Volunteer Spotlight: John Bloomfield
For nearly three years, John Bloomfield, Travis Audubon President, has helped guide Travis Audubon through a period of extraordinary growth. As he prepares to step down from the presidency, John leaves behind not only a stronger organization, but a lasting legacy of leadership, conservation, and community.
Originally from New Jersey, John moved to Texas five years ago with his wife, Marina, to be closer to family — including their grandson. But it didn’t take long before he found another home in Travis Audubon.
“I immediately got involved,” John said. “First through Master Birders, then the Advocacy Committee, then the Board.”
John brings decades of conservation and Audubon leadership experience with him. Before coming to Austin, he served as president of Hilton Head Audubon in South Carolina and also sat on the board of Audubon South Carolina. He is also very active with the Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition, which is dedicated to the restoration of horseshoe crab populations along the Atlantic coast. Across every community he’s lived in, birds and conservation have remained a central part of his life.
But long before birding, conservation came first.
“I’m old enough to have participated in the first Earth Day,” John laughed. As a high school student, he joined a river cleanup effort on a heavily polluted industrial river in New Jersey. Today, that river supports healthy fish populations and thriving wildlife habitat. “I’d like to think we were part of that turnaround.”
Years later, after building a decades-long career in healthcare communications and consulting, John found himself reconnecting with nature through photography.
“I remember walking on a beach in South Carolina with a new camera,” he said. “A Great Blue Heron was walking beside me, maybe ten feet away. I just started taking pictures.”
Today, John is especially known for his expertise with shorebirds — knowledge he credits to years spent observing them closely along the Atlantic Coast. But for him, birding has always been about more than identification.
“You don’t just identify birds based on field marks,” he explained. “You understand their behavior, where they live, the habitats they prefer. You develop a deeper understanding over time.”
That same philosophy of patience and persistence has shaped his approach to leadership at Travis Audubon.
When asked what he is most proud of during his tenure as Board President, John points to the organization’s remarkable growth — not just in membership, but in depth, reach, and impact.
“The growth has been incredible,” he said. “Not just that we have more members, but the whole maturity and sophistication of the organization. The quality of programming, the staff, the field trips, the education programs — there’s just so much to be proud of.”
John is quick to shift credit away from himself. “It’s the staff and the board and all the volunteers together that make the organization what it is,” he said. “It’s completely a labor of love.”
Looking ahead, John is optimistic about Travis Audubon’s future. He sees enormous opportunity in the organization’s strategic plan, conservation work, and growing volunteer community.
“I want Travis Audubon to be recognized not just as the oldest conservation organization in Central Texas,” he said. “I want it to be recognized as the best one.”
John plans to remain active on the board and continue contributing his time, expertise, and passion to the organization he cares so deeply about.
And for Travis Audubon, that’s very good news.
Thank you, John, for your years of dedicated service, thoughtful leadership, and unwavering commitment to Travis Audubon and the conservation community.
