Liberty Bird Alliance’s
2024 Annual Luncheon
Sunday, December 8, 2024
The Liberty Bird Alliance (formerly the Liberty Bird Alliance) Annual Luncheon is a wonderful opportunity for members and friends to come together in a social setting, enjoy an outstanding program and celebrate the work of individuals who have made meaningful contributions to conservation. We look forward to returning to the large banquet hall at the North Hills Country Club for this annual event. This will be an opportunity for our members and friends to gather and celebrate our work and accomplishments.
North Hills Country Club
99 Station Ave, Glenside, PA 19038
Check in: 1:00 PM, Lunch served 1:30 PM, 2:30 PM Program and Award Presentations!
KEYNOTE PROGRAM
U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory:
A Century Supporting and Advancing Management and Conservation Science
Antonio (Tony) Celis, Chief of the USGS National Bird Banding Lab
The USGS Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) was established in 1920 as an integrated scientific program, and supports the collection, curation, archiving, and dissemination of data from banded and marked birds across North America. Tony directs the BBL team and collaborates with BBL partners to ensure that the lab remains the premier resource for long-term bird banding and marking data and is a robust, integrated scientific resource that rapidly adapts to new science needs, study methods, and technologies to facilitate effective bird management and conservation science. Most recently Tony and his staff used the BBL dataset to evaluate bird collisions to demonstrate the value of the BBL data and provide insights into the intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of bird collisions at multiple temporal and spatial scales.
Tony earned a B.S. in Biology from the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos in Mexico (2002) and a Masters in Integrative Biology (2008) and Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2015). He also held a postdoctoral research position at the Illinois Natural History Survey (2017). He studies various aspects of avian ecology and behavior with the overarching goal of improving conservation efforts, including bird migration and stopover ecology and population dynamics of species of concern and bioacoustics.
KEYNOTE PROGRAM
U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory:
A Century Supporting and Advancing Management and Conservation Science
Antonio (Tony) Celis, Chief of the USGS National Bird Banding Lab
The USGS Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) was established in 1920 as an integrated scientific program, and supports the collection, curation, archiving, and dissemination of data from banded and marked birds across North America. Tony directs the BBL team and collaborates with BBL partners to ensure that the lab remains the premier resource for long-term bird banding and marking data and is a robust, integrated scientific resource that rapidly adapts to new science needs, study methods, and technologies to facilitate effective bird management and conservation science. Most recently Tony and his staff used the BBL dataset to evaluate bird collisions to demonstrate the value of the BBL data and provide insights into the intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of bird collisions at multiple temporal and spatial scales.
Tony earned a B.S. in Biology from the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos in Mexico (2002) and a Masters in Integrative Biology (2008) and Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2015). He also held a postdoctoral research position at the Illinois Natural History Survey (2017). He studies various aspects of avian ecology and behavior with the overarching goal of improving conservation efforts, including bird migration and stopover ecology and population dynamics of species of concern and bioacoustics.
JOHN DORNAN CONSERVATION AWARD
Heidi Shiver, President of Bird Town Pennsylvania
Heidi Shiver, President of Bird Town Pennsylvania, will be honored with the presentation of the John Dornan Conservation Award. This award recognizes individuals or organizations that have made a major contribution to conservation. After teaching for 30 years and working as a teacher naturalist for Peace Valley Nature Center for over 10 years, Heidi moved to focus primarily on advocating for the environment. She became a member of Bucks Audubon’s Board and served as Board President, helping to create their Advocacy committee, establishing renewable energy as a focus and creating and leading their book club for 6 years. She currently serves on Doylestown Township’s Environmental Advisory Council and coordinates their Bird Town Program. She is a Bucks County Penn State Master Gardener and also serves on the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Audubon Council. For the past 3 years, she has served as the president of Bird Town Pennsylvania, working intensely with their Board to reinvigorate, to strengthen and to grow the program across the state and promote community-based conservation actions to create a healthier and sustainable environment for birds, wildlife and people.
EDWARD HICKS PARRY SERVICE AWARD
Marsha Pearson, “Market Your Socks Off”
Marsha Pearson, Principal of “Market Your Socks Off,” will be honored with the presentation of the Edward Hicks Parry Service Award. This award recognizes individuals or organizations that have made a major contribution of Service to the Liberty Bird Alliance. Marsha has been our webmaster for many years and has served as our lead into the digital world. This work included significant work with our social media presence particularly with website and Facebook. Marsha also worked to ensure our monthly edition of the UPDATES and our occasional ADVOCATE newsletters were well done and distributed, often with little lead time! She also has prepared emails, as well as set up event marketing and those all-important Zoom sessions during Covid and beyond. Her help in organizing Liberty Bird Alliance’s online presence is much appreciated.