2024 Festival Keynote: Tiffany Kersten

Montana Audubon, in partnership with Last Chance Audubon, is pleased to announce Tiffany Kersten as the keynote presenter for the 2024 Wings Across the Big Sky Birding Festival!

About Tiffany:

Professional birding guide Tiffany Kersten is based in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. A Wisconsin native, she holds a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology from Northland College, and has spent over a decade as an environmental educator, teaching about bird migration with the Cape May Bird Observatory, monitoring shorebirds on Cape Cod, banding Honeycreepers in Hawaii, and finally landing in South Texas where she worked at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and then managed the McAllen Nature Center. After completing her Lower 48 States Big Year in 2021, she founded her own company, Nature Ninja Birding Tours.

From her website:

Birdie Big Year: Elevating Women Birders

Tiffany Kersten didn’t set out to do a Big Year, but after a series of unanticipated and serendipitous events, she suddenly found herself amidst one. As a sexual assault survivor, she spent 2021 traveling to all corners of the Lower 48 States, tallying birds and gifting personal safety alarms to women she met along the way. Her goal was to see 700 species, and to raise awareness of women’s safety in the outdoors. She ended up surpassing her goal and setting a new record, of 726 species. In her presentation, Tiffany will lead us through the fear, empowerment, struggles, and healing that all played vital roles in the personal growth she experienced on this wild adventure.

The 2024 Wings Across the Big Sky birding festival will be held in Helena, Montana, May 31 through June 2, 2024.  Early registration will open on March 25- so keep an eye on your mailbox for a registration brochure, follow us on social media, or sign up for our email list to keep up to date!

Learn more about the Festival, including field trip previews, lodging information, and more, on the Montana Audubon website: https://mtaudubon.org/events/wings/

We hope you will join us in Helena this summer!