Robert (Bob) Friedrichs and his wife Ruth live in Palacios, Texas and have one grown son. Bob holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University. His 34-year career with Chevron included a variety of management positions. Now retired, Bob and Ruth enjoy traveling around North America in their RV, most recently driving their motorhome to Alaska (and back!) for some awesome sightseeing and birding. Bob is an outdoor enthusiast, conservationist and avid birder. He started birding at age 13 while a member of the Golden Crescent Nature Club in Victoria, Texas. His life list is 1278, ABA list is 695 and his Texas list is 538 species. Bob compiles the Victoria and Jackson-Calhoun Christmas Bird Counts. He is a certified Texas Master Naturalist with the Midcoast Chapter and spends most his time in the field conducting tours and surveying birds.

His field work includes Colonial Waterbird Surveys in Calhoun and Matagorda Counties and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) trapping and banding of wintering sparrows in Brazoria County. His survey work on Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Piping Plover supports FWS research of these two threatened species. Additionally, Bob has helped FWS researchers trap and geo-tag Buff-breasted Sandpipers to better understand their migration path and habitat use. Bob currently helps trap, band and monitor American Oystercatchers in Matagorda and Lavaca Bays for GCBO’s Director of Conservation Research, Dr. Susan Heath. Bob is on the board of the Matagorda Bay Birdfest and the Palacios Prairie Wetland.

Bill Balboa is a native Texan - born in Brownsville and raised in Austin. He completed undergraduate studies in Invertebrate Zoology from SWTSU in San Marcos, with graduate studies at TAMU, and UHCL. From 1988 – 2014 he worked as a coastal fisheries biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Coastal Fisheries Division and directed fisheries data collection in Matagorda Bay, the Lower Laguna Madre, and Galveston Bay. In 2014 he returned to the Matagorda Bay area as the Texas Sea Grant/Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Coastal and Marine Resources Extension Agent for Matagorda County. In February 2019, Bill left extension to help put the Matagorda Bay Foundation “on-the-ground” and advocate for conservation of the resources of the Matagorda Bay ecosystem.

Former biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department who previously managed the Mad Island Wildlife Management Area during a 34 year career. Brent along with hundreds of birders have created the Number One Christmas Bird Count (Mad Island) in the Nation located in Matagorda County. Join Brent and his wife Dora Ann as they visit some of the best birding areas in the county.

Robyn Savage and her husband John Savage live in Palacios, Texas. She is a certified Texas Master Naturalists (Mid-Coast Chapter) and spends much of her time observing and surveying birds. She regularly contributes to eBird as she recognizes that it is an increasingly important source of data used in science and conservation.

Robyn loves observing birds, from her back deck, while out hiking or just walking about. She has conducted tours at the Mad Island Nature Preserve and county roads for members of the Texas Ornithological Society and Matagorda Bay Bird Festival, contributes to articles on birding in the local area, and participates in various Christmas Bird Counts along the central Texas coast. Originally from New York, Robyn spends her time birding in Vermont in the summer.

Barbara was born and raised in the Texas Hill Country and received a BA in Anthropology and History from Texas A&M. She has served as the naturalist for Road Scholar trips, and in her spare time, she facilitates History Discussion Groups at Kleb Woods Nature Preserve in Tomball.

Although she has been an avid birder most of her life, after retiring from education in 2017 she refocused most of her time to actively birding. Barbara became a Texas Master Naturalist (Hill Country Chapter) in 2017. She has participated in Christmas Bird Counts for over 25 years in many different ecoregions across Texas. After completing the goal of birding all 254 counties in Texas in 2021, she turned her efforts to birding Fifty in Fifty (finding 50 species in all 50 states). She participates in Nest Watch, Climate Watch, and Breeding Bird Surveys in and around the Hill Country. Barbara has participated in Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo surveys, as well as monthly surveys in local parks and on area ranches for wildlife management and data purposes. She has also been a field trip leader for Laredo Birding Festival, Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, Davis Mountains Hummingbird Celebration, Texas A&M AgriLife’s Birding the Hill Country, Birding the Border, and PUMA Days, TOS’ Annual Meetings, and Davis Mountain Preserve’s Migratory Bird Day. She has volunteered with groups from the Coast to West Texas, helping band everything from oystercatchers to hummingbirds.