As folks flocked to the Cabre Building on the Northwest College campus Tuesday night, retired professor Rob Koelling graciously welcomed the groups before they stepped into the Northwest Gallery. Even through his mask, you could tell he was touched by the turnout.

Yet, Koelling wasn’t there to hawk his latest framed photographs. Since retiring from the college, Koelling has been on a mad dash to document as many bird species in Wyoming as possible — earning him a large following. But this show was all about helping Susan Ahalt and her wildlife rescue facility, Ironside Bird Rescue in Cody. 

Ahalt, better known as the “Bird Lady,” has been helping injured and sick birds for decades, dedicating her life to the nonprofit organization. Koelling met Ahalt at a release of rough-legged hawks she had rehabilitated about four years ago and since then has been inspired by her tenacious dedication to helping his favorite species.

Ahalt, 78, is known to drive in all weather conditions and all times of the day to any location in the Big Horn Basin to pick up injured birds. Recently she drove 30 hours in two days to deliver an eagle to its new forever home in New Mexico; the bird will never fly again but will be used in educational programs.

“She is absolutely focused on and committed to the care of all wild animals,” Koelling said. “To find somebody with that focus and dedication is inspiring to me.”

He often follows her to release birds she has helped to heal, giving him an intimate view of some of the region’s rarest and most spectacular birds. He is donating all the proceeds from the show to Ironside Bird Rescue.

“There aren’t many chances to make a contribution that will go to buying a dead rat,” he told the large crowd filling the commons between the college gym and the gallery, which was tucked just behind tasty treats for those in attendance at Tuesday’s opening.

The rats, of course, are food for the predators at Ironside.

“He [Koelling] absolutely blew my mind when he told me what he was gonna do,” Ahalt said.

She is currently caring for three eagles, all of which have some degree of lead poisoning. There are also owls, hawks, ravens, and many other species of birds in her care.

Koelling dedicated his show to Ahalt, but it is his own dedication to photographing the birds of Wyoming that stole the show. From spunky rosy finches on dried sunflowers, to graceful bald and golden eagles and sandhill cranes in flight, his show offers just a taste of his collection of feathered friends portraits.

His show, Echoes of Audubon: An Appreciation of Western Birds, is a study of but a few of his favorite species, offering a look at the details of birds rarely seen without the aid of his monster 4x4 that carries him and his giant lens down rarely traveled paths. Like James J. Audubon, Koelling is searching constantly for a way to excite his audience in a not-so-veiled attempt to spark the flames of conservation in the avian populations.

Interestingly, he has little in common with Audubon, beyond their passions for all things beaked.

Audubon hunted his specimen with a shotgun; Koelling uses a camera. Audubon would often eat his specimens for dinner; Koelling is not a hunter.

“Audubon was a genius; I am not. Much of his life was an unconventional and an untidy affair; mine has been fairly ordered and conventional. His tools were paint and a brush and paper; mine are a camera and a computer,” Koelling mused. “On the other hand, I have never been jailed for bad debts, nor have I stabbed someone who took a swing at me in the street during a financial dispute. Audubon hiked through much of the eastern United States, though sometimes he took a steamboat. I get around in a Toyota Tundra. And so it goes.”

Koelling prefers the camera and has constantly pushed to new plateaus of artistry through natural studies, indefatigable persistence, and bird-dogging the technological advancements of modern photography equipment. He now has a collection of over 100,000 images.

Echoes of Audubon will be in the Northwest Gallery through Oct. 22. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Friday and 7-8:30 p.m. on Thursdays.