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Chris Wood, Team Captain
eBird Project Leader
Chris joined the Sapsuckers in 2006 when he signed onto the Lab staff as eBird project leader. Chris, along with Brian and Marshall, are the eBird project leaders, collectively known among their colleagues as the Three-headed Monster. They are constantly pushing each other to expand eBird and push the limits of bird identification. Chris has run Big Days in several states and he can't wait to head back to Texas! He's confident the team will find some awesome birds and have a great time doing it, while raising vital funds for eBird and the Cornell Lab's conservation programs.
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Brian Sullivan
eBird Project Leader
Before joining the Lab, Brian spent a dozen years doing fieldwork on birds all across North America, as well as taking expeditions to Central and South America and the Arctic. Brian joined the Sapsuckers in 2005.
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Andrew Farnsworth
Flight-call Research and Migration Studies, Conservation Science Program
Andrew began birding at age five, traveling extensively throughout the Americas and Europe and 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 using radar and acoustic methods to forecast bird migration.
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Jessie Barry
Merlin Project Leader
Jessie is thrilled to be heading to Texas this spring! She was introduced to competitive birding over ten years ago and has had her sights on the national Big Day record for years. This is Jessie's third year as a Sapsucker and fourth time running a Big Day route in Texas. Jessie joined the Lab in 2008 working in the Macaulay Library. She recently shifted gears and started working with the All About Birds team, leading a new project, Merlin, developing an interactive bird identification tool. |
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Marshall Iliff
eBird Project Leader
After several years leading tours for Victor Emmanuel Nature Tours, Marshall joined the Cornell Lab in 2007 as one of the eBird Project Leaders. 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 have been devoted to the notion of breaking the U.S. record! Marshall is 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 a little lunchtime birding. He spent his undergraduate years at Cornell and also earned his Master’s Degree there in computer science. One of Tim’s favorite birding spots is in Nevada where he grew up, but he loves looking for birds wherever he happens to be. He has been a Big Day scout in previous years and this will be his third year on the team. |
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