Keynote speaker for this year’s Wings Over Water Wildlife Festival will be author and birder Pete Dunne. The Wings Over Water Wildlife Festival keynote presentation will be at 6 p.m., Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 at Roanoke Island Festival Park. Cost is $30 and advanced registration is required.

When he was seven years old, Pete Dunne, now 56, wsa presented with two instruments that would define his life. One was a pair of binoculars, the other a book about birds. One brought intimacy, the other understanding and through them the woodlands behind his suburban home became a portal that opened onto a world of discovery and wonders.

Dunne, vice president of the New Jersey Audubon Society and director of the Society’s Cape May Bird Observatory, uses his talents and energy to make the natural world real for others. The author of The Wind Masters, Hawks in Flight, The Feather Quest, Dunne’s Essential Field Guide Companion, he also has written regular columns in birding magazines, as well as the New Jersey Sunday Section of the New York Times. In his writing and frequent speaking engagements around the world, he weaves information, insight and even fantasy into a net that captures minds and hearts.

A field birder with an international reputation, he has served on the board of American Birding Association and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. An authority on the optical needs of birders, he has served as a marketing and product advisor to Nikon, Zeiss, Leica, Leupoid, Swarovski Optik, Swift instruments, Bausch and Lomb, and other companies.

As involved as he is with New Jersey Audubon’s outreach and programming, Dunne makes time to lead an every Monday morning bird walk and, in season, to assist with the Cape May Hawk Count (which he established 31 years ago). He is also the founder of and a 24 year veteran of the World Series of Birding called The World’s Greatest Natural Treasure Hunt, the annual event attracts more than 100 teams and raises more than half a million dollars for conservation every year.

In recognition of this event, and for life time achievement promoting the cause of birding, Dunne was awarded the American Birding Association¹s Roger Tory Peterson Award in 2001. Other awards include the EPA Environmental Protection Award, Governor¹s Conference on Tourism Environmental Award and the 1991 Winchester Good News Hunting Writer¹s Contest first prize.

When not working, writing, traveling or birding, Dunne spends his time with wife Linda and the couple's volatile pair of Labrador retrievers, Max and Raven, in the riverside village of Mauricetown.

His keynote program -- ³Twenty-five Things That Changed Birding² -- will be a reflection upon some great and small institutions, ideas, products, initiatives, and byproducts that changed the face of birding, making it the avocation it is today. Some are obvious. Some will surprise you. All will make you think and ponder about the past, present and future of this hobby enjoyed by millions.

The Wings Over Water Wildlife Festival keynote presentation will be at 6 p.m., Friday, Nov. 7, at Roanoke Island Festival Park. Cost is $30 and advanced registration is required.