Intro to Spring Birding

Gabriel Willow is a naturalist with a particular passion for birds and urban spaces. He is an environmental educator and ecological tour guide in NYC, where he leads tours and teaches classes for NYC Bird Alliance and Wave Hill, among others. His tours focus on seeking out the overlooked and ignored elements of wildness hiding all around us, ranging from boat trips on the East River, to kayaking on Newtown Creek, to seeking the elusive Peregrine Falcons nesting on skyscrapers near Wall Street. He has created programs for Lincoln Center, the Morgan Library and Museum, the NY Botanical Garden, and more. He is also an artist, illustrator, and DJ. 

Ryan Mandelbaum is a science writer, naturalist, and member of the NYC Bird Alliance's Young Conservationists Council. Originally from Long Island, they travel around their resident borough of Brooklyn searching for and showing others local birds and stopover migrants. Ryan strives to make their walks welcoming, inclusive, and fun and they'll also share plenty of random facts to dispense about the parks, wildlife, science, and more. They have written about birds for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Gizmodo, Audubon, Gothamist, and more.  They also volunteer for the New York State Breeding Bird Atlas, Feminist Bird Club, and The Finch Research Network. When not thinking about birds, Ryan works full-time at IBM as a physics writer.