Sasha grew up in Santa Cruz, California where early on he was instilled with a love for nature. After amassing field guides and acquiring his first binoculars around age 10, birds increasingly became the center of his focus. He earned a B.S. degree in Wildlife from Humboldt State University in 2016 and has since worked on a wide variety of avian field studies throughout the western hemisphere. Sasha first worked for SSRS in 2021 as a crew lead on the New Mexico Pinyon-Juniper birds project, and later was hired on to the Weldon field staff where he is currently involved with much of the field research there, particularly Motus. In addition to birding, he enjoys learning about, seeking, and documenting most other forms of biodiversity and traveling (especially to the neotropics) to do so. His other hobbies include outdoor sports (backpacking, trail running, fishing, etc.), reading, and music.
John earned a B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Colorado State University in 1998, a B.S. in Biology from Western State College of Colorado in 2004, and an M.S. in Zoology from the University of Wyoming in 2008. For his master’s degree, John combined his love of birds and mountains to study Brown-capped Rosy-Finch habitat selection in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. In addition to rosy-finch research, he has worked on Black Swifts, Flammulated Owls, Gunnison Sage-grouse, Painted Buntings, Red Crossbills, and desert riparian birds research projects. As a SSRS Wildlife Biologist, John primarily conducts research and data analysis for our Kern Valley and Lower Colorado River Yellow-billed Cuckoo projects. He also contributes to the station’s other research projects and website and database development. Prior to his career in wildlife biology, John worked for eight years as an outdoor educator teaching outdoor recreation and leadership skills to high school and college students across the Southwest.
Annie has been conducting avian field research since 2009 and earned a B.S. in Wildlife at Humboldt State University in 2015. Over many years of field work she has predominantly worked in neotropical ecosystems, grasslands, and riparian habitats across the U.S. and in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador. Annie started birding at the age of 9 in Washington state, and this interest quickly developed into a passion for conservation. In her free time, she enjoys birding, naturalizing, traveling abroad, backpacking, doing most visual art forms and rock-hounding, among other things. She first worked for SSRS in New Mexico in 2021, and is now a full-time field biologist at the station.
Pat has an Undergrad degree in Biology from Notre Dame, a Masters in Zoology from University of Maryland, and a PhD. in Behavioral Ecology from University of Toronto, focusing on evolution of insect mating behavior, sexual selection, and life history evolution. After a decade doing academic research and teaching, that included radio tracking insects with the USDA, Pat moved to working at a large county-level park system managing permits, research, and monitoring. This is where he came into contact with the MOTUS wildlife tracking system(https://motus.org), setting up four stations to track migratory birds as they cross Lake Erie. Pat has tons of experience with field work, research and monitoring, data management, and analysis. At SSRS, he’s leading our MOTUS station projects, and will be assisting with data analysis as well as grant applications aimed at strengthening the role the station plays in regional conservation. Pat’s hobbies include hiking, camping, and river boating.
Michelle has been our office manager since 2008 and comes to us with a diverse and unique background. She is a practicing nurse with expertise in acute care, skilled nursing, home health and Hospice care. She has also worked with developmentally disabled children and adults teaching them daily living skills. Michelle also loves animals; she has several dogs and cats, but her background suggests that she has a particular fondness for birds. In addition to her guineas, she has bred and hand-raised parrots for twenty-six years! It started as a hobby and turned into a successful business. However, raising parrots requires daily care and the desire for a little free time compelled her to reduce her parrot flock to one chatty Amazon parrot. Her hobbies include ceramics, plants, gardening, and bonsai.
Nick earned his bachelor’s degree in Conservation Ecology from Sterling College in Vermont in 2011, and he completed his PhD in Biology at Northern Arizona University in 2023. Nick’s research interests include riparian ecology, species distribution modeling, bioacoustics, and endangered species recovery. Originally from New England, Nick has been living and working as a biologist in the west since 2011 and has worked extensively with Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Southwestern Willow Flycatchers, Mexican Spotted Owls, and many other avian species.
Mary J. Whitfield is the research director at the Southern Sierra Research Station. She holds a B.S. degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from U.C. Davis, and a M.S. degree in Biology from California State University, Chico. She has also taken post graduate classes at UCSB. She has over 25 years of fieldwork experience in the U.S. and has also worked in numerous Latin American countries. Mary has worked on a long-term breeding ecology study of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher since 1989. Over the past several years, she expanded her Willow Flycatcher work to their wintering areas in Mexico, Central America and South America. She has been the research director of the Southern Sierra Research station since the station opened in 2000.
