Please join us in welcoming our new seasonal coastal conservation technicians, Colleen McDonough, Robert Buckert, and Spencer Poling! Our new techs will work at our coastal sanctuaries through the end of spring, helping with maintenance, habitat restoration, and day-to-day operations. Be sure to introduce yourself and say hello if you see them around our sanctuaries! Read on to learn about our new technicians, including a Q&A to get to know them a little better.
Colleen McDonough grew up in the Florida panhandle near Pensacola. After discovering a love for birds in college, she has spent the past three summers working with nesting shorebirds across the Southeast. Colleen is looking forward to learning more about restoration strategies for migratory birds!
1. What was your first experience connecting to nature (that you can remember)?
I spent a few summers of my early childhood living in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina, where I practically lived outside with my neighbor friend. We would go down to the nearby lake and watch a pair of swans that nested on the shore, run around the woods picking blackberries, and play with tadpoles in roadside puddles. The best times of my childhood were spent outside!
2. What are you most excited about in your new role?
Getting to see more warblers! My past tech jobs have revolved around shorebirds (in Florida, Mississippi and Virginia) and while I love them, I’m also very interested in learning more about how songbirds use forests, like those in High Island, as stopover habitat while migrating. It’s a topic I hope to study in grad school soon.
3. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
New Zealand is at the top of my list for travelling. Albatrosses are one of my favorite kinds of birds, and for years I’ve dreamed of visiting the Royal Albatross Centre where you can see them nest on the mainland. The terrain looks absolutely gorgeous as well, and I’d love to hike around and explore.
4. Do you collect anything?
I like to collect shells from the different beaches I work at/visit. One of my coworkers in Mississippi also introduced me to sea beans, which are large seeds of various shapes and colors released from tropical legumes that sometimes drift across the Gulf onto our coastline. I’ve already collected a few from Bolivar Flats!
5. Who was your favorite teacher in school and why?
My Environmental Science professor in undergrad, Dr. Coenen. He managed to keep a lighthearted atmosphere in the classroom and offer an optimistic outlook even while teaching grave topics, like the irreversible impacts of climate change. He was also incredibly good at making sure everyone felt comfortable to contribute, which is a skill I was inspired to work on more after taking his classes!
Robert Buckert has been fascinated by birds all of his life and has always wanted to go into bird conservation as a career. He graduated from SUNY Brockport this spring with a B.S. in environmental science and ecology. He has been active in several birding organizations including the New York State Young Birders Club and Rochester Birding Organization for over a decade. For field work, Robert surveyed birds and anurans in wetlands of Lakes Ontario and Erie for the Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Monitoring Program for two seasons, conducted ‘blockbusting’ activities for the New York Breeding Bird Atlas III in the Adirondacks in 2023 and 2024, and worked with the NY Department of Environmental Conservation on Spruce Grouse recovery efforts in northern NY including translocation of individuals from northeast Ontario, Canada. He is passionate about habitat restoration and could not be more excited to join the Houston Audubon team to be working and birding on the Upper Texas Coast this season!
1. What would you sing at Karaoke night?
Music of the Night – Phantom of the Opera
2. What are your hobbies?
Aside from birding, I enjoy studying and playing music, primarily through the saxophone. I’m interested in most outdoor activities and like to fish, kayak, hike, etc. I am also a fan of using iNaturalist to document and learn about species beyond birds. And of course, I love travel, whether it be across county, state, or national lines!
3. If you were ruler of your own country what would be the first law you would introduce?
I would enact sweeping and stringent legislation in regards to environmental protection (especially the environmental review before development), sustainable development, and land conservation (increase the amount of permanently conserved land and greatly increase staffing for environmental and conservation agencies). I would also like to radically crack down on corruption and increase governmental transparency through providing a whistleblower amnesty period and eliminating corporate capture of government.
4. If you were a super-hero, what powers would you have?
Teleportation, telepathy, and the ability to fly! Time travel would be a bit overwhelming…
5. What was your first experience connecting to nature (that you can remember)?
Reading/being read a bird field guide as a toddler was what started me down this path. In the field, memories of releasing Yellow-rumped Warblers and Golden-crowned Kinglets at the Braddock Bay Bird Observatory from bander Bob McKinney and viewing raptor migration at Braddock Bay with counter Dave Tetlow and others.
Please join us in welcoming our new additions to the team!
Spencer Poling started birding while in college at Miami University, about four years ago, but has always been a huge nature lover with a great appreciation for birds. Spencer is from Ohio, but loves to travel around to see birds and has been able to see much of the country through his work as a field technician. He is excited to be in Texas for the first time, working at one of his goal birding destinations!
1. What is your favorite bird?
This is always a tough question for me, but my answer has most often been Bobolinks. During college, I spent a couple of summers interning on a small organic farm, where we had two pairs of Bobolinks nesting. Their unique song is one of my favorites that I have ever heard, and hearing it always brings back fond memories of when I first discovered this species while working at the farm.
2 What are you most excited about in your new role?
I’m most excited about the coastal bird surveys we conduct regularly along Bolivar Flats and High Island Beach! I’ve grown an appreciation for shorebirds over time and would love to work more with them, so these surveys are a great opportunity for me to gain more experience.
3. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
If I could travel anywhere, I would love to travel to Alaska. It seems like such a beautiful place, and I’ve read a lot of books that take place in the state, so I have been wanting to get out there for quite a while now. My favorite author, Eowyn Ivey, for example, writes great stories that capture the beauty and wildness of the state, while incorporating elements of folklore. I hope that I’ll get the opportunity to work in Alaska someday soon!
4. What did you want to be when you were young?
For a long time as a child, I was obsessed with penguins and would watch them at the zoo for hours. The zoo near me did a great job of promoting education and raising awareness of conservation challenges, so learning about penguins in all these ways made my dream as a child to be a research scientist working in Antarctica. I’m very happy to be working in bird conservation today, not too far from my dream as a child!
5. What are your hobbies?
My main hobby, of course, is birding. I try to get out birding any day that I’m free and have also gotten a little into bird photography and sketching birds. Other than that, I’ve been a musician most of my life, mainly playing trumpet, guitar, and bass guitar. I’m mostly into rock music and play bass in a band. Another fun hobby I have is competitive Rubik’s Cube solving. My fastest solve is 12.5 seconds officially and 8.4 seconds unofficially. My favorite event is solving one-handed, with my best time unofficially being 10.6 seconds.
We look forward to having Colleen, Robert and Spencer on the team!
Houston AuduBlog 
These wonderful students of Ornithology must be thanked for their dedication to allow the rest of us to enjoy the continuation of our birdlife. Nana
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