Atlas Team

Meet the Atlas Team!

The atlas is a monumental effort involving many organizations and thousands of volunteers. To learn more about the team, use the links below.

Quick Links

• Project Coordinator
• Assistant Coordinator
• Point Count Coordinator
• Regional Coordinators
• Steering Committee
• Subcommittees
• Atlas Treasurer
• Sponsor-a-Species Webmaster
• Atlas Community

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Project Coordinator

Julie Hart (eBird profile) works for the New York Natural Heritage Program and is housed at the DEC central office in Albany. Julie is a native Vermonter who started birding while working as a bird conservation intern with National Audubon, Audubon New York, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She traveled for several years doing field work around the globe before returning to VT to serve as the coordinator for Mountain Birdwatch with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. She spent several years chasing Bicknell’s Thrush around the mountains of the Northeast and Hispaniola before moving to Wyoming to continue her education. She received her Master’s degree studying the impacts of climate change on Cassia Crossbill in southern Idaho. She moved to Switzerland for a few years and volunteered at several banding stations where she really enjoyed seeing Wrynecks and Long-tailed Tits in the hand. After that, she moved to the Connecticut coast to work as the database manager for the Map of Life project at Yale University. She is now settled in the Albany area where she is the Project Coordinator for the third Breeding Bird Atlas in NY. In her travels she has participated in two bird atlases and considers atlasing her favorite type of birding. Contact

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Assistant Coordinator

Jared Feura (eBird profile) works for the New York Natural Heritage Program and is based out of the DEC central office in Albany. Jared is from northwestern Pennsylvania where he learned many different birds while being out in the woods as a kid, but he began truly birding during his time as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh on trips with the school’s birding and ornithology club. After completing his undergraduate studies, he spent several years working on various bird related projects across the eastern US, mostly hunting for warbler nests in eastern forests during the spring and summer, and banding migrants in the spring and fall. By chance, he found himself in Mississippi chasing wintering Yellow Rails in wet pine savannas after dark, which led him down the pathway to studying rails. He moved to Mississippi for his master’s degree assessing Clapper Rail survival rates and future impacts of sea-level rise on coastal Mississippi populations. He stayed on in Mississippi for several years to manage a project focused on determining populations of all secretive marsh birds across the Mississippi coast. He is newly moved to the Albany area to be Assistant Coordinator for the third Breeding Bird Atlas of NY. He has never been an atlaser, but he has taken routes for multiple Breeding Bird Surveys and enjoys finding nests and observing bird behaviors. Contact

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Point Count Coordinator

Carl Pohlman (eBird profile) recently moved to Ithaca, NY where he works for Cornell University in the New York Cooperative Fisheries and Wildlife Research Unit. A native of Central Ohio, Carl has been interested in birds since he was a young child. That interest has propelled him to studying environmental science at Allegheny College and then on to the University of Maine where he earned a master’s degree studying the response of forest birds to natural-disturbance based methods of forestry. Carl has worked in a number of field settings using a variety of approaches to study birds but is most passionate about using surveys to establish robust datasets that can be used as the backbone of long-term monitoring efforts. As Point Count Coordinator with the NY BBA III, Carl will oversee a team of field technicians who will be carrying out point counts across the state. These efforts will provide researchers with valuable data and allow them to estimate the abundance of many species of birds across New York. Contact

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Regional Coordinators

The Project Coordinator is supported by a network of Regional Coordinators that provide on-the-ground assistance to volunteers. Regional Coordinators help facilitate survey efforts in one of six regions. You can reach the coordinators from each region using the email links below.

Capital (nybba3.capital@gmail.com)

Alison Van Keuren In the mid 1950’s I was the young lad that stood in the elementary school yard gazing at Red-tailed Hawks soaring over the nearby airport fields. That is when I developed a fascination for the natural world and flying. At Colorado State University I majored in Zoology. After retiring I have more time to enjoy nature. I have contributed to multiple breeding bird atlases in New York and Maine, as well as the Maine Herpetology Atlas, the New York Damsel and Dragonfly Survey, and the New York Native Pollinator Survey. Additionally, I have been a volunteer at the New York State Museum for many years, where I digitized the paper records of the bird egg collection. My current project involves moving the NYSM historical bird sighting records of Dayton and Lillian Stoner into eBird. I also participate in several bird banding projects including ones at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. (eBird profile)

Central (nybba3.central@gmail.com)

Charles Scheim I’ve been a birder since the 1970s and did a number of blocks in Otsego and Delaware counties during the 2000-04 Atlas. I am a member of the Board of Directors for the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society and have been their Treasurer since 2012. I usually lead a number of bird walks each year (with my wife, Sandy Bright) and give a variety of birding presentations to various groups in our area.  I also do stream testing for the Otsego County Conservation Association and am a member of the Oneonta Susquehanna Greenway Committee. I am retired now, but was a mathematics professor at Hartwick College from 1980-2018. (eBird profile)

Jane Graves I began noticing birds in the winter of 1978, when a Boreal Owl appeared in a conifer across the street from my house in Saratoga Springs, where I was Art and Music Librarian at Skidmore College.  It was more than ten years later that I started seriously listing and travelling for birds. I served as the Region 8 (Capital District) Editor for “The Kingbird” from 1996 through 2002. I compiled the Saratoga Christmas Bird Count for many years. Together with Mark Fitzsimmons, I was Regional Co-Coordinator for Atlas 2000. After my retirement from Skidmore, I moved to Ithaca, where I volunteered with Audubon NY, served on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, and oversaw the Montezuma Muckrace for a number of years. I am eager to recruit new atlasers and work with existing atlasers individually in the Atlas’ final year. (eBird profile)

Fred Leff  I grew up in Brooklyn, NY.  I have been a birder since the ripe old age of 10, when an American White Pelican showed up in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (it was “only” a city park). Coincidentally, my father knew of a field trip there, we saw the bird, and I was hooked. I birded a lot around NYC during high school and college. Then I went to graduate school in Binghamton, NY.  I was studying mammals for my Master’s Degree and was always looking down. After grad school, I moved to Syracuse, got back into birding, and went on many field trips sponsored by the Onondaga Audubon Society. From 1997 – 2019, I taught high school Earth Science in Seneca Falls, NY. Upon retirement, I became a volunteer at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and discovered eBird. I also participated in Raptor Surveys in Seneca and Wayne Counties. Soon after that, I was convinced to begin atlasing, and I have been active as an atlaser for two out of the five years of NY BBA III. (eBird profile)

Hudson (nybba3.hudson@gmail.com)

Wendy Tocci  After spending several years living in various cities up and down the east coast I finally settled in Kingston where my love of and appreciation of nature has finally been able to flourish. Once I had a green space to call my own I put up feeders, began participating in Project Feeder Watch, and then eventually joined up with the John Burroughs Natural History Society so that I could learn more. I’m looking forward to being a part of making the next Atlas a success as well as learning more about the birds that breed in my area.

Northern (nybba3.northern@gmail.com)

Jeff Bolsinger I started birding as an undergraduate at Oregon State University. My first real birding experience was a field trip to the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge near Corvallis for a Vertebrate Biology class, and I was amazed at the number of birds we saw so close to campus. I was quickly hooked on birding, and birds gave me the focus that I had been missing in my life, something that has stayed with me for more than 25 years. I greatly enjoyed working on New York’s second Breeding Bird Atlas and have been anxious for the current one to start.

Matt Medler  I am an associate editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where I manage the All About Birds species guide. I have a lifelong connection to Lake Champlain, and over the past 25 years, have spent countless hours birding, hiking, and sound recording in the Champlain Valley and Adirondacks. I enjoyed participating in Atlas 2000, and am very excited to be involved in the new Atlas III project! (eBird profile)

Tom Wheeler I came to birding late. In fact I would not be a birder but for my wife. We were hiking buddies in the Adirondacks and she often pointed out birds on these hikes. (We are both winter 46ers and have also hiked all of the 4000 footers in the northeast.) We started traveling for birding about 13 years ago. What really got me interested was a three day winter trip with snowy owls, rough-legged hawks, short eared and long eared owls, shrikes, and bitterly cold (below zero) weather. It was so fabulous to see those birds! I have been birding ever since. As a birder who came late to the game, I still am not an expert (and I have lost the ability to hear high pitches) but I try to make up for it with enthusiasm and persistence. (eBird profile)

NYC / Long Island (nybba3.nycli@gmail.com)

Brendan Fogarty  I got my start birding in 2001 when my parents took me on guided nature walks and bought me the National Geographic Birds of North America. I did walks with the local Audubon Societies and spent four years on the board of Huntington Oyster-Bay Audubon. While attending Cornell University, most of my roommates were birders, which kept my interest going strong. I now work as an environmental consultant on Long Island and am also an eBird regional reviewer for the area. I look forward to atlasing and being more present and observant in my birding, and making a difference in conservation with citizen science. (eBird Profile)

Mike Scheibel  I’ve been birding since the early 60’s; initially my mom’s interest in feeder birds got me started and later I built an observation blind on Beaver Dam Creek in Brookhaven, LI, NY to watch rails, night herons and later to shoot ducks. I attended Cornell University and worked as a Senior Wildlife Biologist for the NYSDEC on Long Island, focusing on endangered species, including the Osprey, a special interest of mine since the 70’s. Later I was fortunate to work as Preserve Manager for The Nature Conservancy on the Mashomack Preserve, Shelter Island, NY. In May of 2018 I retired to spend more time birding with my wife Lynne and granddaughters, Julia and Marin. (eBird profile)

Taylor Sturm  I was always a lifelong bird-lover, with some of my earliest memories being enamored with the field guides my grandmother had and learning the birds of our backyard. A little over a decade ago, while at Stony Brook University, I began to take birding more seriously and never looked back. While I enjoy taking trips for exotic or special targets, there’s nothing more satisfying to me than finding a new bird at my local patch or observing the spectacle of bird migration. I’m very passionate about recording audio in the field and have also become quite fond of nocturnal birding; whether that be listening for owls, rails, or the flight calls of nocturnal migrants. When not birding I work as an environmental consultant, but can often be found looking for moths (at night) or sedges (during the day). I’m very excited to be a part of this most recent Atlas and very much looking forward to seeing what’s out there! (eBird profile)

Western (nybba3.western@gmail.com)

Sue Barth  I live in Western New York and, in addition to being a wife, mother, and grandmother, I’m a web applications developer with an acute and incurable passion for birding!  I’m very excited to be helping out on the third Breeding Bird Atlas! (eBird profile)

Mike Morgante  Mike has been birding since the age of four and involved with compiling and reporting on bird sightings in western New York for the Buffalo Ornithological Society since the mid-1990s. He has served as the Region 1 (Niagara Frontier) editor for “The Kingbird” for more than 20 years. He covered many blocks during Atlas 2000 and notably discovered a Henslow’s Sparrow colony near his home at the time in Erie County. Mike is an environmental consultant working with WSP USA in Buffalo, New York. He gets out birding and atlasing whenever he can when not involved with his high school-aged children and their many sports teams. He is looking to encourage more birders to get involved with NYBBAIII, especially in areas away from popular birding locations. (eBird profile)

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Steering Committee

The atlas steering committee is a partnership of all the major bird conservation organizations in New York State. The atlas steering committee is co-chaired by Matt Schlesinger and Kathryn Schneider.

• New York Natural Heritage Program — Matt Schlesinger, Julie Hart, Jared Feura
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Dan Rosenblatt, Matt Palumbo, Bonnie Parton
• New York State Ornithological Association — Kathryn Schneider, Anne Swaim
• New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit — Angela Fuller, Kelly Perkins
• Audubon New York — Mike Burger
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Chris Wood, Ian Davies
• State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry — Jacqui Frair, Matt Schlesinger, Julie Hart, Jared Feura

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Subcommittees

In addition to the steering committee, there are four subcommittees that work in-depth on important aspects of the project.

Design and Analysis

The Design and Analysis team focuses on establishing the sampling design for the project. They work to ensure that the data we gather can detect a 10% change in bird populations over a 10-year period. They are also tasked with deciding how to address species that are difficult to detect because they are present in low numbers, secretive, nocturnal or crepuscular, or found in rare or inaccessible habitats. They provide guidance on how to analyze the data to interpret patterns in bird diversity and abundance and assess change over time.

Members: Angela Fuller (chair), Matt Schlesinger, Kelly Perkins, Mike Burger, Julie Hart, Jared Feura, Matt Palumbo, Carl Pohlman, Josh Twining, Andy Royle, Tim Howard

Atlas Methods

[Retired] The Methods subcommittee establishes field methodology. This includes defining breeding codes, creating reference charts, determining which species require further documentation, and identifying the state’s most sensitive species. They will provide tips and tricks for targeting special species that are hard to detect, like nocturnal species and marshbirds. They also establish the block criteria to determine when a block has received adequate coverage.

Members: Greg Lawrence (chair), Matt Schlesinger, Kelly Perkins, Nick Anich, Ian Davies, Julie Hart, Gerald Thurn, Dave Wheeler

Outreach and Engagement

The Outreach and Engagement subcommittee works to produce user-friendly survey instructions, tutorials, and reference materials. They also coordinate volunteer events, help select regional coordinators, and plan public relations and media events. Look forward to fun challenges throughout the atlas with prizes for top participants!

Members: Jared Feura (chair), Ian Davies, Julie Hart, Kathryn Schneider, Gabriel Foley, Gerald Thurn, Ryan Mandelbaum, Anne Swaim

Development

The Development team helps raise money to support the atlas. The atlas requires extra funding for carrying out point counts to estimate bird abundance, holding volunteer events and training sessions, and producing a final atlas publication. This intrepid group uses their skills to make sure the atlas can achieve its goals.

Members: Julie Hart (chair), Kathryn Schneider, Dan Miller, Matt Palumbo, Rick Werweiss, Peter Klebnikov

Final Product

The Final Product team is tasked with planning a final publication that will serve as the definitive resource on breeding bird distribution, abundance, change, phenology, etc. in NYS. The final product will compare the results of the 2020 Atlas with the previous two atlases and provide a resource for assessing future changes, acknowledge all atlasers and donors for their contributions, and make raw data and data products accessible in necessary formats.

Members: Julie Hart (chair), Jeremy Kirchman, Kathryn Schneider, Matt Schlesinger, Pat Aitken, Dan Rosenblatt, Paul Rodewald, Darryl McGrath

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Sponsor-a-Species Webmaster

Dan Miller is the developer of the Sponsor-a-Species website. He has an eclectic background that includes a Master’s Degree in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Rochester, a stint as a stay-at-home dad, and working as a builder and restorer of wooden canoes and timber-framed buildings. He has worked for several non-profit organizations as curator, director, board member, webmaster, and journal editor. In addition to working on the Sponsor-a-Species website, he owns and operates the Gato Diablo coffee roastery that specializes in Smithsonian Bird-Friendly and Rainforest Alliance certified coffees. His interest in birding began while in graduate school with other birding classmates. This interest was rekindled during a trip to Costa Rica in 2015 where he turned 50; his “life after 50” list is at 761 and counting. He lives on the St. Lawrence River near Cape Vincent where his yard list is stuck at 149 species. (eBird profile)

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Atlas Community

The atlas would not be possible without the help of the birdwatching community. Over 3800 people contribute data to the project! This dedicated community hails from all corners of NY and neighboring states and provinces.

Read about Featured Atlasers
See where people have submitted data

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