Keynote Speaker and Welcome Speaker for 2012

Tickets for speaking events below can be purchased without the online registration fee.
They are available for purchase at We Frame It.
Prices: Welcome Address $25 and Keynote $35.

Keynote Speaker Paul Bannick - The Owl and the Woodpecker

Paul Bannick is excellent for people who are not even birders, as well as for expert birders. Paul's work can be found in bird guides from Audubon, The Smithsonian, Stokes, The National Wildlife Federation, and in the Handbook of the Birds of the World. His work has been featured in a variety of publications from Audubon, Sunset, Birds and Blooms, Pacific Northwest (two cover stories), Seattle Times, Alaska Air Magazine, and in many other books, magazines, parks, refuges, and other outlets in North America and Europe. He has appeared on dozens of NPR stations and programs, including Travels with Rick Steves and BirdNote.

Paul is a wildlife photographer specializing in the natural history of North America with a focus on birds and habitat. Coupling his love of the outdoors with his skill as a photographer, he creates images that foster the intimacy between viewer and subject, inspiring education and conservation.

Links to videos featuring Paul Bannick
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46228719
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46228248

Paul Bannick Wins Prestigious Audubon Magazine Photography Award
With his winsome photo of a Northern Pygmy Owl gazing from its snug cavity in an aspen tree, Paul finished first among professional photographers in the category of Birds and Their Habitat. Paul’s winning photo was selected from among thousands submitted from across the world. See Paul’s photo, and other winners, here.

The Owl and the Woodpecker

Every wild place and urban area in North America hosts an owl or a woodpecker species, while healthy natural places often boast representatives of both. The diversity of these two families of birds, and the ways in which they define and enrich the ecosystems they inhabit, are the subject of this presentation by photographer and naturalist Paul Bannick.

This presentation based on The Owl and the Woodpecker showcases a sense of these birds’ natural rhythms, as well as the integral spirit of our wild places. Based on thousands of hours in the field photographing these fascinating and wily birds, Bannick evokes all 41 North American species of owls and woodpeckers, across 11 key habitats. By revealing the impact of two of our most iconic birds, Bannick has created a wholly unique approach to birding and conservation.

Paul’s presentation on owls and woodpeckers take audiences on a visual and auditory exploration of habitats of North America through the owls and woodpeckers that most define and enrich these places. This photographic field report celebrates the ways the lives of these two iconic birds are intertwined with one another and their role as keystone and indicator species for their environment. You will be immersed in the sights and sounds of forest, grassland, arctic, and desert, and in the entertaining and informative details of Paul’s narrative. The hidden life of these birds is obvious for those who know how to find it. Paul knows how to find it, and how to bring it to life for his audiences through photos, sound, and story.
Download Paul's complete biography.

Welcome Speaker - Sergio Avila-Villegas, - Northern Mexico Conservation Program Manager, Sky Island Alliance

At the 2012 South West Wings Festival, Sergio Avila will speak about the recent and historic sightings of jaguars and ocelots in southern Arizona and some possible explanations for their increase in recent years. He will also share results from research and conservation projects that search for and protect the places where these tropical felines live and the corridors they use to get there.

Biologist Sergio Avila-Villegas attended the University of Aguascalientes (1997), then University of Baja California (2000) for a Master’s degree in Arid Lands Management. For over a decade, Sergio has gained extensive training and experience working in northwest Mexico and southwest United States on wildlife research and conservation projects on species like mountain lions, California sea lions, river otters, Santa Catalina rattlesnakes and sea birds. In 2003 he initiated work on jaguar conservation in the Sierra Madre of Sonora where he monitored the northernmost breeding population of jaguars.

In 2004 Avila was hired by the University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources working on a research project on Cactus ferruginous pygmy-owls. Working at Sky Island Alliance since 2005, Sergio leads wildlife research and conservation efforts in northern Mexico and cross-border connectivity, currently filling a critical niche with community outreach, research and conservation in places where no information currently exists regarding the status of the borderland’s wild felines. Sergio Avila has lived in Tucson, Arizona since 2004.