Dr. Mike Stinson

Mike was born in Lynchburg, Virginia and lived in Amherst and Bedford counties until leaving for college. He started birding…sometime in the past millennium. He attended his first Lynchburg Bird Club meeting when he was 13 years old. He has birded in 23 countries on four continents, but the majority of his birding has been in the eastern United States. He is especially fond of county listing, which helps him gain perspective on local bird distribution. He maintains lists for every county and independent city in Virginia and West Virginia.

Mike graduated from William & Mary and subsequently survived a variety of graduate programs, including one that resulted in a Ph.D. from the University of Louisville, where he studied bird systematics with Burt Monroe and Jon Ahlquist. He was a college professor for over 20 years and is currently a protected species biologist, working as a full-time consultant, doing field work with birds, bumble bees, butterflies, rare plants and other organisms.

Mike’s fascination with birds is literally life-long. His mother would never let him forget that when he started talking, his first word was not “mama”, not “dada”, but “bird”.

Wildlife 911 Northern Neck is very honored to host Dr. Stinson as our guest speaker at the regular monthly meeting, Saturday, September 27th at 11 a.m. Dr. Stinson, Professional Ornithologist and International Birder, has graciously agreed to leading 10 adventurers on a private local birding field trip, scheduled for Sunday, September 28th from 7:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. All proceeds go to Wildlife 911 Northern Neck. The trip is $60 per person, and includes a field guide, as well as one raffle ticket. Wildlife 911 is selling raffle tickets toward some great prizes. Top prize is a private tour for 5 of the Wildlife Center of Virginia. To buy field trip tickets or raffle tickets, please visit here for more details.