Kowa Birding Team Members

Meet the Team

Tom Hince Paul Pratt Bruce Di Labio Ethan Meleg

Biographies:

Tom Hince
Team Captain

Tom’s lifelong addiction to birding began at age 7 with a barn owl in the English countryside. Nearly forty years later he’s still fascinated with all things feathered. In 1967, he emigrated to Ottawa, Canada with his family. Shortly after Point Pelee became a focus of his life.

He skipped a week of school at age 13 to make his first visit to Pelee during the peak of spring migration. Today, he and his wife Lily still live just minutes from the national park. Indeed their home, the Wild Rose guest house, is a full service bed&breakfast designed with the visiting birder in mind.

Tom worked for 14 years with the Canadian National Park Service, including two positions at Pelee, as well as St. Lawrence Islands and Pukaskwa National Parks. In 1995, he departed parks to begin a career in television production. Since then he has worked as Discovery Channel Canada’s on air expert on anything and everything to do with birds.

His work with Discovery takes him far and wide. Recent highlights have included a visit with Kakapo in New Zealand, the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the swamps of Louisiana, and timber wolf monitoring in Algonquin Park, Ontario. Tom is a one man band, doing his own writing, videotaping, and production!

Tom has written and lectured extensively about birds, birding and bird ecology. For over 6 years, he penned a weekly article and colour photo for the Windsor Star. In 1999, he published his first book: "A Birder’s Guide to Point Pelee, and surrounding region."

Although Tom doesn’t consider himself a lister, he still is driven by the competition of Big Days. Tom has captained Team Kowa for over a decade, and no one is ever unsure of his opinion! He thrives on the heat of battle, and loves the challenge of breaking records on someone else’s turf. And through it all, he proudly displays his Canadian origin.

Paul Pratt

coming soon

Bruce Di Labio

A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Bruce Di Labio’s obsession with birds and birding began at the young age of 8, when he hand-tamed Black-capped Chickadees at the family cottage at Constance Bay. From these simple beginnings, emerged both a life-long passion and career in the field of birding.

With a bicycle as his only means of transportation, Bruce spent most of his free time in the early 1970’s birding the Ottawa area with Tom Hince, where they got their first taste of doing “big days”. It was during this time that Bruce began leading field trips for the Ottawa Field-Naturalist’s Club.

Bruce’s love of birding has taken him down some interesting career paths.

During the 1980’s he worked for the Canadian Museum of Nature in ornithology, and then The Canadian Nature Federation as Staff Naturalist. After leaving this post, Bruce began nature consulting and branching out in his role as teacher and tour leader for beginner birders.

In 1998 Bruce launched his own birding business “Di Labio Birding” specializing in birding classes, field trips, local group tours and Canadian destination tours. He is also affiliated with Turaco Nature Inc. where he has led tours to Arizona, Alaska, Texas, New Jersey, California, Costa Rica, Cuba and Churchill, Manitoba.

In addition, Bruce has written articles for Nature Canada, Ontario Birds, Birders Journal and Birding, as well as being a regular contributor to Ontario Birding News.

Bruce resides in the village of Carp west of Ottawa, with his wife Laurie, and their two children Julie-Anne and Benjamin.

Ethan Meleg
Designated Driver & Alternate Birder

Ethan Meleg is a professional naturalist and photographer, specializing in birds. His dramatic photographs reflect the awe-inspiring beauty, diversity and fragility of nature.

Ethan grew up near world-famous birding location, Point Pelee National Park in Ontario, Canada. His interest in nature, particularly birds, was catalyzed by the rich diversity of the Pelee area. He has been leading bird and nature tours for nearly a decade, and is primary author of 'A Guide to Exploring Pelee Island Wildlife'.

Ethan has had no formal training of any kind in photography. His photographs have appeared internationally in publications such as Birder's World, Birding, Birdwatch (UK), Wildbird, Living Bird Quarterly, Birder's Journal, Nature Canada, Seasons, Canoe & Kayak and more.

Ethan lives on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. His great passion in life is exploring the natural world with his camera, whether on distant travels or in his backyard.

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