If Kathy Hicks had better vision, we might never have gotten to see the stunning images of what she sees on her nature walks. And it would certainly be our loss.

The acclaimed photographer and conservationist says that if she could see better, she probably would never have picked up that big lens that's become her stylistic trademark. 

"My eyesight's not the greatest, so I started taking pictures so I could get a good look at the birds I was seeing," says Kathy. "If you have a photo of it, you know for sure what you saw."

Especially when you have an image as sharp as one of Kathy's. In many of them, the birds look so close you almost feel like you're perched on the branch next to them.

As an educator at the 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center, birds are a big part of Kathy's business. But she's loved observing wildlife since she was a girl growing up in the Hollinger's Island community in south Mobile County. She hates that many of the pretty creatures she's enjoyed being around all of her life are disappearing before her eyes.

As she tells visitors to 5 Rivers (and also to school groups visiting the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Baldwin County), loss of natural habitat to development is a serious threat to many plant and animal species. She has some saddening statistics she can share with them.

"In the last 10 years, we've lost like one in three blue jays and one in three Baltimore orioles, and the shorebirds are down a third," she says. "I worry that the younger generations won't ever get to see a bobwhite quail or hear a sparrow sing."

When it comes to shooting birds with her camera, Kathy especially loves to train her powerful zoom lens (a Sigma 150/600 mm) on the most colorful ones. That's one of the reasons she looks forward to the spring migration, which is happening now and will continue through the first half of May. This is when millions of birds are passing through our area as they return to North America after spending the winter in warmer climates to the south.

Each fall, they make these long journeys, but in reverse. This time of year, the transient birds are easier to spot because many of them are sporting their most attention-getting plumage.

"Birds put on their best duds in the spring," she says. "They have their mating colors on."

The springtime version of the male painted bunting, for instance, is multicolored with vibrant hues of blue, green, yellow, and red. In other seasons, by contrast, he's a solid yellow-green. Warblers are less colorful in the fall, too, and the herons and egrets we may take for granted have fancier, fluffier trailing feathers they hope will be irresistible to the opposite gender.

The excitement of the spring migration helps to draw attention to Kathy's year-round mission, which is generally trying to get more people to pay closer attention to what's going on outside. There's no guarantee that people will get to see more birds than usual because they are eager to reach their breeding grounds farther north and may not linger here. If they do, however, they can make a lasting impression.

"Actually, laying eyes on these birds engages people," Kathy says. "It's something they don't forget, and they hopefully will begin to care more about the environment."

Kathy's passion for wildlife led to her becoming an educator at 5 Rivers, where she was first employed in 2013. After studying graphic design and commercial art at Faulkner State Community College (now Coastal Alabama), she created a logo for the annual Coastal Alabama Birdfest. As a volunteer with the festival, she became a familiar and knowledgeable presence at 5 Rivers because that's where many of the Birdfest events are held. 

She gave guided tours on a pontoon boat, she says, before becoming an events coordinator at 5 Rivers.

"And then a position opened up in education, which I've been doing for 10 years now," Kathy says. "I don't have a biology degree, but I have a ton of field experience."

She also draws on her close friendship with Bill Summerour, a retired biology professor at Jacksonville State University who is legendary in Alabama birding circles. "He's an ornithologist, and he's also knowledgeable about many other things," she says. "He's taught me so much. I feel like I've had a one-on-one education from him."

While she's widely known for her bird photos, that's not all that Kathy focuses on. In the summer months, when birds and reptiles tend to hide from the sun during the heat of the day, she'll sometimes turn her big lens toward flowers and insects. 

"I enjoy photographing birds and nature most of all, but I'm always trying to expand my range, and I always try to shoot a variety of things so that I can improve overall," she says. "Photography is photography, so if you do this thing, you also ought to be able to do this other thing."

She maintains a Flickr site that has many of her photos and also shares them on Facebook and Instagram. In addition, she contributes stock photos to Getty Images. She doesn't promote her work heavily but is happy to assist when various publications contact her asking for images to accompany stories. 

"They've been used all over the world," she says. "I take pictures because I love it, and I do love it when somebody says they want to use my photos because they're not doing me any good sitting on my computer."