The Hawk Ridge staff consists of
employees, volunteers and contractors.
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218.428.6209
jlong@hawkridge.org |
Janelle Long
grew up in Greenfield, WI where her
childhood days were filled with memories of
exploring any nearby forest, field, or
pond. The connections she made in nature
had a lifelong impact on her career
interests. She attended the University of
WI - Stevens Point to complete degrees in
Wildlife Management and Biology with a minor
in Conservation Biology. A whole new world
in the outdoors was revealed to her through
the hands-on courses, field trips, and
enthusiastic professors. She vividly
remembers the excitement she felt seeing her
first Sandhill Crane and Pileated
Woodpecker. From that point on, she was
hooked on birds and couldn't wait to see and
learn more. Janelle spent three summers
helping out with Ph.D. bird research
projects at Great Smoky Mountain Nat'l Park
in TN, the grasslands of southwestern WI,
and the Shawnee Nat'l Forest in IL. Her
passion and concern for birds and the
environment were heightened as she witnessed
population declines due to habitat loss,
cowbird parasitism, predation, etc.
This led her to the
next phase in her career in the field of
environmental education. Janelle's journey
began by spending a year teaching at four
Audubon Centers in NM, CT, VT, and ME. In
2003 she began a graduate naturalist program
at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center
in Minnesota. From Wolf Ridge she continued
her graduate work and completed her M.Ed. in
Environmental Education at the University of
MN - Duluth in 2005. Janelle worked for two
years for the Bureau of Land Management as
the Education Coordinator at Yaquina Head
Outstanding Natural Area on the Oregon
coast. She looks forward to continuing to
dedicate her time and share her interests
for bird conservation and environmental
education as the executive director. She
hopes to promote stewardship for Hawk Ridge
and help others establish their special
lifelong connection to nature. |
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David Evans has been at Hawk Ridge since
1972, when he started the raptor banding
station. (What was intended to be a
temporary interlude from his agricultural
interests turned into an avocation gone
severely awry!) In the "off" season,
he has participated in many raptor studies;
notably, banding nestling Bald Eagles in
Wisconsin since 1970, translocation of
nestling Bald Eagles from Alaska and
Wisconsin as well as Wisconsin Ospreys to
less "blessed" states, banding nestling
Ferruginous and Swainson's Hawks in North
Dakota, and monitoring nesting Peregrine
Falcons in Duluth and on the North Shore.
And, in the off "off" season, studying
wintering Snowy Owls in the Duluth-Superior
harbor since 1973.
(And
he still reads his Wisconsin farm paper
every week!) |
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fnicoletti@hawkridge.org |
Frank Nicoletti grew up in New York
State along the Hudson River where he
started watching raptors at the age of 11.
His passion for raptors and other birds
fueled him to work at various locations
including Cape May and Sandy Hook NJ,
Braddock Bay NY and in Israel. From 1984
until 1996 he traveled throughout the
country and conducted various raptor related
projects which included nesting surveys,
tracking winter raptors and migration work.
He arrived in Duluth in 1991 to count
raptors and to witness the invasion of the
Northern Goshawk and
he conducted the count until 2005.
After moving to Duluth
permanently in the fall of 1996, he
conducted the first spring count of raptor
migrating north in Minnesota along the West
Skyline Parkway of Duluth. This study ran
from 1997-2005. Frank continues to study
raptors and has been concentrating on boreal
forest owls and managing raptor banding
sites. He has published a number of papers
on birds and has helped with many authors
working on books and articles.
He lives just north of Duluth
with his wife, Kate and two dogs, Chester
and Phoebe. Frank’s excited to take on the
spring migration as
spring research coordinator and has
several projects planed for the 2009 season.
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Although Karl
Bardon has
traveled around the country doing various
field projects with birds, his favorite jobs
are those spent counting birds and he has
always wanted to spend a fall season in
Duluth. The road to Hawk Ridge has included
such diverse projects as radio-tracking
eiders in the Arctic, studying trans-Gulf
migration from an oil-platform off
Louisiana, and nest searching for Tapaculos
in the temperate rainforests of Chile. When
it comes to counting birds, Karl’s specialty
has been waterbirds, having spent many
seasons as the waterbird counter at
Whitefish Point, Michigan, and Cape May, New
Jersey. But
after witnessing the awesome migration
through Veracruz, Mexico as an official hawk
counter in 2006, he has decided
raptors are pretty
cool, too.
Karl is back for his second season as a
raptor counter and also the passerine
counter! |
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Jen
Ottinger grew up in Colorado and is a
graduate of Colorado State University.
After learning hawk watching at
Chimney Rock in New Jersey, she polished her
skills while working for Hawk Mountain
Sanctuary. She has also conducted raptor
counts in Virginia, the Florida Keys, and
Idaho. Jen has been involved with several
research projects including monitoring
nesting bald eagles in Arizona and
conducting passerine surveys in Montana and
at Rocky Mountain National Park in
Colorado. She has spent the past several
years monitoring raptor nests and conducting
wildlife surveys in northeastern Wyoming.
Jen is excited to be working at Hawk Ridge
and is looking
forward to an excellent fall migration. |
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John
Gorey is interested in bird and mammal
conservation. He enjoys being outside
running, hiking, kayaking, camping and
biking. John also loves to identify
the natural world during his
activities--birding, mushroom hunting and
herping. He uses any excuse to be
outside! Being a raptor bander at Hawk
Ridge is his first job after graduating from
Murray State in Wildlife Biology and he
couldn't be happier. John plans to
continue working seasonal jobs until he has
to return to school for further advancement.
As far as he's concerned, the longer that
takes, the better! |
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Jared Thompson is
originally from Tampa, Florida. Halfway
through college he moved to Bowling Green,
Kentucky, where he graduated with a degree
in Biology in May 2008. He’s always loved
living outdoors, but his passion for birds
didn’t develop until his last semester of
school, when he studied Ornithology. He
immediately began looking for field work and
ended up in Winona, Missouri. Never heard
of it? Well neither had he, but he spent
his summer there as a field assistant
working with passerines for the Missouri
Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project. This study
is a huge project looking into the effects
of forest management on bird and other
animal populations. Jared spent his days
listening for birds and nest searching in
the forest, and was instantly hooked. This
is his first season working at Hawk Ridge,
and he is fascinated with the raptors he’s
dealt with so far. |
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Ryan Byrnes is originally
from Beaver Dam,
Wisconsin and graduated in 2007
from the
University of Wisconsin
Stevens Point with a bachelors in
Wildlife Ecology and Biology. Ryan got his
start working with Gene Jacobs banding
Northern Saw-whet
Owls in Stevens
Point. From there he drove 2200
miles to study the
elusive Sierra Nevada Great Gray
Owls.
After three seasons of getting lost in
Yosemite National Park--and
loving every minute of it--he
is ready for his next adventure in Duluth.
Ryan's other
interests include photography, hiking,
backpacking, basketball, and sleeping in the
back of his truck on long road
trips. |
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dgross@hawkridge.org |
Dave Grosshuesch is
originally from Howard's Grove, WI and now
lives in Duluth, Minnesota. Dave
got
involved in field research in 1991,
and has worked on
many projects,
including nesting studies, surveys, and
migration banding in
Wisconsin, Louisiana, California, British
Columbia, Minnesota, and North Dakota.
He also worked with
mammals on the Canada Lynx project
in Minnesota. He earned a B.S. in
Wildlife Management and Biology at the
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in
1994 and began
working at Hawk Ridge in 1995
as a raptor bander. A year later he
started his passerine study
and bands an average of 5,400 birds each
fall season. He continues to
coordinate the passerine banding operation
while finishing up his master's
degree in biology at the University of
Minnesota Duluth AND working full time for
the US Forest Service. |
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Terry Hams is from
Warroad, MN and grew up watching wildlife--especially
birds. After five
years in the U.S. Navy,
Terry got out and went to college
at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
After graduating
in 2005, he
worked as a songbird bander at a MAPS
station on Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Terry also performed shorebird
surveys on Pt. Mugu,
California, worked with shorebirds
and ducks in Illinois
and Ohio and
performed songbird surveys throughout the
bogs of Northwestern Wisconsin.
Terry volunteered
at Hawk Ridge
at the overlook
and at the banding station and
is
banding passerines for a
second season. Terry is a grad student at UMD and
his thesis
topic is avian
predation on goldenrod
galls. |
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218.428.3539
dwaters@hawkridge.org |
Debbie Waters grew up near Marquette in
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She first became
enamored with birds while studying
ornithology at Northern Michigan University,
from which she received her B.S. in Ecology
in 1996. Debbie has worked on many avian
research projects: banding woodcock,
surveying loons, wetland bird surveys,
passerine surveys, raptor surveys and both
passerine and raptor nest monitoring, as
well as studying deer populations and
amphibians. She received her M.Ed. in
Environmental Education from the University
of Minnesota Duluth. Debbie
began her career as the Hawk Ridge
naturalist in the 2001 season, became the
education director in 2005, and continues to
enjoy sharing her passion for birds with
visitors. |
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218.348.2291
joconnor@hawkridge.org |
Julie O'Connor
is a Duluth original! Her family moved
to Alaska when she was young, where her dad
first introduced her to birds of prey--an
injured owl was dropped off at their house,
and he rehabilitated it (it was the 70's!).
After moving back to Minnesota, a few years
of "life on the farm" exposed her to
Minnesota's abundant ecosystem. Julie
spent ten years in
restaurant management before deciding to
return to the University of Minnesota
Duluth, where she earned her B.S.
in Outdoor Recreation and Environmental
Education. Her re-introduction to Hawk
Ridge as an adult occurred in 2001 while
attending a spring banding program with Dave
Grosshuesch and volunteering at the Main
Overlook that same fall. In 2002 she became
the volunteer coordinator and has been
leading the success of the volunteer program
ever since. |
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Beth Miller
grew up in Duluth about two miles from the
Ridge as the hawk flies, or about three
miles as the bike rides. She has visited
Hawk Ridge since about 1973, riding over on
bikes with friends during junior and senior
high school. (Never skipping class to do
this, of course.) Inspired by the "old" John
Denver song "The Eagle and The Hawk," she
caught the raptor bug in the early 1970's as
a result of these early visits to the Ridge.
She has been passionate (or obsessed) about
raptors ever since.
Beth has volunteered at the Ridge since the
volunteer program began in 2002, and joined
the staff in 2006. She got her B.A.S. in
Education from UMD too many years ago to
mention, and her M.Ed in Educational
Media/Technology from St. Scholastica in
1993. She moonlights as a fourth grade
science teacher in one of Duluth's public
schools, teaching science to fourth graders
for the last 16 years. She teaches her
students that migrating hawks are a
perfectly good reason to drop everything,
grab some binoculars and got outside to
check out the flight. Students have been
known to summon her from her from the
teachers' lounge if they spot a good hawk
flight during lunch recess, because spotting
a good hawk flight is worth extra credit in
science. |
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Brittnie Rosen grew up on a farm in southern
Minnesota where she first learned to love
the outdoors. She has a B.S. in Outdoor
Education and Recreation Studies from the
University of Minnesota Duluth.
Brittnie
has been with Hawk Ridge as an intern since
June, working as a naturalist at the
Peregrine Watch program and also performing
various internal organizational tasks.
She is very excited to be working for Hawk
Ridge where she is able to spend every day
observing the amazing raptor migration.
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Mariah grew up in Lake Elmo, Minnesota
spending her free time exploring the
outdoors near her house.
Her curiosity about nature and
wildlife developed at an
early age and stemmed from numerous camping
and canoeing trips into wilderness settings
across the U.S.
As she grew up,
her interest and love for nature and its
living creatures directed
her career path. She currently has
one year of classes left
at the University of Minnesota Duluth
and in May of 2009 she will graduate with an
Outdoor Education degree and a business
minor. Mariah had
developed an interest in birds and ever
since volunteering at Hawk Ridge in the fall
of 2006 she has become more fascinated with
them. Mariah has been
with Hawk Ridge as an intern since June,
working as a naturalist at the Peregrine
Watch program and also performing various
internal organizational tasks.
She feels very fortunate to have the
experience of
interning at Hawk Ridge and
is excited to be
working as a naturalist during the fall
migration. |
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Tara
Haynes grew up on the outskirts of Duluth,
spending much of her time exploring her
backyard deciduous forests and swamps. Since
graduating with a B.A. from the University
of Minnesota Duluth, Tara has spent years
working in education and social work, and
several summers working seasonal outdoor
jobs (in the BWCA, Alaska and Colorado) due
to her love of nature and adventure. In 2005
she first visited Hawk Ridge during the fall
migration and was captivated with the
display of a Red-tailed Hawk! Tara began
volunteering during the fall of 2006, joined
the staff in 2007 and she
is excited to continue learning about
raptors while educating Hawk Ridge's visitors
again this season.
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Sarah Glesner
has lived in Duluth her entire life, most of
that time spent looking up at Hawk Ridge.
Her love of the outdoors and of birds began
at an early age when her mother would take
her outside to watch kettles of hawks over
their home. This love of animals transformed
into a desire to educate. As a result, Sarah
spent two years volunteering at
the Lake Superior Zoo as a docent,
then working as the Junior Docent Coordinator
and now as their Volunteer Coordinator.
During her time at the zoo, she was able to
handle some wonderful little birds. After
staring into their beady little eyes, she
decided it was true love! This is Sarah's
second year up at the ridge as
staff; she was a
count
interpreter in 2007and she is thrilled to be part
of the team as a
naturalist again this
fall. |
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Erik
Bruhnke grew up in
Waukesha,
WI and has been passionate about
nature and the environment ever since he was
a young boy. Erik worked at Wild Birds
Unlimited through high school, and has been
captivated by birdwatching as a result of
this bird job. He graduated in May 2008 from
Northland
College in
Ashland,
WI with a B.S. in Natural
Resources and Biology. During his time at
college, he took advantage of the excellent
birding opportunities throughout
Chequamegon
Bay (Ashland/Bayfield
area). By the time of his graduation, Erik
had observed 248 species within a 30-40 mile
radius of campus. He teacher-assisted the
field ornithology & ornithology classes a
total of three times and also explored
northwestern
Mexico
on a ‘Birds of Mexico’ spring course. His
friends and faculty refer to him as ‘Birdman’
or ‘Birdfeeder.’
He thinks of birds as a healthy obsession,
which he loves to share with and inspire
others.
Earlier in 2008, Erik received the
‘Volunteer of the Year Award’ from the
Ashland Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Office, for conducting weekly migratory
waterfowl surveys throughout the past three
years. This past summer he worked in
North Dakota
conducting nest surveys & nest monitoring
along an oil pipeline installation.
Throughout the summer of 2007, he was
privileged to work with Dave Grosshuesch and
Jim Lind to conduct breeding bird surveys
for
University
of Minnesota
Duluth. Erik is
thrilled to be working at Hawk Ridge as a
count interpreter this fall!! |
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Katie Brown grew up in
Duluth, Minnesota. Despite
her longtime proximity to Hawk Ridge, she
first began visiting
Hawk Ridge as a volunteer in 2006. It was
there where she
was bitten by the “birding bug.” Katie
earned a B.S. in Ecology and Field Biology,
and a minor in Environmental Studies from
St. Cloud State University in 2003. Since
that time, Katie has worked with exotic
plant species, and an amphibian study in
the Dakotas. The
last two years she spent working as a
biologist in an environmental
laboratory. Katie is excited to be back
outdoors, and is thrilled to be a count
interpreter again this fall! |
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