|
BOBBY HARRISON: FEATURED
PRESENTER
Bobby Harrison, an associate
professor of art and photography at Oakwood College in
Huntsville, Ala., has been an avid bird watcher and student of
the ivory-billed woodpecker since 1973.
Since February 2004 he has been
engaged in the ongoing ivory-billed woodpecker research project
in eastern Arkansas. The project is led by The Big Woods
Conservation Partnership, which includes Cornell University, The
Nature Conservancy, Oakwood College, University of Arkansas
Little Rock, and various state and federal agencies. The purpose
of the partnership is to study, document and conserve habitat
and needs of the ivory-billed woodpecker.
During years of searching,
Harrison and Tim Gallagher, editor of Living Bird magazine,
traveled through the South, interviewing people who claimed to
have seen this ghost bird of the shadowy swamp which has been
thought to be extinct for 60 years. If a sighting seemed
credible, they hit the swamp, wading through hip-deep,
boot-sucking mud and canoeing through turgid, mud brown bayous
where deadly cottonmouths abound.
On one of these trips, on Feb.
27, 2004, checking a recent sighting by an Arkansas kayaker, an
unmistakable ivory-bill flew past at close range in front of
their canoe. This sighting – the first time since 1944 that two
qualified observers had positively identified an ivory-billed
woodpecker in the United States – quickly led to the largest
search ever launched to find a rare bird and ultimately to the
announcement last April of the rediscovery of the species.
painting by wildlife artist Larry Chandler
Harrison will tell the story of
the ivory-bill’s near demise and miraculous resurrection and
discuss how the Grail Bird was rediscovered.
Harrison is an award-winning
nature photographer, speaker, writer and educator. He earned a
B.F.A. in photography from Andrew’s University in Berrien
Springs, Mich., and a master’s degree in media technology from
Alabama A&M University. He is also a charter member of the North
American Nature Photography Association, and served on its board
of directors from January 2001 to February 2004.
Since 1985, Harrison has
published articles on birds and bird photography in most North
American birding magazines and calendars, including Audubon,
Living Bird, Birder’s World, Wild Bird, Nature’s Best, Bird
Watcher’s Digest, American Photo, Birds and Blooms, Sinra,
Outdoor Photographer and others. Calendars include Birder's
World, Audubon, and Sanibel Island.
His travels have taken him from
the Pribilof Islands and the Alaska mainland to Venezuela, from
the Arizona deserts to coastal Maine, in order to photograph his
favorite subject – birds. He has traveled widely throughout
North America giving slide presentations on birds and bird
photography.
Over the years his photography
has taken top honors in many contests, including the Nature’s
Best/Cemex International Photography Awards, the American Photo
magazine contest and the Southern Wildlife Festival held in
Decatur, Ala. Harrison is one of the featured photographers in a
13-part television series entitled “Nature’s Best Photography,”
produced by the National Wildlife Federation and Nikon Inc. and
aired on the Outdoor cable network in the fall of 1998.
“I have always believed that
the ivory-billed woodpecker still lived, and finding one has
been a dominant force in my life for more than three decades.
Finding an ivory-bill was a 33-year dream come true for me.”
|
