBO.

Cindy's interest in birds began after a trip to Braddock Bay Hawkwatch in 1997. She visited Braddock Bay Bird Observatory for the first time in Spring of 1998 and has been a volunteer since the Fall of that year. She took the bander training class taught by Betsy Brooks in Spring of 2000 and received my sub-permit in Spring 2003. In Fall of 2003, Cindy attended a week long banding workshop at Powdermill Banding station in Pennsylvania. Cindy has operated a MAPS station in Penfield, NY since 2003. When not involved in birding/banding activities, Cindy enjoys reading, quilting, knitting and spending time with family and friends.

David Mathiason, Sub-permitted Bander, Board Member

David has been at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) since 1983, where he taught undergraduate statistics courses until his recent appointment as Honors Program Director. His interest in bird banding and related research is relatively new. He became involved with Braddock Bay Raptor Research prior to visiting BBBO and learning how to band birds. He now bands on the RIT campus with John Waud. When asked what he hopes to bring to the organization, David wrote, “If I’m able to influence the future direction of BBBO it will be to expand our educational effort (I’ve been a teacher for too long). The more people know about birds, and the more appreciative they are about our environment, the better off our world will be.”

Bob McKinney has been a bander since 1950 under federal permit 6848. In addition to banding in the Manitou Beach area since 1960, he does a great deal of banding at his home in Penfield NY, just outside Rochester. He also does banding for the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) project at a site in the Finger Lakes hill country, and does some banding in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York in spring through fall. Each fall, for the best part of two weeks, he bands birds on the New Jersey shore. Current research projects include a study of the rate of skull pneumaticization of song birds, a study of site fidelity of nesting Bank Swallows, and a study of plumage changes of Cedar Waxwings. Bob is Treasurer of BBBO and a Councilor and past Secretary of the Eastern Bird Banding Association.

David Semple, Sub-permitted Bander

David became a sub-permittee in 1999 after being a very active volunteer at the main banding station for several years. He has worked hard to improve efficiency at the station, and assisted in the establishment of the Hamlin Beach station. David has served as a member of the Board of Directors.
 

Sue received her sub-permit in spring 2000. As a graduate student working with Dr. Chris Norment at SUNY Brockport, she conducted research at the Kaiser-Manitou Beach research station for her Master's thesis on migratory restlessness of fat vs lean Swainson's Thrushes and White-throated Sparrows.
 

John is the Director of Environmental Science at Rochester Institute of Technology. John is a long-time naturalist and birder. He has served in a variety of conservation positions including Chair of the Board of Trustees for Central and Western NY Nature Conservancy, Chair of Monroe County Environmental Management Council, Research Committee of Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, and Board member of the Great Lakes Research Consortium. John took the bander training course under Betsy Brooks in 2000 and received his sub-permit in 2002. John is currently involved in two research projects with RIT students. One project involves developing aging criteria for Brown Creepers. The second project is investigating the age distribution of migrants along major geophysical features.

Martha became a sub-permittee in 1999 and has been involved in both bird and bat research for many years. She has served our Board as Director of Development, Webmaster, and Newsletter Editor.