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 she begins this exciting
position as the new executive director. She
hopes to promote stewardship for Hawk Ridge
and help others establish their special
lifelong connection to nature. |
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Eileen Muller Guerra
became interested in nature while spending
her childhood at her family’s shade-grown
organic coffee plantation in Veracruz,
Mexico. She became hooked on raptors when
volunteering at Pronatura’s River of Raptors
project in Veracruz, then moved on to become
an official hawk counter at Veracruz for
four seasons. She
has also counted raptors
at Whitefish Point, Michigan and the Sandia
Mountains, New Mexico. Apart from raptors,
she has also done passerine surveys in
Mexico and the United
States. Hawk Ridge had always been at
the top of her list, and now she is excited
to be able to witness our
famous goshawk, red-tail,
and eagle flights. |
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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 last fall, he has decided
raptors are pretty
cool, too. |
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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 banded an average of 5,400 birds each
fall season. He continues to
coordinate the passerine banding operation
while attending school for his master's
degree in biology at the University of
Minnesota Duluth. |
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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
last fall at Hawk Ridge
at the overlook
and at the banding station and
is helping with
banding this 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--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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Willow Maser grew up
east of Hinckley, Minnesota in the woods of
Pine County. Her fascination with nature
and all its creatures began at a very early
age. She has a B.S. in
Environmental Studies from the University of
Minnesota Duluth. After college she went
on to research the effects of herbicides on
biodiversity. Willow has worked and
volunteered for environmental non-profits
for several years and was the volunteer
coordinator for EAGLE. She is thrilled to
be a naturalist at Hawk Ridge again this
fall. |
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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 last year. 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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Laura Albert grew up in southwestern
Wisconsin right along the Wisconsin River
where sandstone bluffs watch its progress
towards the Mississippi. Growing up, Laura,
her parents and younger sister would often
explore the oak savannas and watch birds.
Part of these family days included
watching Bald Eagles fish by the river,
Red-tailed Hawks
soaring the bluffs, or the local Cooper's
Hawk named Fred that stalked the bird
feeders in the back yard. For Laura nature
has always been a passion. She is currently
a full time student double majoring in Vocal
Music and Outdoor Education and Recreation
degrees at the
University of Minnesota Duluth.
Laura volunteered with Hawk Ridge
in 2005, was hooked
after her first "sharpie"
release, was hired as a
naturalist in 2006 and is excited to be a part of the
staff again this year! |
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Connie Haugen |
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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 and she
is excited to continue learning about
raptors while educating Hawk Ridge's
school-aged visitors this season.
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Nick Van Lanen
originally hales from DePere, WI. He
attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison
where he received a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology
in December 2002. Nick has particpated in a
wide range of avian research projects
including Northern Spotted Owl demography
research, migration surveys, and nesting
studies. His work has taken him to Montana,
California, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Additionally, Nick spent eighteen months
leading interpretive tours at a privately
owned island off the coast of Georgia. Since
becoming "hooked" on birds he has developed
a particular interest regarding migration,
and is thrilled to be working at Hawk Ridge
this Fall.
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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
has spent the last two years volunteering at
the Lake Superior Zoo as a docent and
working as the Junior Docent 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
first year up at the ridge as count
interpreter and she is thrilled to be part
of the team.
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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 this fall! |
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Sacha Mkheidze spent his childhood in many
places all over the globe, and currently
resides in Montreal, Canada. He used to
make fun of people who worked with
birds--until he got a job at a wildlife
refuge working with prairie birds and
decided they weren't too bad! While living
on the wildlife refuge, he attended a
program about raptors, where he got to hold
a Prairie Falcon and he was hooked. Sacha
has worked in raptor rehabilitation, with
passerines all over the eastern U.S., and as
a raptor bander in New Mexico. But his
favorite job is banding hawks at Hawk Ridge! |
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Chris Hansen grew up
in Pipestone, MN and has always loved the
outdoors. He graduated from St Cloud State
with a BS in Wildlife Ecology in the spring
of 2007. Chris will be the owl bander this
fall and will also be helping a little with
the hawk banding |
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Brie Anderson
has known nothing but the outdoors all
her life. She
earned a degree in wildlife biology from
St.
Cloud State
University in
2006 and has enjoyed the randomness of
field work since graduating. This
is her first experience with raptors and
she is finding it fantastic.
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