Clay Sutton
Clay Sutton's avocation has always been bird study, and it has been a vocation for many years as well. Trained as a biologist (Gettysburg College, 1971) and environmental educator (Rowan University, 1973), Sutton was on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Audubon Society for six years, and chairman of its Conservation Committee. He has been a research and education associate of the Cape May Bird Observatory, past chair of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club's (DVOC) conservation committee, and was the Mid-Atlantic regional editor for the Hawk Migration Association of North America for ten years. He served as an adjunct professor of bird studies at Stockton State College and currently teaches workshops for the Institute for Field Ornithology of the American Birding Association and for the Cape May Bird Observatory. In 1993 Clay was awarded New Jersey Audubon Society's Conservationist of the Year Award.

Clay is a freelance writer, lecturer, photographer and biologist. From 1986 to 1995, he was the Vice-President and Regional Manager of Herpetological Associates, Inc., an environmental consulting firm specializing in wildlife surveys and endangered species. Prior to that, he was Environmental Program Administrator for Cape May County, a position he served in for five years, culminating a thirteen year career in environmental planning.

Clay's first book, Hawks In Flight, The Flight Identification of North American Migrant Raptors, was published by Houghton Mifflin Company in January 1988, coauthored with Pete Dunne and illustrated by Dave Sibley. He is coauthor, with Richard Walton, of the National Audubon Society Pocket Guide, North American Birds of Prey (published by Chanticleer Press in 1994) and author of A Birding Guide to Cumberland County, New Jersey (1993), available from the Cumberland County Department of Planning and Economic Development. Clay and his wife, Pat, have coauthored How to Spot an Owl (1994), How to Spot Hawks and Eagles (1996), and How to Spot Butterflies (1999) for Houghton Mifflin Company.

Clay has studied birds in the wild for over 30 years. He lives near Cape May, New Jersey, the world renowned migratory crossroads that is famous for its autumn hawk migration.