Team Sapsucker
2012 Team Members
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Chris Wood, Team Captain Chris became a member of Team Sapsucker in 2006 when he joined the Cornell Lab as eBird Project Leader. Chris has run Big Days in several states and he can't wait to head back to Texas for what he hopes will be the biggest of Big Days. His ability to read traffic, tides, and turnpikes and how they relate to bird activity will be key in crafting a productive route through Texas. Chris will focus his identification skills on the Texas Coast and the amazing diversity and numbers of birds that pass through this incredible part of the world. He can't wait! |
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Andrew Farnsworth Flight-call Research and Migration Studies, Conservation Science ProgramAndrew began birding at age five and has traveled extensively throughout the Americas and Europe leading tours part-time for VENT since 1995. He is no stranger to birding and birdathons in Texas: Andrew lived in Texas in the mid-1990s, and he and Marshall won the Great Texas Birding Classic in 1998 and 1999. Andrew joined the Conservation Science Program at the Lab in January 2007, studying flight calls of migrating birds, advancing acoustic monitoring techniques, and forecasting bird migration as part of the BIRDCAST project. He is particularly excited for this year's big day because the envisioned 2012 route was conceived on the day before last year's recording breaking run and has great potential for more birds and more fun (but less barbecue). |
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Jessie Barry Jessie is thrilled to be heading to Texas this spring! She was introduced to competitive birding as a teenager and was ecstatic to accomplish her dream of setting the national Big Day record with Team Sapsucker in 2011. This is Jessie's fourth year as a Sapsucker and sixth time running a Big Day route in Texas. She is excited to try their new route, ending the day on the Upper Texas Coast, where she will put her expertise with waterbirds to use while birding the Bolivar peninsula. Jessie joined the Lab in 2008 working in the Macaulay Library. In 2011, she shifted gears and began working with the All About Birds team, leading a new project called Merlin. Merlin is an interactive bird ID tool in development that will use artificial intelligence and eBird observations to help people identify birds.
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Marshall Iliff After several years leading tours for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, Marshall joined the Cornell Lab in 2007 as one of the eBird Project Leaders. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two dogs and is looking forward to the team's return to Texas. Prior to joining the Sapsuckers in 2008, Marshall spent a decade honing his Big Day skills in competitive birding events (including six World Series of Birding) from California to Maryland and Texas to New Jersey, often with Andy Farnsworth or Brian Sullivan as co-conspirators. In 1998 and again in 1999, Marshall and Andy competed in the three-day Great Texas Birding Classic, winning the event both times. The goal of that event was a cumulative three-day list rather than a high one-day list, but they found it so easy to break 200 species that they both have had their eyes on the larger goal of an all-time record U.S. Big Day ever since. Far too many late-night planning sessions had been devoted to the notion of breaking the U.S. record, so they were thrilled to set a new National Record with Team Sapsucker in 2011. As in 2011, in 2012 Marshall will work with Tim Lenz to design streamlined morning run through the desert and Hill Country at the peak of dawn chorus. With more than a hundred key species and just three hours of daylight to get them all before heading east, they will have their work cut out for them. Marshall is again ecstatic to be making this attempt with the Sapsuckers, teammates that promise not just great camaraderie but also birding wizardry on this year's Texas Big Day. |
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Tim Lenz eBird Programmer Tim came to the Lab in 2004 and is a programmer for the eBird project. He can often be seen in the halls with a scope slung over his shoulder, heading outdoors for lunchtime birding. He spent his undergraduate years at Cornell and also earned his master's degree there in computer science. As a native Nevadan, but also a hardcore east-coast birder, Tim is super excited to be doing the big day in Texas this year. |
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Note: Longtime team member and eBird leader Brian Sullivan is taking a big day break this year to welcome the birth of his first child--that's a really big day! Congratulations Brian! |
