Dr. Gayle Kraus teaches Marine Mammals and Pelagic Birds, Oceanography, Ichthyology, Invertebrate Zoology, Ornithology, Skeletal Preparation, General Ecology, and occasional special topics in wildlife rehabilitation at University of Maine/Machias. Gayle and her students participate in the Marine Mammal Stranding Network involving whales, dolphins, and seals. She and her students maintain fresh and saltwater aquaria; have started culturing corals; and monitor local zooplankton communities, amphibians, and toxic algae. She is a compiler for Audubon Christmas Bird Count and incorporates censusing techniques into her work. She and her students have built and maintain two labyrinth gardens.
Bill & Sallie Satterthwaite
Bill and Sallie are birdwatchers from Concord MA/Harborside ME who love this area and the opportunity to help other people get to know it. Pike Lands is one of their favorite spots. Sallie also serves on the Festival planning committee.
Woody Gillies
Woody Gillies has had an interest in birds since his mother introduced him to backyard birding at an early age. When he was in junior high, he tagged along with his older brother who was taking a field ornithology course in college. Woody is a retired Professor Emeritus from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY where he taught chemistry for thirty-five years. He was a member of the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club and Massachusetts Audubon and presently is president of Fundy Audubon, a local chapter of Maine Audubon. Woody has birded in the Canadian Maritimes, Central America, Australia, and Europe. He has been interested in nature photography most of his adult life and has photographed birds wherever his travels take him. In 2017, he did a Washington County Big Year with a year-end total of 199 species.
Susan Cline
Susan Cline has lived on Campobello Island all her life. Since a young child, she has been curious about the natural world around her. Since 2006 Susan has been a summer employee at Herring Cove Provincial Park, enabling her to continue expanding her knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Island. Since 2012 she has particularly focused on identifying birds and learning their songs and behavior.
Sandi McRae Duchesne
Sandi Duchesne likes nothing better than an adventure in the Maine woods—even during the height of black fly season. She spent many memorable summers working as a wilderness camp counselor and a Registered Maine Guide for whitewater rafting, and her midlife career change to civil engineering and planning has allowed her the privilege of being paid to explore the length and breadth of Washington County. Sandi has been active in many environmental and active-lifestyle organizations in Maine, including many years as a board member and officer of the Penobscot Valley Chapter of Maine Audubon.
Maurry Mills
Maurry is a Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and has been stationed at the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge since 1985. He is one of the original founders of the Downeast Birding Festival and has served on the planning committee since the first festival. During his 42+ year career with the national wildlife refuge system, he also has worked at the Rachel Carson Refuge in southern Maine and the Great Swamp Refuge in New Jersey. He is the state coordinator for the annual American Woodcock Singing Ground Survey and the Breeding Bird Survey. One of his specialties is geospatial technology, he is responsible for maintaining databases and reports, and generating maps for the Northern Maine Refuge Complex using GIS and GPS computer programs.
Maurry has been watching birds and other wildlife since the early 1970s. Although his primary interest is in migratory birds, he has also worked with mammals, herps, vernal pools, forest, wetlands, and grassland management, and public education and outreach. He was the handler and care giver for Bart, a permanently injured bald eagle for 15 years. During that time he visited all the grammar schools in Washington County and other events throughout the state of Maine, presenting programs on the history and life cycle of the bald eagle. One of his current assignments is writing and editing portions of Moosehorn’s Comprehensive Conservation Plan which will guide the refuges course of management over the next 15 years. He currently resides with his wife in Dennysville along the Dennys River. During the first few years of his life he lived on a family farm on land that is now part of the Great Swamp NWR’s Wilderness Area.
Marion Bates
Marion is a forest ecologist and has been an avid birder for over 40 years. She spends much of her free time learning new ways to identify and describe bird vocalizations. She also studies the habitat preferences of eastern Maine’s birds. Marion has been leading tours and doing local breeding bird surveys since 1998.
Fred and Linda Gralenski
Fred and Linda Gralenski left their secure jobs and home in the Boston area (Fred was a project engineer for Raytheon Missile Systems and Linda was a medical secretary at Mass General Hospital) and attained their dream in 1988 by building a log home on the shore of Cobscook Bay on land that they could almost afford. They had been involved with nature even before they got here with MA and NH Audubon societies, and they continue; with birds, amphibians, reptiles, and Lepidoptera being their favorites. Mammal study, botany, photography, and other entomology are not far behind. In her spare time Linda is heavily involved with hospice and the Board of Directors of the Calais Regional Hospital, and along with Fred, puts in many hours a week at the Pembroke Library. Fred is president of the Pembroke Library, vice-president of the Pembroke Historical Society and writes the Quoddy Nature Notes column for the Quoddy Tides newspaper.
Colin Brown
Colin Brown is the Development and Outreach Manager at Downeast Lakes Land Trust in Grand Lake Stream. He moved to Downeast Maine in the Summer of 2010. After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 2005, he spent many years working as an environmental educator and is an avid naturalist. He is passionate about connecting people to the natural world and creating new outdoor experiences. Colin lives in Pembroke and enjoys hiking, camping, kayaking, and spending time with his family.
Chris Bartlett
Chris has been exploring the shores of Cobscook Bay since 1989 and is interested in all aspects of nature in the area. As field staff for the University of Maine Sea Grant Program, he has conducted numerous research and educational programs on marine ecology including seabird studies. Chris and his family live in Eastport, where he enjoys birding year round.
Captain Butch Harris
Born and raised in Eastport, Captain Harris has been a seafaring man all his life - as a fisherman, boat builder, and boat captain. Butch has fished for lobsters, scallops, and urchins, has worked in the farmed salmon business, and has been taking fishing parties out to sea for decades. During the summer, he captains the Sylvina Beal, a three-master schooner, for bird watching, whale watching, and dinner cruises in the bay. Butch also has built both wooden and fiberglass boats, and recently completed a large two-masted schooner, the Haley Matthew, which he captains for 2-3 day cruises.
Captain Andrew Patterson
Captain Patterson has operated Bold Coast Charter Company, a birdwatching and sightseeing boat tour operation out of Cutler Harbor, over the past 27 years. Andy has extensive knowledge of the coastal Maine and Bay of Fundy marine environment, and of its seabirds and marine mammal inhabitants. Captain Patterson also volunteers time and resources each season to assist with area seabird restoration and research.
Bob Duchesne
Bob Duchesne became interested in birds in the first grade. Interest grew to passion and today Bob is currently President of the Penobscot Valley Chapter of Maine Audubon, and serves as a State Trustee. Bob is a frequent field trip leader for Audubon, and now operates his own guiding service with his wife, Sandi. Together, they have led trips from Atlantic Canada to the Florida Everglades. He spearheaded creation of the Maine Birding Trail, which launched in 2009, and is the author of Maine Birding Trail: The Official Guide to More than 260 Accessible Sites.
Amy Zipperer
Amy is an aspiring amateur botanist who is especially partial to herbs edible, medicinal, or otherwise closely intertwined with our human existence. She works as an emergency room nurse and parents two feisty children. Spending time with plants and with those who are similarly smitten is one of her favorite activities.