The Birds of Oregon

Please join us on Thursday night for a special GGBA Travel Program Speaker Series talk. Our speaker is Ivan Phillipsen, who with Steve Robertson, founded Wild Latitudes travel. The GGBA Travel Program has been working with Wild Latitudes for seven years now, and in that time Ivan has become a favorite tour leader among our members who
have traveled with him.

Thus far Ivan has run four different trips in the western U.S. for us: to Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Alaska. He also runs our popular international trip to Iceland. Ivan’s a bit of a Renaissance man, which partly accounts for his success as a tour leader. He’s got a M.S. in biology from Cal State San Bernardino and a Ph.D. in zoology from Oregon State University.

During his time in graduate school, Ivan worked in the field of conservation genetics, studying amphibians and aquatic insects. He became a naturalist and a tour leader to better serve his growing interests in reptiles, plants, geology, and, of course, birds. When the pandemic hit and travel companies like his were forced to temporarily close, Ivan found a new outlet for his many talents—he created a popular podcast called “The Science of Birds.” He describes it as “fun and accessible,” and in my experience, that describe it perfectly. If you like podcasts, you’ll love this one.

He’s collaborating with his Wild Latitudes partner, Steve Robertson, in offering a new trip for us this fall—Birds of the Oregon Coast—which will be the topic of his talk.