Staff: Fall 2012

218.428.6209
jlong@hawkridge.org

Janelle Long grew up in Greenfield, WI where her childhood days were filled with explorations of any nearby forest, field, or pond.  The connections she made with 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 Minnesota 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 continues 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. 

My name is Katie Swanson (recently married and changed from Borg). I grew up in Rochester, Minnesota and moved up to Duluth in the summer of 2007. I attended school at UMD and I’m doing my internship to complete my bachelor’s degree in Outdoor and Environmental Education. I chose Hawk Ridge as a place for my internship because of my keen interest in birds and past experiences of working and volunteering here.  I volunteered at Hawk Ridge for two years previous and developed a strong connection with the organization.  Interning at Hawk Ridge offers unique experiences from working as a Naturalist and being a public face as well as being involved with the inner workings of a non-profit organization.  Seeing both sides of an organization is very beneficial for gaining different skills that will be needed in my career.

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 raptors migrating north in Minnesota along the West Skyline Parkway of Duluth. 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.

Although Karl Bardon has traveled around the country doing various field projects with birds, his favorite jobs are those spent counting birds. 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 fourth season as a raptor counter and also the passerine counter!

Chris Neri grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and got his start in raptor banding by working with owls at Cape May, New Jersey. He banded hawks and owls in the Goshute Mountains of Nevada, where he started the Flammulated Owl research program. He has banded hawks in the Manzanos Mountains of New Mexico with his partner, Nova Mackentley. Chris and Nova are the spring and summer owl banders at their home in Whitefish Point, Michigan. He is returning for his second season at Hawk Ridge.

Sam Roberts:I grew up in Western Massachusetts, making my way to Minnesota to attend Carleton College.  Though my undergraduate degree prepared me as a geologist, my final course in college was Ornithology, a subject that quickly caught my attention and led me to the world of field biology after graduation in 2008.  For the past four years I have been working as an avian field biologist for a variety of research projects throughout the United States and Central America, mostly banding birds, but also doing point counts (auditory surveys) during the breeding season.  In the fall of 2010 I was a raptor bander at Hawk Ridge and, after sorely missing the 2011 season, I am exciting to be back for another fall migration, this time around focusing my efforts on owl banding!

218.348.2291
joconnor@hawkridge.org

Gail Johnejack grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin. She has lived and worked in Utah, California, Arkansas, Alaska, and Minnesota. Her love of nature began early, during family backpacking trips across the western United States and from her mother’s passion for environmental education with children. Gail began her nature work as a camper with the Youth Conservation Corps, following up as a counselor a few years later. She worked for the Forest Service for 13 years as a hydrologist and botanist. After a break for two children, she taught pre-school at a nature center. It was there that she recognized the same fit her mother had discovered years before: sharing love of nature with others. She recently earned her Post-Graduate Certificate in Environmental Education at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Working with raptors and people at Hawk Ridge is, for Gail, “Livin’ the Dream.”

Jessica Chatterton

Erik Bruhnke grew up in Waukehsa, WI, and has been enthusiastic about nature and the environment ever since he was a young boy. In 2008 he graduated from Northland College in Ashland, WI with a B.S. in Natural Resources and Biology. Erik teacher-assisted field ornithology twice and ornithology once, then he was privileged to teach his own field ornithology course. He also received the ‘Volunteer of the Year Award’ from the Ashland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office for conducting weekly migratory waterfowl surveys throughout his college career. 

Erik has worked on various projects, including surveys in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (Upper Michigan) and the Chequemagon/Nicolet, Superior, and Chippewa National Forests, surveying the shortgrass prairies for breeding birds and monitoring the populations of Greater Prairie Chickens & Sharp-tailed Grouse in North Dakota. Erik spent this past summer working in the mountains of western Oregon conducting cavity nest surveys. This fall season is his third year as a count interpreter at Hawk Ridge, and he is fantastically thrilled to teach visitors all about raptors and migration!

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.

Gretchen McDaniel was raised in the Detroit, MI area and went to school at Michigan State University in E. Lansing, MI. She became a veterinary technician and worked in a local clinic for a year and then at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Michigan State for eighteen years. Gretchen also received a BS in horticulture and completed  massage therapy program while working at MSU. After moving to Duluth in 2003, she became a Hawk Ridge volunteer and quickly became "hooked" on birds and the people of HRBO.  In 2010 Gretchen completed the Minnesota Master Naturalist Northwoods course to facilitate her other volunteer interests.  As a substitute naturalist, she looks forward to the experience of learning more about raptors and their migration so she can share it with the public. 

Jessamy Schwartz grew up in Maple Grove, MN and began her love of the outdoors through climbing trees in the nearby county park and attending youth naturalist programs at Eastman Nature Center. Her addiction to birds really took off as an intern at The Raptor Center. Thinking that she would never get that amazing opportunity with raptors again, she went head first into the world of Environmental Education and ended up working with raptors at Carpenter Nature Center, Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, and most recently the Vermont Institute of Natural Science. Thus she learned the valuable lesson "never say never." Six years ago, she visited Hawk Ridge during Hawk Weekend and it was rainy and cold and very few birds. Despite the weather, she never forgot the dedicated and passionate people that worked at and visited the Ridge. As a graduate student in Environmental Education at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Jessamy decided there was no better way to spend a day than up at Hawk Ridge surrounded by raptors and bird enthusiasts. 

Lizzy Schnabel grew up in Lino Lakes, MN. She is finishing her senior year at UMD majoring in biology, and plans to attend veterinary school after she graduates. Lizzy first became interested in birds when her dad taught her how to identify Red-tailed hawks when she was five. In addition to volunteering at Hawk Ridge, Lizzy spent a summer working at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha and has volunteered with other banding projects in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Her favorite bird of prey is the Osprey. 

Kaitlin Erpestad: Hawk Ridge has been one of my haunts ever since I was a little girl. I grew up in Duluth running and biking through the area and enjoying the view. Now, it's a pleasure to be up at the overlook in a different context learning and enjoying the birds together with the birding community. After college at St. Olaf I spent three years living and teaching in Finland, Europe. In 2006 I moved to Finland, MN, to teach, learn, and play at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center with my husband, Matti. Some of the learning opportunities included bird banding and identification and how to handle the education raptors. I jump at any chance to handle and learn about birds, little and big, and to be out in the fresh air learning and teaching.

Matti Erpestad: Looking towards Lake Superior from the overlook at Hawk Ridge I see Lakeside School, where I spent my childhood playing endlessly on the playground.  After high school in Duluth I ended up in Saint Paul at Macalester College studying Hispanic Studies and Political Science, but during my summers I worked in the North Woods leading canoe trips in the Boundary Waters.  After college, my home moved further north and much further east to Joensuu in North Karelia, Finland. Throughout those four years I acquainted myself with the woods studying plants, animals, rocks, stars, mushrooms, and Finnish wilderness skills and ways of hiking and camping at an outdoor school. In 2009 I moved from Finland to Finland, MN with my wife Kaitlin to reacquaint myself with my new home with two years as a naturalist at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center. There I worked with education raptors and fell in love with bird banding.  I am now returning to Duluth after ten years to complete the Master of Environmental Education at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and you will surely find me at the overlook sharing my love of birds both large and small with whoever comes to listen.