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Jean Iron

Jean is a veteran nature guide. A retired school principal with a master's degree in education, she is also Ontario’s best known birdwatcher, having served as President of the Ontario Field Ornithologists for nine years and edited its newsletter for 14 years.

Jean travels to many parts of the world studying and enjoying wildlife, human history and digital photography. Her photos are featured in many nature publications. When not leading trips, Jean is much sought as a speaker at nature clubs and festivals. She is an active member of the Brodie Club, one of Canada’s oldest and most prestigious natural history clubs.

Jean’s strong interest in conservation led her to serve as a board member on Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas Management Committee and as a board member and co-author of the Ontario Shorebird Conservation Plan. She supports the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s efforts to acquire globally rare habitats such as the Carden Alvar in Ontario. She is particularly interested in shorebirds and gulls, and authored Shorebirds of Southern Ontario, an informative and remarkably user-friendly field guide to a group of birds presenting very particular field identification challenges. For her many efforts and her assiduous study of bird life, Jean received the Ontario Field Ornithologists' Distinguished Ornithologist Award in 2016. Jean regularly publishes scientific notes on interesting phenomena she has observed in the field, for example, one here on a Double-crested Cormorant with aberrant pale plumage.

Jean has led land tours to Honduras, Peru, Cuba, Belize and Guatemala, Point Pelee and Iceland. As an experienced expedition cruise leader, she has taken Quest groups to Canada’s High Arctic, Svalbard Archipelago in Arctic Norway, Galapagos, Costa Rica and Panama, Iceland, Japan and French Polynesia.

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Recent Blog Posts

For more blogs written by this leader, click here.