Bearded Tyrannulets Birdathon Team--Tucson Audubon Society

Bearded Tyrannulets on bikes!

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Team Members:
Randy Grohman, Media Services Manager at the University of Arizona
Kendall Kroesen, Restoration Program Manager
Brian Nicholas, Grainger, Wild Birds Unlimited
Scott Wilbor, Conservation Biologist, AZ IBA Program
Fossil fuel-free team!

Team Description:No hydrocarbon molecules will be harmed in the making of this Birdathon! In times of global warming and many other threats to bird populations, the Bearded Tyrannulets have embraced the new Birdathon paradigm and are going completely green this year. Their entire Birdathon will be by bike, foot or bus. Even peri-Birdathon activities such as getting to the initial group meeting place and getting back home again will create no carbon emissions. The team mainly plans to cycle around east Tucson to the many good birding located there.

Randy, Brian, Kendall and Scott (all currently or at one time bearded) have been together as a Birdathon team for several years now. They always have a good time and their share of odd, funny and poignant Birdathon memories (see stories linked above).

Here is some information about team members.
Randy Grohman's diverse past includes years as a hitchhiking wanderer, janitor, cowboy, stage hand, math teacher, construction worker, media services manager, and most importantly birder. He has rubbed noses with Charlie Daniels, James Taylor, Rich Carmona and David Obey. His well rounded background has provided him with the perfect skill set to be a great husband, lover, step-dad, and a member of the winning Birdathon team. (This biographical information was contributed by Randy's wife Jessie!)

Brian Nicholas has been an active birder for over twenty years. Always a low-carbon kind of guy, you will not see him at most popular bird haunts since his birding forays rarely take him outside his own East Side Tucson neighborhood. And with a neighborhood list topping 215 species it's easy to understand why: he may lose out on spotting his next neighborhood wonder (that Short-tailed Hawk is only a couple miles away!). Neighborhood highlights include Gray Hawk, Red-breasted Merganser, Tricolored Heron, Least Bittern Long-eared Owl, Lewis's Woodpecker, Tropical Kingbird, White-eyed Vireo (twice!), American Redstart, Bobolink and Cassin's Sparrow. The Tyrannulets will be using his “local knowledge” and rarity-finding expertise in their quest for species in this Birdathon.

Kendall Kroesen has worked at Tucson Audubon since early 2002 and currently is Habitat Restoration Program Manager. Kendall has a diverse background, due to an inability to stick with one thing, He has done archaeological field work, worked on a sea turtle conservation project, lived in Mexico, gotten a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, worked on research involving Latino immigrant kids in schools, and other research on the health of VA patients. At Tucson Audubon he has been involved in communications, outreach programs, and recreational birding as well as the habitat restoration work. He has been birding since the mid ‘80s and some day will be good at it.

Scott is Tucson Audubon's Important Bird Areas Program Conservation Biologist. His interests are the conservation of birds, the special places and habitats that support them, and working with people to help achieve that end. Scott goes for the raptors most naturally, as he studied them in Alaska during his 14+ years as biologist working in remote wild places up north. He and Kendall go way back with Birdathons, and have somehow kept the tradition alive through thick & thin, hot & freezing, calm & windy, and even with sick dogs. Always willing to explore the creative aspects of a new Birdathon ideas, this year brings them back full circle to when in 2002 they pulled off a hiking ("eco") Birdathon on the San Pedro River, while leading a birding trip.

This team believes it has truly found its Zen as the "bearded ones" (although a little grayer each year). Formerly, their nemesis was competition with the Executive Director's Team, and recently with other staff teams, now it's a more of a challenge whether their rear ends and joints will hold up after parts of two days and a night on bikes and still get their magic number of birds!

Pledge Now! You can make a secure online pledge or donation to this Birdathon team!

NOTE: If you make a per species pledge, a dollar amount of $0.01 will show on the shopping cart checkout screen. You must go through the entire checkout process for your pledge to register. After the team's Birdathon is over, you will be contacted with the number of species seen and the amount that has been charged to your card.

Flat donations will show on your shopping cart checkout, and will be charged, without further contact, within three working days of your online donation.