KEN ELKINS first took an interest in birds when he was 10 years old, while watching the birds at his grandmother’s feeders in Vermont. He has been obsessed ever since. Elkins started his career in conservation education at Westmoor Park and quickly moved on to the Connecticut Audubon Society, leading many eco-travel trips, competing in the World Series of Birding, and directing the education programs for all five centers. In 2008, Elkins joined National Audubon, where he is the education program manager at the Audubon Center at Bent of the River in Southbury. In the past few years, he has tripled the enrollment in their summer camps and created a nationally recognized therapeutic program called “Bird Tales,” which uses birds to engage people with dementia. Elkins is a former president of the Connecticut Ornithological Association. He has served as the Christmas Bird Count compiler for the Woodbury-Roxbury CBC since 2012 and is the West-Central regional coordinator for the 2018–2020 Connecticut Bird Atlas project.