In recent years, the MOU presents as many as four awards annually to recognize those with achievements in the following categories:
These awards are presented each year at the MOU’s Paper Session/Annual Meeting, typically held on the first Saturday in December. Award descriptions and the names of all previous Award recipients are listed below and the presentation speeches for the awards are available from 2009 and forward.
To nominate someone for an award, please provide the Awards Committee a description of the contributions which you believe makes your nominee a candidate to receive an award. Your written description typically forms the basis for the award presentations, and we encourage you to present the award should your nominee win. We know that not everyone is comfortable speaking publicly or writing a presentation, so please contact us if you would like assistance in either regard. Nominations are due no later than October 15 and can be emailed to Awards Committee Chair Liz Harper at awards@moumn.org (if you prefer to send your nomination by mail or other means, please contact Liz via email for assistance). Thank-you for your interest in MOU’s Awards!
Throughout the year, the Awards Committee issues Certificates of Appreciation to
individuals, businesses, or others with a "rare" bird on their property who provide access for visiting birders. A complimentary MOU membership is included with a Certificate for non-MOU members. The following are criteria which could be relevant when a Certificate is proposed:
Please contact Liz Harper, chair of the Awards Committee, if you would like to propose that a Certificate of Appreciation be issued. The awards chairman can be reached at awards@moumn.org. Thank-you!
See the following for the names of the recipients from previous years. These awards are presented each year at the MOU's Papers Session / Annual Meeting, and the texts of these presentations since 2009 which are still available are included below. Click on the 
in front of the name to see the presentation text.
1963 - Mary I. Lupient
1964 - Walter J. Breckenridge
1965 - Ernest D. Swedenborg
1966 - A. C. Rosenwinkel
1968 - Brother Theodore Voelker
1969 - Pershing B. (Jack) Hofslund
1970 - Jane C. Olyphant
1971 - Evelyn J. Putnam
1972 - Karen & Whitney Eastman
1973 - Alden F. Risser
1974 - Dwain W. Warner
1975 - Janet C. Green
1976 - Robert B. Janssen
1977 - John E. Mathisen
1978 - Max L. Partch
1979 - Kim R. Eckert
1980 - William H. Bryson
1981 - Donald & Wynn Mahle
1982 - Elizabeth M. Campbell
1983 - Harrison B. (Bud) Tordoff
1984 - Goodman K. Larson
1985 - Josephine & Steve Blanich
1986 - George N. Rysgaard
1987 - Molly & David Evans
1988 - Raymond A. Glassel
1989 - Donald A. Bolduc
1990 - Warren E. Nelson
1991 - Chuck & Micki Buer
1992 - Terry L. Savaloja
1993 - Gustav A. Swanson
1994 - Carrol L. Henderson
1995 - Frank J. Nicoletti
1996 - Kathlyn A. Heidel
1997 - Bruce A. Fall
1998 - Carol A. Schumacher
1999 - Oscar L. Johnson
2000 - Peder H. Svingen
2001 - Elizabeth Bell
2002 - Robert E. Holtz
2003 - Anthony X. Hertzel
2004 - Terry P. Wiens
2005 - Pam S. Perry
2006 - Dorene H. Scriven
2007 - Arden M. Aanestad
2008 - David A. Cahlander
2009 - Paul M. Egeland
Written and presented by Kim Eckert
He will certainly not be receiving our Young Birder of the Year Award: that award would need to have existed over 40 years ago for him to ever have been eligible.
But this person was our unanimous choice for the T. S. Roberts Award, an award which honors someone's both present and past contributions to the MOU. And accomplishments from earlier years are too easily forgotten in today's age of instant internet gratification, in this era of What have you done for me lately?
And past is the operative word here. Just listen to a few of this recipient's contributions:
- Wrote several Notes of Interest in The Loon, the first of these in 1966;
- Compiled several seasonal reports in The Loon, the first in 1970;
- Was one of the original members of the MOU's Records Committee, back in 1974;
- Found no fewer than five first state records: in 1971, 1975, twice in 1982, and 1998;
- Also discovered three other possible but unconfirmed first state records, the first of these in the 1950s.
So, these notable contributions may not have come recently. Perhaps, though, you'd be impressed by his devotion to family? You know, like the politician caught in some scandal who always claims he wants to retire "to spend more time with his family". So, while growing up, was birding time sacrificed when family duties called? According to his only sibling, here's our recipient's scandal-ridden past:
- Every time he had to go into town to pick me up, we had to go by some lakes on the way home....and sometimes further....I have to say that some of the roads I have been taken on were VERY interesting.
- My mother, if she sent him to town for groceries, had to remind him she needed them immediately, otherwise he would ALWAYS take a detour on the way home.
- When he was supposed to weed the garden, it took him several hours, a LONG time, to accomplish the task since he had to look at every bird that flew over.
- If he came to stay at my house, and there would be a rare bird alert, he'd be gone all day and then come back in time for dinner....or sometimes HE DID NOT RETURN AT ALL.
But if devotion to family did not get in the way of birding time, neither does birding now take time away from his commitment and financial generosity to numerous conservation organizations. To name just a few:
- Our own MOU, as past board member, past treasurer, and life member;
- The Nature Conservancy;
- Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve;
- Minnesota Land Trust, as treasurer;
- Sierra Club Political Action Committee, also as treasurer;
- Minnesota Audubon, as board member and finance chairman.
A close friend reports he probably gives half his income to charity. An on-line organization, GiveMN.org, has a Give to the Max Day, and she says he contributed financially to 30 charities that one day. And, she added, I think that is just a small portion of what he gives yearly.
Even though I've known him since the 1960s, this generosity was something I was mostly unaware of. But what I do know is this:
- He helped lead & organize several MOU Salt Lake Weekends, starting in the 1970s.
- His Minnesota list is 394 species, even though he does NOT normally pursue staked-out rarities: only six other Minnesota lists are higher.
- He and I have birded together countless times over the years: including that time we found five singing Baird's Sparrows at Felton Prairie, back in 1970.
- Including when he spotted a Boreal Owl, a lifer for both of us at the time, and my 300th Minnesota year bird....back in December of 1977.
- Including several Big Days, including the team that set the Minnesota record of 192 species: in 1983, a record that would stand for nearly 20 years.
- His ability to hear birds remains phenomenal, far better than mine (even at his advanced age....I hope he didn't hear that).
- Most remarkably, except for just one year while serving in Vietnam, he was the compiler for over 45 consecutive years of the Cottonwood CBC, since the early 1960s.
- But probably his most renowned feat is the bird list of the yard and home where he grew up, in Cottonwood, Lyon County: 235 species! This list goes back on paper to at least 1957, and it eventually came to be known to some of us as Your Uncle Paul's Mother's Garden.
Here, often while reporting he was down on his hands and knees in his Mother's garden, something like a first-state-record Western Wood-Pewee would start singing, or a Long-billed Curlew would fly overhead.
And, 50 years after that very first notation of yard birds was scribbled down, I'm proud to say I saw species #235 on that list, a Sabine's Gull in 2007. Finally, a year from the present millennium!
Uncle Paul may be a nickname he's never really cared for, since it originated for reasons unknown in the 1970s. But Paul is truly one of the nicest guys I've ever known, whose patience and temperament are legendary, someone whom I've never actually seen lose his temper in over 40 years, whose civility from the past is so sorely needed in the present. If he disliked that nickname, he's always been too polite to say so.
But allow me to say it one more time, and award the 2009 Thomas Sadler Roberts Award to Your Uncle Paul and Mine....PAUL M EGELAND.
2010 - Al E. Batt
Written and presented by Kim Eckert
Before presenting the Thomas Sadler Roberts Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to Minnesota ornithology and birding, public speakers are often advised to open with a joke or two:
You heard about not touching something with a 10-foot pole...."I wouldn't touch the Metric System with a 3.048 meter pole."
"I think the number one problem in this country is that nobody wants to take responsibility for anything, but don't quote me on that."
"Interstate highways bring a true appreciation of exit signs."
"Food for thought can cause indigestion."
I wish I could take credit for these thoughts, but they come from someone else, someone who started birding when he was 11 years old. As he wrote.... "I was given a bird book published by Capper's Weekly. It was a tremendous book. It was a pleasure to be able to put a name on the birds I was seeing and hearing. Shortly after getting this book, I made the decision to become the "Birdman" of Hartland, Minnesota [pop. 288]. There seemed to be an opening in that position. There was only one thing preventing me from becoming the "Birdman," I had no binoculars. What kind of a "Birdman" could I be without binoculars?"
Soon afterwards, he got his first pair of binoculars, and presumably he became the Birdman of his home town. He also began a lifetime of experiences and insights that he now shares with countless people – far more than 288 – as he has become the Birdman of sorts of numerous hometowns throughout the country. I wonder if there's a bird club or birding festival or other gathering of birders in or near Minnesota that has not heard him speak.
According to his website's biography....
- He speaks at various festivals, conferences, and conventions all over the United States. According to his spouse, these speaking engagements are indeed numerous: no fewer than 14 in September and 12 in October.
- He writes humor and nature columns for many publications, being featured in Smithsonian Magazine, Minneapolis Star-Tribune & St. Paul Pioneer Press, Writer's Digest, the Bird Watchers Digest publication Minnesota Bird Watching, and MOU's own Minnesota Birding newsletter.
- He does a regular radio show about nature on a number of radio stations, including WCCO and KFAN, and commentaries for public radio. He hosted "Movies You Could Watch With Your Mother" for public television, and appeared weekly on “Memories and Musings” on KSMQ-TV in Austin MN.
- He writes for a number of nationally syndicated comic strips, for radio, and the movies.
- He has written jokes FOR a former President of the United States [not sure which one, but this has to be a lot harder than writing jokes ABOUT one].
In addition....
- He leads field trips, tours, birding classes, in-school programs, has been a Christmas Bird Count compiler, and volunteers at several state parks.
- Member of the Iowa Ornithologists' Union, American Birding Association, Mankato Bird Club.
- Board member of Friends of Hormel Nature Center and American Bald Eagle Foundation in Haines, Alaska.
- President of Albert Lea Audubon Society and of our own Minnesota Ornithologists' Union.
- And he has been named Birder of the Year by WildBird Magazine and has received the Ed Franey Conservation Media Award from the Minnesota Izaak Walton League.... so it's long overdue that he be recognized by the MOU.
His spouse, of course, knows him better than any of us, and she has sent him the following:
Congratulations! I can think of no one more deserving of this award than you. (Of course, I also thought you should have been given the Nobel Prize for Literature years ago.) However, there are a few things about you that your fellow bird lovers [that's us] should know:
1. You are a menace to public safety....
a) You have been known to swerve erratically across the highway if an errant bird (or butterfly or wooly-bear caterpillar) gets too close to your vehicle. Luckily, we live in a rural area without abundant traffic issues, so your antics have not landed me in traction yet.
b) You have been known to block the efficient flow of traffic in parking lots by standing in the middle of a lane to get a better look at a flock of birds passing overhead.
c) The merits of your gun-stock mounted spotting scope are sometimes questionable these days.
2. You tend to forget some important facts when birds are around....
a) Canoes need TWO people holding paddles to make it work……if you drop your paddle in the river because you saw a bird and need to get your binoculars for a closer look, we have a problem.
b) Not ALL birds WANT their picture taken…….ask him about baby Turkey Vultures and the projectile vomiting incident.
c) If there’s a bird carcass in the freezer, make sure YOU are not the only person aware of this fact.
d) If you really, REALLY like that hat, don’t wear it when you go birding.
3. You’re superstitious, thinking that....
a) If you leave the house without your binoculars, you’ll need them.
b) If you leave the house without your camera, the perfect bird photo will be missed.
4. You made a bird-lover out of this rural Minnesota farm girl and thousands of other people, and you continue to add converts to that list with each radio show you do, each talk you give, and each newspaper column you write. If you live long enough, maybe the whole world will see the light and stop destroying the beauty that we appreciate each and every day.
5. You’re a bird-brain, but that’s why I love you.
[Please remember this is his wife speaking, not me!]
Some final observations from our award recipient....
- When asked about the first story he published: "A story about the annoying habits of a mythical neighbor named Crandall. He is still mythical and he still annoys me."
- He credits Dick & Jane children's books with being a positive influence: "I learned everything I need to know about birding from Dick when he said to Jane one day, 'Look, Jane, look!' "
- And finally: "My faithful canine companion, Towhee [described as a Belgian Airhead], died recently. I shall miss her. I hope to one day be the kind of man she thought I was."
But Towhee was indeed a good judge of character, and our recipient of the 2010 T S Roberts award has nothing to worry about, is indeed the kind of human we'd all like to be. I can think of no one who has reached out to more people – both birders and non-birders alike, in his countless speaking engagements and writings and broadcasts, with his insights, anecdotes, and especially humor – bringing entertainment and an appreciation for birds to so many.
Accordingly, I also can think of no one more deserving of this award, no one with more outstanding contributions to Minnesota ornithology and birding, than AL BATT.
2011 - James P. Mattsson
This portion of the presentation was written by Peder Svingen; additional comments by Kim Eckert and Donn Mattsson not included.
Thank you for inviting me to the presentation of the Roberts Award to Jim Mattsson this Saturday. This prestigious award is well-deserved and it would be a privilege to attend the presentation. Unfortunately, I recently learned of the unexpected death of my cousin. I am currently in North Dakota to be with my family and attend memorial services. I would like to share some thoughts about Jim's accomplishments in Minnesota birding.
I am not sure when I first met Jim, but I am sure that I heard about him long before meeting him in person. Agassiz NWR has always been one of my favorite spots for birding in Minnesota. Several years ago, Jeanie Joppru, Shelley Steva, and I were asked to review and help update the Agassiz NWR checklist. We carefully scrutinized every record and were amazed to see the number and variety of unusual species that had been found and documented by Jim during his tenure.
In 2004, Jeanie and I decided to expand out volunteer effort to create a database of every Agassiz NWR bird record ever published in The Loon, North American Birds, or other ornithological journals including Auk and Condor. We also included personal records from the three of us and anyone else we could think of including Sarah Vasse. Jeanie spent countless hours going through the paper files at the refuge including the logs of daily sightings by visitors and staff. The electronic database project took several years to complete but the refuge now has a searchable compilation of all known bird records from the refuge. We also included sightings of mammals and invertebrates, and notes on phenology of the area. Once again, we were amazed by the sheer number of records contributed by Jim. Does Jim remember his sightings of gray wolf 22 May 1988 at the Webster Trail Diversion and 18 January 1988 at Elm Lake?
I went through the Agassiz NWR database to extract Jim's noteworthy records and soon got overwhelmed by the sheer number of records. Some of more unusual records include one of the state's few mid-summer records of Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Agassiz Pool 25 June 1980, a Ruff at Parker Pool 10 May 1985, that famous first state record of Ross's Gull at Agassiz Pool 4 April 1984, and a Sage Thrasher at Lower CCC Pool 13-14 May 1985. Jim also reported Cinnamon Teal at Agassiz Pool 5 May 1980, Surf Scoter at Webster Pool 6 October 1988, Little Blue Heron at Westgate Road 13 May 1980 and Agassiz Pool 30 May 1985, Tricolored Heron at Agassiz Pool 25 June 1986, Ferruginous Hawk at John's Field 9 April 1982, at least three Gyrfalcons at Agassiz, Common Gallinule at Agassiz Pool 26 July 1982, Northern Hawk Owl at Headquarters 19 December 1983, Loggerhead Shrike at Parker Pool 11 May 1988, and Sprague's Pipit at the Northeast Corner 6 May 1980. Many of these represent first records for the refuge and in some cases, the only record for Agassiz.
My appreciation and respect for Jim deepened during the time that he served on the MOU Records Committee. He carefully and objectively evaluated the documentation and offered thoughtful comments in support of his conclusions. During my tenure as Chairman of MOURC, Jim was my "go to guy" for anything related to waterfowl. He clearly understood plumage and molt and applied this knowledge to the records he evaluated. On those rare occasion when his own records were not accepted by the Committee, he accepted the decision gracefully and never became argumentative or defensive. When records were discussed at one of our meetings, his comments were always meaningful and evidence-based.
In addition to the rare birds that he found himself, Jim provided written and photographic documentation for countless records of unusual birds found by others. He also had a knack for noticing unexpected bird behavior, unusual plumage, or atypical habitat. He followed up on these observations with scientific curiosity and the results were often astonishing.
For example, he found Minnesota's first Common X Barrow's Goldeneye 1 January 2008 and subsequently co-authored an article on the occurrence of this hybrid in the state. He noticed unusual plumage in a pair of Merlins at Acacia Cemetery and subsequently documented nesting by the "Prairie" Merlin at this southern Minnesota location. He discovered a nesting pair of Yellow-throated Warblers at Acacia Cemetery 11 June 2001. He also documented hybridization between a female Scarlet Tanager and a male Summer Tanager at Lebanon Hills Regional Park in 2003.
Here are some of the unusual birds that he found after leaving Agassiz:
Barrow's Goldeneye in Dakota County, 27 December 2004;
Red-throated Loon in Murray County, 7 June 2003;
Red-throated Loon in Dakota County, 29 April 2004;
Red-throated Loon in Dakota County, 30 April 2006;
Gyrfalcon in Dakota County, 19 January 2004 and 25 December 2005;
Western Sandpiper in Dakota County, 13-14 May 2010;
Ruff in Dakota County, 17 May 2004 and another 14 May 2009;
Black-legged Kittiwake at Black Dog Lake, 7 December 2005;
Sabine's Gulls at Duluth 20 September 2006
Slaty-backed Gull at Black Dog Lake 3 December 2006 (second state record);
Slaty-backed Gull near Point Douglas 14 january 2007 (third state record);
Arctic Tern at Lake Byllesby, Dakota County 13 May 2009;
Prairie Warbler at Ritter Farm Park, Dakota County 6 June 2005;
Golden-crowned Sparrow in his Eagan backyard 25 March 2009.
Congratulations to Jim Mattsson on receiving the Roberts Award!
2012 - Fred Z. Lesher
Written and presented by Kim Eckert
One thing I've always found interesting about Tony is his middle initial – X. Anthony X Hertzel. (I assume it stands for Xavier rather than xylophone?) But equally fascinating has always been the middle initial of this year's T S Roberts Award recipient – Z. Would that be Z for zany, zest, zenith, Zachary, something else? And another question. Why my obsession with middle initials and does this mean I need to get a life?
Probably so, but rest assured our Roberts award recipient doesn't have that problem, having had a long and eventful birding career – sometimes zany, often filled with zest, and at its zenith more accomplished than most previous Roberts award winners.
Even his non-birding experiences reflect this. He took a sabbatical leave from the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, where he was a professor of English for 33 years, to study ravens – not an ornithological inquiry, but their place in mythology, religion, communications, and literature. He once set out to canoe the length of the Mississippi River from Itasca State Park to the Gulf of Mexico (I think he had to give up around Grand Rapids). But he and a friend did canoe the Churchill River in Canada: they drove to Thompson, Manitoba, loaded the canoe on a train's baggage car, got dropped off literally in the middle of nowhere as the tracks neared the river, and canoed the rest of the way to Hudson Bay. And I think the only photo he ever sent me during the many years I've known and birded with him was not of a bird, but something atop a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River – a Timber Rattlesnake.
More to the point here are his birding accomplishments, of course, which were especially noteworthy because they involved three states – not just Minnesota, but also Wisconsin and Iowa. He began birding back in the early 1950s in Clinton, Iowa, his hometown, joined the Iowa Ornithologists' Union, and for years associated with the stalwarts of Iowa ornithology: birders like Pete Peterson, Darwin Koenig (who banded Cliff Swallows with him on the Iowa River), and especially Fred Kent. As Fred's son Tom Kent told me: "He corresponded with my dad for many years, and those letters and notes are at the Iowa State Historical Society in Iowa City." (And how many of us can say our letters and notes are archived by a state's historical society?!)
After moving to La Crosse, he served as president of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology and was honored twice, most recently in 2011, with a WSO Passenger Pigeon award, the equivalent of our T S Roberts Award. He was a regional coordinator for the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas, led numerous field trips in the La Crosse area, and was a renowned birding contact, often interviewed by the local media, and contributing to several articles about birds. In 1998, he was the first one contacted by La Crosse homeowners who had a strange, unidentified hummingbird at their feeders, and he helped confirm its identity as a Green Violetear (later named Lars by the homeowners – presumably in honor of our Young Birder of the year).
And now, a brief poetic interlude. After all, both our recipient and I (as well as Dave Benson) are members of POEM – the Professional Organization of English Majors. This will be in a time-honored and revered form of traditional verse, and some basic knowledge of southeastern Minnesota geography might enhance this rich cultural experience....
There once was a man from La Crosse,
Three state lines he often would cross.
Winona County he birded
Whose town names included
Rollingstone, where he gathered no moss.
But enough about Iowa and Wisconsin. In Minnesota, his accomplishments included:
- serving as MOU president for three consecutive years, 1966-67-68 (remember, he was also WSO president, and how many of us can say we were presidents of two state bird clubs?!);
- assisting Bob Anderson who established Peregrine Falcon nesting sites in Minnesota and elsewhere along the Mississippi River;
- establishing a raptor count site near Reno in Houston County;
- designing the "Lansing Loop", a three-state birding route with a booklet to sites along the Mississippi;
- in 2001, co-authoring the book "A Birder's Guide to Houston County";
- writing several presidents page columns, book reviews, notes, and articles for "The Loon", including accounts of both King Rails and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons breeding in La Crescent;
- in 1967, discovering and documenting the first Acadian Flycatcher nesting record in the state;
And we have this memory from Janet Green, who really wanted to be here to present this award but is traveling out of state....
"In the early days of birding in Minnesota, five decades ago, practically every bird was new and exciting. The most memorable experience with him was on December 17, 1966 in Grand Marais when we chased a shorebird that he had first spotted flying over the water. He finally found it under the docks at the fishing shacks and got a good enough look to identify it, but I only saw it as it again flew across the water. We could not relocate it even with using flashlights along the now dark shoreline. The bird was a Purple Sandpiper, Minnesota's first record." (In the following 45 years, up until last year, there were only four additional records.)
But no, he wasn't perfect, and apparently his most horrific fault involved his notion that the MOU and "The Loon" focused too much on listing and not enough on poetry. Imagine that – an English professor interested in poetry! Why at the very least, this dangerous radical ought to have his MOU membership revoked. Another poem....
Roses are red, of violets I croon
Poetry's nice, but not in The Loon
Whether or not there is too much emphasis on listing, he actually has the distinction of being the very first MOU member to write an article for Birding magazine, publication of the American Birding Association. This was back in 1974, the title was "Listing Eponymous Species Homonymously Eponymously Reviewed", and it poked fun at listing by suggesting birders look for species named for someone with the same name as – or related to – their birding companions. For example.... (read 2 excerpts from article)
Some might suggest our recipient hasn't done as much recently, compared to former years, but that's of no matter if this award can be defined as an honor for lifetime achievement. It's precisely those people and contributions from years ago we should call attention to. An award not only reveals something about the recipient, but also about the organization presenting the award. Is the MOU perceptive enough to recognize someone's contributions from decades past, before it's too late, before they're forgotten altogether, before you (as I did some years ago) meet an old friend by chance, who was running away from home, from his 60th birthday, camped out alone on the Gunflint Trail, wondering if he was ever noticed? Can we postpone updating our Facebook pages, sending those text messages, and posting those tweets long enough to remember, as Jan said, "the early days of birding in Minnesota, when practically every bird was new and exciting"?
One last poem before we present the 2012 Thomas Sadler Roberts Award "For Outstanding Contributions to Minnesota Ornithology and Birding". A simple haiku, just three lines of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables:
The Roberts Award
well deserved, long overdue
Frederick Z Lesher
2013 - Steve Millard
Written and presented by Kim Eckert
I'd like to begin the presentation for this year's T S Roberts award recipient with the comments of his friends, Sandy and Dan Thimgan of Battle Lake. (And let's assign him a fictitious name now so I don't have to keep saying "he" all the time – oh, I don't know, let's just call him Steve.)
The Thimgans write:
"Steve is a birding icon in the west-central part of Minnesota. He’s the glue that sticks the local birding community together. His long-term commitment to birds and birding is immeasurable. If you want to know anything about birds in our area or in general, just ask Steve.
Known locally as “The Birdman of Fergus Falls,” Steve has led countless birding field trips, given numerous bird talks, been endlessly quoted in the area newspapers whenever a comment from a local, knowledgeable birder was required. He has been the compiler of the Fergus Falls and Battle Lake CBCs for many years.
Statewide, Steve has contributed 30+ years of seasonal reports to the MOU, identifying many first-county records, and documenting numerous rarities. He is especially known for his 75+ sightings of Prairie Falcon, helping to put this species on Minnesota’s regular list. He is a member of MOU’s exclusive Roberts Club, having seen 384 species in Minnesota.
He is a veteran of many breeding bird surveys, point counts, and Common Loon monitoring, and has been an active and generous supporter of Friends of Sax-Zim Bog and Hawk Ridge, where he has served as back-up counter on occasion.
In truth, Steve is a man so modest we know he’s a bit embarrassed to be receiving this award. But, we know he feels deeply honored to be receiving it. He deserves it.
Perhaps the best story about Steve cannot be aired at this venue, and those who directly participated have been sworn to secrecy. Even Steve does not know some of this story, and that’s why it can’t be shared with this audience. Your loss. But, that will only add to the mystique of Steve Millard, master Minnesota birder."
[I don't know what Dan & Sandy meant by this. For all I know, they just made it up. You never know what goes on in their collective minds. After all, to celebrate Dan's birthday a few years ago, they decided to visit all 15 sewage ponds in Otter Tail County in one day.]
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As nicely written as their tribute is, there is much more to say about Steve....
From author and photographer Dudley Edmondson of Duluth:
"I cannot recall a time when I did not know Steve, just as I can't imagine Minnesota birding without him. In my book, he's one of Minnesota's ornithological greats."
From Jo and Steve Blanich, former T S Roberts award recipients themselves:
"Steve is always very willing to share his talents and observations. We have many memories of good times birding with him at the Duluth Hawk Weekends. He has such a keen eye and is always concerned with the birds themselves. We think Steve epitomizes an outstanding birder and are thrilled that he will be receiving this award."
His brother Pat remembers when Steve came home from Vietnam in the early '70s, with a great interest in the different species of birds he was seeing, and right away taking field notes and striving for accuracy in his identifications. (And Steve recalls several trips in 1972 from Fergus Falls to Alexandria and seeing lots of egrets along I-94 "although", he says, "not knowing their proper name".) After 40 years, Pat continues, Steve has accumulated some amazing achievements and "made his family, friends and local community more aware of nature and the bird life that surround all of us."
From Steve's wife – well, let's call her, uh, how about Diane:
"One of our most memorable, recent birding trips was on February 16, 2013 in the Roseau area. We drove up Highway 310 and turned on the Sprague Creek Road, and started to see Great Gray Owls. Everywhere! In a three-hour span we saw 59 of them!" [And keep in mind this was just last winter, not the big winter of '04-'05 when you couldn't go out and not see a few dozen Great Grays.] Diane goes on to say they would have seen many more owls but they had to leave for Thief River Falls to watch their nephew play basketball. [And you have to wonder if someone like Karl Bardon would have done the same thing....]
She goes on to say that their yard in a conventional residential neighborhood in Fergus Falls has been recognized with a "bird and wildlife friendly" certificate from the National Wildlife Federation. Indeed, their yard list includes no fewer than 164 species, with an amazing total of 93 of these seen at their water feature. As Diane puts it: "The birds eat better than we do."
As for my memories:
- What first comes to mind, when I was teaching in nearby Ashby in the early '70s, it was Steve who taught me how to say "Ferg" like a seasoned local, with no need to call it Fergus Falls like some big-city tourist from the Twin Cities would.
- On the unlikely date of the 4th of July in 1981, Steve and Diane and I were at Park Point in Duluth, and, with too many of those big-city tourists from the Twin Cities around, we walked away from the crowds to the nearby Sky Harbor airport runway only to discover a first-state-record Wilson's Plover – a quite unexpected species at an odd time of year which no one thought then could ever occur this far from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
- And there was this road trip with Steve in 1976.... But permit me to let him describe it....
[Steve's handwritten account]
....What Steve does not mention is how he drove that Jeep into the ditch once, and that the mystery gallinaceous bird looked all-white, and I still wonder to this day if we might have seen a ptarmigan!
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Besides that Wilson's Plover, Steve was also involved with the first-state-record Vermilion Flycatcher in November 1977, since he was the first one called by the person who discovered it on his land in Otter Tail County, so that Steve could spread the word. Notably as well, in Duluth on October 15 three years later, he gained the distinction of being the first – and probably still the only – Minnesota birder to see all three jaegers in a single day.
His other discoveries over the years, all in Otter Tail or other nearby counties, include: Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, at least 2 Barrow's Goldeneyes, Mississippi Kite, at least 5 Ferruginous Hawks, dozens of Prairie Falcon sightings (as mentioned by the Thimgans), a couple of Gyrfalcons, California Gull, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, and undoubtedly other rarities I've forgotten.
His Otter Tail County list stands at 295 species, only 60 or so more than my list for this county, and birders have reported higher totals in only six other Minnesota counties.
And, as the Thimgans mentioned, his Minnesota list is 384 species, an especially impressive number since he's off-the-grid, so to speak – never having owned a computer or internet access to receive news of staked-out rarities as the rest of us rely on. (At least Steve and Diane did get a cell phone recently, though they still aren't entirely sure how to use it.)
After 40 years, Steve simply and aptly summed all this up in his recent comments to me: "Lots of great memories...."
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On his radio show "A Prairie Home Companion", Garrison Keillor always refers to his fictional home town as "out there on the edge of the prairie". And one of the best things about this year's Roberts award – or any form of recognition, for that matter – is when it can be presented to someone who is out there, far from the Twin Cities, and has been for a long time in relative anonymity. Someone who, despite all his achievements over the years, may not be known to all of us, but who is long overdue for the recognition he has never sought – or now thinks he deserves.
We all know who the Karl Bardons and others of Minnesota ornithology are. They need no introduction or recognition. Instead, isn't it better to acknowledge someone just as accomplished whom we may not know as well and might otherwise be forgotten?
Diane described Steve's reaction to the news about the award as more of shock (rather than just embarrassment, as the Thimgans described it), as he refused to believe he could be deserving of this award. She said it was a look she had never seen on his face before. And I guess we won't be able to see that look, since Steve is not with us today.
But still, and deservedly so, the 2013 Thomas Sadler Roberts Memorial Award for a lifetime of "outstanding contributions to Minnesota ornithology and birding" goes to someone out there in Ferg, on the edge of the prairie – to STEVE MILLARD.
2014 - Steven G. Wilson
Written and presented by Chuck Neil
Like many of you, our 2014 T S Roberts Memorial Award recipient was fascinated by animals as a child. His particular enchantment with birds was set by age 11, thanks to the bird feeders at his grandmother’s house. His father noticed his boy’s growing passion for birds and, despite not having such an interest himself, took him to his office at Honeywell and let him pick from their wide selection of binoculars. Dad said OK when his son picked one of the nicest pairs that Honeywell had to offer.
Right after college he moved from the Twin Cities to Isabella. That’s about as deep into Minnesota’s boreal forest as one can live. He loved having daily contacts with wildlife in his new coniferous neighborhood. The term &ldqo;outdoorsman&rdqo; fits him well and all those days in the woods helped him become an excellent birder with especially keen listening skills. On a stack of T S Roberts The Birds of Minnesota, I swear unto you: this man hears bird sounds that are imperceptible to most of us. His ability to identify virtually every bird across the landscape of NE Minnesota by song, or even by notes and chips, is amazing. Thirty-five years ago, he paddled his way into the BWCA where he heard and then confirmed the first breeding Wilson’s Warblers in Minnesota!
But the beauty of feather and song graces only the surface of this man’s wonder. Please understand that your 2014 T S Roberts recipient is, at his core, a dedicated scientist. Naturally, he wondered about the distribution of Boreal Owls in Minnesota, but bird books and journals of the time didn’t include much data. Tantalized, he devised personal research projects to find out more. His owl surveys were often run in bone-chilling cold, standing still in the darkness as the survey required: Listening stop number one, then two, then three, and on and on until the data from thousands of stops and observations coalesced into knowledge.
If you enjoy knowing that Minnesota’s Boreal Owls’ territorial calling peaks in March, rather than in April as previously thought; that their most common nest site is in mature aspen within a predominately coniferous forest; that pairs prefer to hunt in lowland conifers hundreds of yards away from their nest; that female Boreal Owls give a short whistle before contact with the male; and that males do prolonged territorial calling from the nest cavity when their mate is in the vicinity – you can thank the man about to stand at this podium.
Though a kind and gentle soul, your T S Roberts recipient is as tough as any birder among us. One pitch black night while listening for owls, he was almost trampled by a moose, as well as by the wolves pursuing it. Another subject that aroused his curiosity was spruce grouse leks. To learn more, our scientist set out in late winter and early spring for several years searching for leks, and then waited for the excitement to begin. Thanks to his determination and patience, many of us had the pleasure of seeing his gorgeous photos of displaying cocks and choosy hens in The Loon, as well as on the screen in this auditorium.
Here are a few other examples of why this man deserves the T S Roberts Memorial Award:
- His entire professional career was dedicated to a science-based stewardship of habitats that support biological diversity. As a young man he became a wilderness ranger and wildlife technician for the U S Forest Service, and later worked for the DNR as a wildlife habitat specialist. For the last 22 years of his career with the DNR he was the NE Minnesota regional specialist for the Scientific and Natural Areas program. Old growth forests make his heart beat even louder than usual.
- He and wife, Mary Shedd, created the now-famous Isabella Christmas Bird Count in 1983. This coming January 3rd will mark their 33rd straight year hosting and compiling the purest count in the nation: NO introduced species have ever been counted! Our
- T S Roberts award winner often assigns himself a transect through the most impenetrable part of the count circle, a journey that takes all day on snowshoes. In 1983 the snow was 34 inches deep; in 1990, the count began at 31 below zero; once a foot of snow fell on count day. (I told you he was tough.) Though the quantity of species is usually low, the quality is always high. The Isabella count frequently records the highest numbers of Great Gray Owls, Northern Hawk Owls, Black-backed Woodpeckers, and Boreal Chickadees of any count in the Lower 48 States. Those of you who have experienced the Isabella count are now having pleasant thoughts about Mary’s delicious lasagna and the fabulous gifts you received after the countdown.
- For 30 years straight our winner has awakened at 2 AM to get to his remote Breeding Bird Survey routes 30 minutes before sunrise. His first was the Sawbill route which he inherited from Jan Green in 1985. After noticing that there were very few survey routes within boreal forest habitat he designed another route in 1993 that was adopted by the U S Fish and Wildlife Service as an official BBS. Such long-term BBS data is a treasure for science.
- Lucky for us, our T S Roberts award winner has not only stuffed his files with four decades of data about the nesting, courtship, feeding, migration, and behavior of NE Minnesota’s birds, he has shared his discoveries in publications such as The Loon (where he served as a summer season record compiler), and the Conservation Volunteer; and is a voluminous contributor to eBird and on-line forums such as the Ely Field Naturalists and MOU’s listservice. He also became a top data collector for the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas. One of his blocks included the highest number of species seen (129) and the highest number of proposed and probable nestings (110).
- He even managed to get the PolyMet mining company to allow him onto their proposed copper-nickel site to conduct BBA surveys. That a huge mining conglomerate would allow a DNR employee to poke around their property looking for birds during the controversial permitting process is evidence of his calm and thoughtful persistence, and his status as a scientist in search of facts, rather than someone with an agenda. He shared that story with us at last year’s MOU meeting, an improbable tale of nesting peregrine falcons, grasshopper sparrows, dickcissels, western meadowlarks, and one amazing Sprague’s pipit singing from above, far from the nearest prairie.
Now in his so-called retirement, your T S Roberts winner remains on the Board of the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, and is Chairman of the Savaloja Memorial fund. This year’s fund disbursed a record $11,192 to five projects designed to promote birds and their habitats. Especially important is his effort to foster a more diverse community of future birders and conservationists. This year your donations helped produce a booklet used in the Bena High School that uses the Ojibwe names of common northern Minnesota birds, with associated stories and legends from the elders. Savaloja grant funds also went to second graders at the Harambee Elementary School. Their teacher, Jennifer Eckman, is here this afternoon for a show and tell about how this project helps young children develop an appreciation of birds and nature.
Finally, there is the fact that our award winner likely has the top dream list of any birder on the planet. His list of birds &ldqo;seen&rdqo; while dreaming is, as of last night, 249.
Steve Wilson, please come forward to accept the 2014 T S Roberts award for your lifetime of achievement and Outstanding Contributions to Minnesota Ornithology and Birding.
2015 - Dr. Merrill Frydendall
Written and presented by Chad Heins
The purpose of the Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award is for the MOU to celebrate the lifetime achievements of one of its members. As stated on the plaque, this award is “For Outstanding Contributions to Minnesota Ornithology and Birding.”
This year’s recipient exemplifies what we all should strive to be as birdwatchers. He has been a lifetime member of the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union since about 1968 and has served in the past as First Vice President of the MOU from 1981-1982 and then as the MOU president from 1983-1984.
This man learned to love all kinds of nature on a farm in northern Kansas. He earned a B.S. in Physical Education and went on to study small mammals while earning his Master’s Degree in Zoology at Fort Hays Kansas State College (now Fort Hays State University); he completed his Ph.D. in Vertebrate Ecology at Utah State University in Logan, Utah in 1967. His dissertation was entitled "Feeding Ecology and Territorial Behavior of the Yellow Warbler".
When I came to Mankato in 2000, he had just retired after 32 years of teaching in the Biology Department at Minnesota State University – Mankato. During his time there, he made a large and lasting impact on his students, especially those taking his ornithology class. I have spoken with some of those students and heard from others how great he was as a teacher, and, while there is not enough time to share all those stories, it was very clear to me. His students loved him. They loved his classes. He was passionate about his subject matter and inspired his students to love birds as much as he did.
One former student, Lon Baumgardt, sent me the following testimonial:
From my perspective as a product of two graduate schools in biology and 36 years experience as an educator, I can say with confidence that he truly was a great teacher; certainly one of the best I have ever been exposed to at any level of education. I owe Dr. Frydendall a great deal. He not only served as an excellent role model for me as I began my own journey as an educator, but he introduced me to the world of birding that I still enjoy doing to this day. He also is the reason I joined the MOU almost 40 years ago.
Other inspired students have spread from Minnesota to South Carolina to California’s Salton Sea. Some joined local birdwatching clubs and others like Lon joined the MOU. Many became biology teachers, passing on his love of birds to others. Some found work in other wildlife areas. One student who was earning a Master's degree in Human Anatomy took this man’s ornithology course and was encouraged to conduct a study involving chickadees. Dirk Derksen went on to earn his Ph.D. in Wildlife at Iowa State University and has recently retired as Director of Avian Research for the U.S. Geologic Survey in Alaska.
Those that did not become biologists may have followed other career paths, but seldom have they forgotten the birds. John Sehloff, the IT Director at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato is just such a person. John is not what I would call an active birdwatcher, but he collects old field guides and bird art and still knows his birds. From time to time he may even be found at the Bethany Hawkwatch.
When I asked John for anecdotes about his ornithology field trips, he remembered two things. First, this professor always got them up early for field trips but also knew the best little cafes that they would stop at for breakfast. Second, no matter how hard the students tried, they never saw or heard a bird that their professor did not.
In 1978 our recipient expanded his influence beyond college students by organizing the first Mankato Christmas Bird Count. After 36 years, he is now organizing the 37th CBC which will be run from his home in just a couple of weeks. Two years after starting the Mankato CBC, he launched the Mankato Bird Club. At its peak, the club boasted over 70 members and monthly field trips were led by him and his wife Karen (whom he also hooked into his hobby). The Club also hosted MOU Spring field trips in 1980 and 1984.
He has also been very involved at his beloved Minneopa State Park. The Mankato Bird Club erected a 50-box Bluebird Trail there back in 1982. He maintained that trail, checking the boxes weekly and keeping detailed records until the Fall of 2014 when it was discontinued due to a plan for 14 bison to arrive from Blue Mounds State Park. Now he maintains 10 bluebird houses near the park headquarters. In 1999 he helped Brand Frentz organize the Minneopa Bird Count, an annual population study conducted on the first weekend in June. He also still spends at least one Saturday morning in May doing a bird-banding demonstration at the park, setting up mist nets and instilling young and old alike with the wonder we all feel in the presence of birds.
The list goes on… He gives presentations to various groups, incorporating years of his photography, works with Boy Scouts and other groups of young people, and generally blesses all who come into contact with him with his knowledge, his warmth, and his incredible sense of humor. His gift of inspiring young people has gone on to inspire generations that will never have the opportunity to have him directly as a teacher.
As I prepared this presentation speech, it became obvious to me that his impact on the MOU and Minnesota birding may be larger than any of us can imagine and we would be hard-pressed to find a better role model for all of us.
Congratulations to this year’s winner of the Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award: Dr. Merrill Frydendall!
2016 - Gerald J. Niemi
Written and presented by Janet Green and Lee Pfannmuller
A passion for birds has always motivated both professionals and amateurs alike in the field of ornithology going back to the 19th Century. Taxonomists needed Oologists then to gather specimens in the field and biologists need bird watchers now to gather reams of observations on distribution, abundance and migration of birds. The Thomas Sandler Roberts award fits beautifully into this tradition because Roberts was both an amateur (a medical doctor) and a professional, using field observations from an eclectic group of observers to write his iconic book "The Birds of Minnesota". Hence, the purpose of the Roberts award is to honor people "for outstanding contributions to Minnesota ornithology and birding"
The recipient of the Roberts award this year also fits nicely into that tradition. He had a great biology professor, who received the Roberts award 37 years ago and according to this recipient's recollections, he was inspired by two field assistants in an ornithology course, named Kim Eckert and Jan Green, to focus his professional interest on birds. Before that course, he knew about grouse hunting, but witnessing 20 or more species of warblers migrating along the strip of woods at Minnesota Point turned him into an Avian Ecologist.
He finished both his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Minnesota, was awarded a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Helsinki and then completed a PhD at Florida State University. His doctoral dissertation topic was "Ecological morphology of breeding birds in Old World and New World Peatlands" and peatlands have remained an interest throughout his career. He speaks Finnish and has lured several Finnish ornithologists to Minnesota to lecture and explore. One recent Finnish colleague he took up to the Red Lake Peatland and Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge commented that these Minnesota remnants of Glacial Lake Agassiz were better than any protected landscape areas in Finland.
Today, this recipient of the Roberts award could not be present because he is at an important board meeting of the Hawk Migration Association of North America in Detroit. So, I will take away the suspense and reveal his name: Prof. Gerald J. Niemi. I will also confess that I had to tell him ahead of time about the award so I could pry from him a copy of his 29 page CV. Although my hazy recollections of that early 1970's ornithology course of Jack Hofslund's are mostly about birds on Minnesota Point and not the students, Jerry has been my ornithological inspiration for many years. We wrote a booklet together in 1978 on "Birds of the Superior National Forests" and Jerry has continued studying forest birds that culminated in a big technical report for the U. S. Forest Service just this year. This report, published with his students, was the result of 21 years of monitoring birds in the National Forests of the Great Lakes. You can download it online as a PDF: General Technical Report NRS â€"� 159.
The themes of his research have covered among others: birds and forests, birds and wetlands, raptor biology, indicators of ecological health and sustainable natural resource management. The core of his exemplary career as ornithologist, with a very active research program on birds, conservation biology and landscape ecology, is as a biology professor mentoring many graduate students: 3 PhD's and 32 master's degrees from 1991 to 2016. Many of their projects cover issues in avian ecology using bird species in Minnesota and other Great Lakes habitats as examples: Chestnut-sided Warbler, Connecticut Warbler, Northern Hawk Owl, American Kestrel, Tree Swallow, Marsh and Sedge Wren, Canada Warbler, Common Tern, Common Nighthawk, etc. I have been fortunate to learn a lot from their graduate seminars at UMD. Jerry's publications with students and others are too numerous to summarize so I will just give you the statistic: a total of 135 papers from 1974 to 2016 in peer reviewed journals, invited articles or smaller publications like The Loon where he published 12 articles, mostly in the 1990's. Jerry has also been a member of the M. O. U. from the beginning of his career.
Joining the company of five professional ornithologists, Breckenridge, Hofslund, Warner, Tordoff, Frydendall, who have received the Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award is Dr. Gerald J. Niemi. We will congratulate him in absentia and his award will be received by his student, Annie Bracey.
I would just like to add a little to what Jan has shared with you about this year's Roberts Award recipient.
As Jan noted, the sheer size of Jerry's CV is overwhelming. Today we are focusing on his contributions to Minnesota ornithology. But anyone who knows Jerry knows that ornithology is just one aspect of his varied and honored career. His work has been as focused on the health and conservation of the entire Great Lakes Ecosystem . . the very foundation of a healthy bird community . . as it has on the forest birds he so loves.
I first met our T.S. Roberts Award winner in the spring of 1976, a little more than 40 years ago. The meeting was meant as an introduction to one another. We had just been hired to collaborate as a two-member team to inventory and census breeding birds in an area of northern Minnesota where Cu-Ni mining was proposed, decades before the current Polymet project. Although I knew bird songs, Gerri had considerably more formal training in bird censusing. I learned a great from him that year. Indeed, the professional relationship and friendship that began that summer has endured to this day.
As we do so often with birds, I think it is helpful to give you a sense of the landscape context of Jerry's work back in those days. The late 70s were the years when the very idea that songbirds were as important ecologically and economically as game birds was just beginning to emerge in both state and federal resource agencies. So Jerry's experience working on the entire suite of Minnesota's forest, followed by his doctoral work with one of the leading ornithologists of the time, Dr. Fran James at Florida State University, placed him in an ideal position to become a leading voice and advocate for Minnesota's bird community. And, as Jan has outlined, he rose to the occasion in a stellar way, always being a strong advocate for collecting solid field information to address resource issues and conflicts. Let me briefly share just a few examples:
- First, in the late1980s, when it appeared that timber harvesting was on a trajectory to exceed anything we had seen in Minnesota for decades, he was a major proponent for collecting solid field information on the responses, both negative and positive, by forest songbirds. He recognized and appreciated that Minnesota's northern forests supported one of the richest diversity of songbirds anywhere in North America and that the health of the forests was dependent on the health of the bird community in ways that many did not appreciate or understand. These concerns, coupled with his love of the resource, prompted him to become the major voice in launching a 12 year study known as Minnesota's Forest Bird Diversity Initiative where he worked closely with the timber industry, federal, state and county foresters, and independent loggers, to provide key information on the management needs of forest birds. There is no other single management activity that so impacts our most untouched ecosystem in Minnesota than logging. Jerry's intimate engagement with all aspects of forest management has been instrumental in promoting bird conservation in this critical region.
As important as his scientific approach to forest management has been, his personal approach has been equally valuable. Among a very diverse group of stakeholders, who often have very polarized concerns and views about forest management activities, he is widely recognized and appreciated as a calm, non-biased voice that all hold in high respect.
- Second, when Minnesota's Legislative-Citizen's Commission on Minnesota Resources initiated preparation of a Statewide Conservation and Preservation Plan in 2006, it was Jerry who was called upon to lead the wildlife component of the plan which would help shape funding priorities by the LCCMR for years to come.
- And, finally, in all the years of discussion and planning that preceded the launch of Minnesota's Breeding Bird Atlas in 2009, Jerry was always advocating a dual approach that coupled the traditional volunteer initiative, which had characterized every atlas completed to date, with a more rigorous, statistically based sampling effort. Such an effort would establish a foundation of standardized data to enable biologists today to delineate each species' relative abundance and enable biologists in the future to statistically track changes in abundance and distribution. This approach will prove to be invaluable as the state and nation continue to grapple with myriad resource challenges in the coming years. Minnesota was among the first states to launch such a duel approach, which has since been modelled by many others. Jerry's insistence on this approach has been a gift to Minnesota bird conservation that will be realized for decades to come.
Finally, as the years pass, the professional accomplishments become a little less important and the relationships, be they family, friends and colleagues become more central. Although they may not be criteria for a Robert's Award winner, two of Jerry's many traits that I have come to value the most over the years is his calm, measured approach to all resource issues and the balance he brings to his entire life, traits that I know are valued by his students, his professional colleagues, his friends, and his family.
2017 - Craig Mandel
Written and presented by Susan Barnes Elliott
One of the MOU's primary purposes is to create and increase public interest in birds, not only among professionals but also amateurs, and one of the bestways to interest people in birds and their habitats is to take the time to actually introduce them to birds and habitats. Our 2017 Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award Winner has done exactly that over many years and many hundreds of volunteer hours.
On behalf of the nominating team of Tod Eggenberger, Ken and Susan Schumacher, Jill Genaw, Pat Hoglund, Allen and Kimberle Loken, Deb Fellows, and Roy Zimmerman, I am deeply honored and humbled to present this year's Roberts Award to a birder that each and every one of us should strive to emulate. This birder does what each of us should do: he volunteers countless hours to teaching others about birds, habitats and conservation.
We all know that we should volunteer. We are told by Martin Luther King, Jr. that "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?" And Winston Churchill wrote: "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
The life that our award winner has led embodies what Martin Luther King and Churchill preach: He is the ultimate birding mentor and educator, and 100% of the time he spends doing so is on a volunteer basis. He has personally inspired countless people to become birders – and therefore to become interested in the conservation of birds and their habitats – which is critical to the purpose of the MOU.
He has accomplished this feat by spending – VERY LITERALLY – thousands of hours of his personal time to teach others about birds and birding by leading birding walks and longer trips. His walks are always valuable to birders regardless of skill level, due to his encyclopedic knowledge of birds, his humble manner of teaching, his humor, and his sincere desire to help others enjoy watching birds as much as he does.
It is a pretty common mistake to think of volunteering as just something nice that people do. In fact, volunteers can and do have an enormous impact in their chosen fields. Through his time and his efforts, this year's award winner has made birding accessible to anyone who is willing to spend three hours or so to go on a birding walk.
It's really hard to comprehend just how much time our award winner has volunteered over the past 27 or so years but I'm going to try to put it into perspective. Our award winner started volunteering in 1990 for the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and in 1991 for the Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter. On average, he has led and continues to lead seventy-plus bird walks every year, not counting the one- and two-day trips that he also leads.
This means that, since 1990, he has led close to 2,000 walks, has spent roughly 6,000 volunteer hours leading those walks, and has forgone tens of thousands of dollars that he could otherwise have earned by working those hours, all for the love of birds – and wildflowers, trees, amphibians, dragonflies, and countless other aspects of nature of which he has extensive knowledge.
Keep in mind that these are not "walks in the park", so to speak. Our award winner's walks often draw CROWDS of people. This past summer, he led walks with 50-plus participants. One of the walks drew 65 people! For most of us, this sounds like a complete nightmare from which we would run the other way, screaming. Not our award winner.
And in his "spare time", he also assists Kim Eckert with Minnesota Birding Weekend and Week trips. (In the interest of full disclosure, he is often "fired" during these trips but always seems to rehabilitate himself in time to help with the next one.) Given his huge time expenditure for the good of birds and birders, it will no doubt come as a surprise to many people that he actually has a FULL-TIME job!
Yes, our birding community is extremely fortunate to have our award winner. He is the perfect sort of person to interest others in birding: he is unfailingly patient and kind with novice and young birders. He will scope a robin or a chickadee with the same enthusiasm with which he will scope a Eurasian Wigeon (well, almost). His encouragement of and special attention to young birders has and will continue to foster a new generation of bird enthusiasts.
But it's not only the novice birders that love to go out with our award winner. Many highly skilled birders make a point to join him on his walks. Why? Because he always has something to teach, always seems to know where the birds are, is delightfully humble, and always makes the trip worthwhile.
We are MOU members because we love birds and birding. Many of us came to that love of birds because of our award winner. Simply put, there is not another Minnesota birder that comes anywhere close to putting in the volunteer time that our award winner has. His work has gone a very, very long way towards fulfilling the MOU's aim to create and increase public interest in birds and their habitats.
A big THANK-YOU for your Outstanding Contributions to Minnesota Ornithology and Birding, and CONGRATULATIONS to this year's Roberts Award Winner: CRAIG MANDEL!
2018 - Tom Bell
Written by Larry Sirvio and Elizabeth Bell; presented by Larry Sirvio
Our Recipient:
Mentor
Motivator
Educator
Instigator
Traveler
Adventurer
Story Teller
Legislative Liaison
Bird Bander
Conservationist...
As a youngster he was frequently exploring the river and countryside around his home town in southwestern Minnesota. One of his favorite memories is walking over the prairie pothole rises and hearing the call of the Upland Sandpiper.
His dad was a World War I veteran, county sheriff, and a naturalist at heart. He had a great respect and love for the outdoors and passed that on to his son with whom he started hunting when he turned 5. This led to learning to identify ducks and other game birds and what you could and could not shoot. He had friends he hunted with as he grew older, but his dad was his absolute favorite hunting companion. He absorbed the natural environment he lived and played in. He was a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and advanced to becoming an Eagle Scout.
He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a biology degree and started teaching students from District 833 (which is South Washington County). He loved teaching biology and environmental science and taught for 36 years.
In his classes he was known to entertain his students by playing bird songs in the class room as the students entered…and, mind you, he was using a record player since this was well before digital music.
Over the years he often sees students in his travels, and he still receives “Hallmark†greetings from students. It‘s a rare trip when he is not greeted by a former student with fond memories.
After retirement, his interest in birds deepened and he started banding birds at Carpenter Nature Center, where, since 1992 he has volunteered more than 3000 hours. In 2002 he was named Carpenter's Volunteer of the Year. As years passed he became a mentor to others interested in learning more about birds and the environment, plants, and any other bits of natural history he could impart. He and his wife, whom he met at Hawk Ridge and married in 1982, have enjoyed traveling and birding all over the United States and in several foreign countries. He is still an active birder with a congenial group of Monday Morning Birders every week, and still bands at Carpenter every Friday morning.
One of his favorite pastimes there is to quiz the summer interns about scientific names of the plants – and then ask them again later in the summer to see if they have been paying attention. Another favorite pastime at Carpenter is eating donuts. Every Friday someone brings the treats. In all his years of banding I'm not sure how many birds he has banded, but we do know that he holds the record for most donuts eaten by a bander at Carpenter.
He may also hold another record, set just recently. On a very busy Friday a few weeks ago he was kneeling on the ground, removing a bird from a low part of the net. Another bander accidentally stepped on his foot. X-rays revealed a broken bone. This could be the first time in history that anyone has had a serious injury while banding.
When he began teaching he lived in St. Paul Park, later moving to Grey Cloud Island satisfy his need to live on a river and in natural surroundings. As he grew older, he became less enamored with hunting and more interested in identifying birds and what they need to survive. It became evident in the late 1970s that species numbers were dwindling and environmental damage was becoming rampant. He became active in a number of organizations interested in preserving and improving the environment, including Friends of the Mississippi.
One of his most significant accomplishments was his involvement in the donation of some property owned by Ashland Oil Refinery to the Minnesota DNR. Ashland and the DNR were in favor of the deal but the Cottage Grove City Council had to approve, and all they saw were dollar signs from a proposed housing development on the site. But he convinced them that the property was not an appropriate place for housing, and the transfer occurred.
The property is now known as Gray Cloud Dunes Scientific and Natural Area. For that, the birding community is extremely grateful.
He was recently awarded the Tecla Karpen Award by the Hastings Environmental Protectors for his contributions in educating many, influencing decision makers, and volunteering to study, preserve, and protect the local natural environment. November 8, 2018 was even declared Tom Bell Day in Hastings, Minnesota!
And, finally, there's this from Bonnie Mulligan...
I recall he showed up faithfully for every board meeting when I was MOU president – even when he wasn‘t on the board. But he was always committed to the good of the organization.
I also recall the remark he made on a trip, I think it was Arizona, that we still use today after a good bird goes by: “Did you see it well enough for me to count?†He also had a habit of wandering from the group. We had been using the music from Rawhide to chant “Coffee coffee coffee, gotta get some coffee!", Then, during one of his wanderings, I think it was Peder Svingen who changed it to "Tom Bell Tom Bell Tom Bell, where the hell is Tom Bell?"
...Well, he's right here, our recipient of the 2018 Thomas S. Roberts Award – TOM BELL.
2019 - Paul Budde
Written and presented by Ezra Hosch
The Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union Articles of Incorporation states that “The purpose of this corporation shall be the promotion of a broad program of conservation and natural history study, primarily in the field of ornithology. To achieve this objective the union urges and promotes interest in field studies and observation of birds by individual members and affiliated Bird Clubs.” Few have contributed so faithfully to the organization’s goal as our 2019 Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award Winner for lifetime achievement.
Our nominee grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, majoring in Mathematics and graduating in 1977. He then went to graduate school at UC Berkeley, again majoring in mathematics. After graduating, our nominee moved to Minneapolis, where he started his famous gull studies on Lakes Harriet and Calhoun.
Our nominee has been a member of the Seasonal Report editing team since 1995 and has chaired the committee since 2008. His extraordinary contributions to this publication have resulted in Minnesota birders having a better understanding of the timing and routes of avian migration in our region. Not only has his careful editing led to accurate and reliable species accounts, but the forwards that he writes to the Season are always engaging and a joy to read!
Besides his 24 years of work with the Seasonal Report, our nominee has served as an associate editor of The Loon since 2008, served a term on the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee through 2007, as well as volunteering as sub-regional editor for Minnesota for North American Birds since 2008. His volunteer time is in high demand due to his unique insights on Minnesota’s avifauna.
One of his most important achievements with our organization was his role in helping shuttle in the digital era of the MOU. He served as the first chair of the Electronic Communications Committee from 1998 to 2002, and he continues to serve on this committee at the present time. This was the time period when the MOU started its first website and launched the listserv, which was Minnesota’s first online medium for reporting rarities and discussing bird identification.
He has also done a significant amount of work behind the scenes on the MOU website, such as calculating the median arrival and departure dates for species in both the northern and southern halves of the state, which has become an invaluable resource to MOU members. It is hard to even begin to imagine how many more hours eBird Regional Editors would have to spend on their filter editing process if it were not for our nominee’s time devoted to his work.
Our nominee has not slowed down in recent years, as his 2013 paper on Plegadis ibis greatly increased our knowledge on their status and distribution in the state. One of the results of his research was the publication of the first account of a Glossy x White-faced Ibis hybrid for Minnesota.
Despite all of the serious scientific contributions our nominee has made to Minnesota ornithology, he is also as guilty as the rest of us for being a serious lister. One significant
example of this is his ability to run a competitive big day, and to date he has completed more record setting county big days than any other birder in the state!
According to his friend Doug, one of the keys to success behind a big day is driving fast and being able to talk your way out of a speeding ticket, which our nominee once had to do in Chisago County, although he was not quite so fortunate in Roseau County.
Once while scouting for a Hennepin County big day, he discovered a first county record and fourth state record Neotropic Cormorant, proving that having a strong knowledge of your local birding patches can pay big dividends. The Hennepin County fun did not end there, as our nominee’s team discovered a Yellow Rail the morning of the big day, and were briefly joined a Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputy, who wondered why people would be celebrating at a marsh in the middle of the night.
Our nominee’s friends recall the many good memories made along the way while conducting these fast-paced big days. In Wright County, their group was wading through a marsh to get a look at a drawn down Smith Lake, when a sudden thunderstorm appeared. The group was rewarded by a Red Knot at the lake but wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to be sloshing through the marsh carrying metal tripods in a lightning storm. Another thunderstorm in Hubbard County had them seeking shelter in the local bowling alley, where a few beers helped fortify them for the remainder of the day.
When he is not doing big days, or working on his Hennepin County list, he is traveling to the corners of the continent to chase ABA rarities such as Antillean Palm-swifts.
Last but certainly not least, our nominee has been an incredible mentor to myself as a young birder. He has consistently provided constructive feedback on how to review records. Thanks to his guidance, many have been inspired to delve into the data and learn more about birds.
Although he is in Washington D.C. and unable to be present today, please give a warm round of applause to Paul Budde, our 2019 Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award winner!
2020 - Laura Erickson
Written and presented by Erik Bruhnke
I am Erik Bruhnke, and I am thrilled to present the 2020 lifetime achievement Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award to a amazing woman in Duluth, MN. Within the birding world, this woman’s accomplishments have influenced the world of birding and conservation in remarkable ways.
Over the years her publications and actions have been widely recognized as leading the field. For 34 years she has volunteered her time broadcasting her “For The Birds” radio show in Duluth. Her first “For the Birds” program aired on May 12, 1986. Between the researching, writing, the recording and fine-tuning the audio, she spends about 15 hours a week creating her immersive radio shows. “For the Birds” is the longest-running radio program about birds in the United States, and is also available as a podcast on iTunes. It bears repeating: she does all of this on a VOLUNTEER basis.
In addition to her work on “For the Birds”, our Award Winner is a gifted and prolific writer. She has written THIRTEEN books about birds and conservation. Her “101 Ways to Help Birds” book is perhaps her most important and influential book. In it, she describes the myriad problems facing birds today and the practical ways that we can all help protect them. This year, she published “The Love Lives of Birds.” She has published the best-selling “Into the Nest: Intimate Views of the Courting, Parenting, and Family Lives of Familiar Birds” (co-authored by photographer Marie Read), and she won the National Outdoor Book Award with her book “Sharing the Wonder of Birds with Kids.” She has published “The Bird Watching Answer Book” for the prestigious Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In 2016, she was selected by the American Birding Association to author the ABA Field Guide to Birds of Minnesota, and she was selected by National Geographic to author “Pocket Guide to Birds of North America.” She has also authored books for Hawk Ridge, including “Hawk Ridge: Minnesota’s Birds of Prey” and “Identifying Birds of Prey.” Her vast array of topics and connectable writing style makes her an outstanding author.
In addition to her radio show and books, our winner is a columnist and contributing editor for BirdWatching Magazine, for the American Birding Association blog, and for her own blog on her own website.
She has been a keynote speaker at numerous birding venues in states that include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Massachusetts, Arizona, Indiana, Rhode Island, Colorado, Ohio, Kansas Oklahoma, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, New Mexico, and Florida. Our Award Winner has also been a scientist, teacher, licensed wildlife rehabilitator, and a science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. WHEW!
The Roberts Award is certainly not the first Award that our Winner has received. Far from it. In 2014, she won the American Birding Association’s highest honor, the Roger Tory Peterson Award. To give you an understanding for the prestige of this Award, other Roger Tory Peterson Award Winners include David Allen Sibley, Kenn Kaufman, and Victor Emanuel. In 2012, she won the Hawk Migration Association of North America’s “Conservation Education Award” AND the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” AND the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for “Hawk Ridge: Minnesota’s Birds of Prey”. In 2011, she won a Northeastern Minnesota Book Award Honorable Mention for her book, “Twelve Owls.” In 2007, she won the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology’s “Bronze Passenger Pigeon Award” For significant contributions to Wisconsin ornithology. In 1997, she won the National Outdoor Book Award for “Sharing the Wonder of Birds with Kids.” In 1994, she won the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award Honorable Mention for “For the Birds: An Uncommon Guide,” and in 1988 she won The Raptor Center Conservation Award.
We in Minnesota are well past due in awarding LAURA ERICKSON the lifetime achievement Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award. Thank you, Laura, for your powerful and insightful presence in birding, for both experienced and novice birders alike. Congratulations!
2021 - Lee Pfannmuller
Presented by Kristin Hall
It is a HUGE privilege to announce this year’s T.S. Roberts Memorial award recipient. I’ll try to make it
brief but this person is a lifelong learner and dedicated contributor to improving our avian understanding
in MN and beyond. Known for a lot of things, but notably for her many years with the MN DNR, while
there she served in multiple roles:
- She was a Coordinator in the Scientific and Natural Area Program,
- She supervised of the research unit of the Nongame Wildlife Program
- And was a Director of the Division of Ecological Services.
In all capacities, birds always provided her with a unique ecological lens, yet never at the expense of
other taxa or ecological knowledge. Our 2021 award winner has a wide and deep breadth of knowledge
of MN natural resources, but birds are her inspiration.
While at the DNR she was pivotal in developing the bird survey component for the MN Biological Survey,
she managed Minnesota’s Forest Songbird Diversity Initiative, and worked tirelessly with the legislature
to secure funds for these and other important natural resource policy issues. After leaving the DNR, she
worked with Audubon MN to develop an integrated Conservation Blueprint for Minnesota birds. She was
also responsible for data collection and the rigorous data quality review of the first Minnesota Breeding
Bird Atlas. Most recently, she led the effort to compile and publish the Atlas, both the online version and
the soon to be published book. In her personal time, she served as the Hennepin County Coordinator for
the Atlas and has consecutively covered two Breeding Bird Survey routes for over 40 years.
I am honored to be one of over a dozen people who have worked to nominate Lee Pfannmuller for the
Roberts Memorial Award. Recognition of her professional leadership, within the MN DNR, at Audubon
Minnesota and at the Bell Museum as well as her personal commitment to conservation, is overdue. Lee
has, without doubt, made many “Outstanding Contributions to Minnesota Ornithology and Birding”
Lee has never sought attention, although the spotlight does find her. She is a well-known and
accomplished biologist, an eloquent speaker, phenomenal writer, thought provoking mentor and
amazing birder. Lee is driven by doing good work, solving persistent problems, and improving our
understanding of the natural world. She is diligent, thorough, and curious, always quietly listening (to
birds and people); so recognition of her dedication and contributions with this award is more than
fitting.
This brief speech is only a glimpse into the extensive and remarkable work Lee has done on behalf of
birds and natural resource conservation in MN. She is more than deserving of this award. Thank you to
the awards committee for their selection and all the folks who have nominated Lee for this award in the
past – Congratulations LEE
I would also like to acknowledge the Larks in assisting with this nomination. Other key thank you notes
include: Lee’s Husband Gary for sharing Lee with us, Kristen and Gretchen for having an awesome mom,
and Steve Wilson who submitted the previous award nomination with co-nominators Mary Shedd, John +
Jan Green and Don Luce.
2022 - Dr. Francesca Cuthbert
Presented by Sushma Reddy
We are pleased to present the 2022 Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award to
Dr. Francesca Cuthbert. Dr. Cuthbert began her career in ornithology as a
graduate student at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum working on
Caspian Terns, and recently retired from the University of Minnesota as a
full professor with a productive career spanning more than four decades.
She is an outstanding example of an ornithologist who has devoted her
life’s work to the conservation of water birds, including her key work on the
recovery of the endangered Great Lakes Piping Plover population, as well
as management and conservation issues surrounding several waterbird
populations across North America and Asia. Below we outline some of Dr.
Cuthbert’s tremendous achievements:
In all capacities, birds always provided her with a unique ecological lens, yet never at the expense of
other taxa or ecological knowledge. Our 2021 award winner has a wide and deep breadth of knowledge
of MN natural resources, but birds are her inspiration.
Over the last 30+ years, Dr. Cuthbert has focused much of her research on
conservation efforts of several species across the upper Midwest. Most
notable is her pivotal role in the restoration efforts of the Great Lakes
Piping Plovers. Even before their listing as endangered, Dr. Cuthbert was
involved in monitoring the diminishing population of these small birds. This
includes efforts to maintain breeding of the population in Lake of the
Woods, MN. With steady efforts, Dr. Cuthbert was central to the creation of
concerted team efforts towards restoration of this population, including
activities to monitor, protect, captively-rear, and study Piping Plovers. In the
last three decades, their efforts have succeeded in increasing the
population from less than a dozen pairs to currently more than 70 pairs. Dr.
Cuthbert is the central figure in all these efforts – hiring and training the
numerous nest monitors at different sites (most are short-term summer
interns from the UMN and beyond; many of whom go on to fruitful careers
in biology), constructing exclosures to protect nests, banding of chicks and
nesting adults, transporting the eggs/chicks to and from the captive rearing
sites, and all the while recording and analyzing demographic data. Through
the course of these efforts, Dr. Cuthbert has also trained dozens of
undergraduate and graduate students. Their work has led to tremendous
advances in our understanding of threats and assessments of effective
management techniques for these water birds. Dr. Cuthbert’s work has
been recognized not just by other scientists but also highlighted in the
popular and news media. Her outreach efforts are especially important now
as these birds expand their ranges to nest closer to human occupied
beaches; survival alongside humans is critical to maintaining sustainable
populations. In all her efforts, Dr. Cuthbert strives to communicate the plight
of the Piping Plover as a learning opportunity for conservation and
continues to build on this enormous body of work. If Piping Plovers ever
return to Minnesota as a breeding species, Dr. Cuthbert’s work will have
been instrumental in making it happen.
In addition to her seminal work on Piping Plovers, Dr. Cuthbert has been
actively involved in research and management of other water bird species
across the Midwest and in parts of Asia. These include addressing conflicts
between the fishing industry and Double-Crested Cormorants,
demographics of several terns, gulls and other colonial nesting seabirds, as
well as studying the possibilities of disease transmissions across migratory
water birds.
Dr. Cuthbert is internationally renowned and has been invited to several
parts of Asia to help guide conservation efforts. Her work has resulted in
more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, a substantial portion of which
are the result of training graduate students. She has given hundreds of
presentations at conferences and seminar series, many of which were
invited lectures.
Dr. Cuthbert has been tremendously successful in obtaining funding for her
projects from a range of state and federal agencies as well as private
foundations. These include several grants from the US Fish and Wildlife
Service, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Michigan
Department of Natural Resources, US Geological Survey, US
Environmental Protection Agency, Minnesota Sea Grant, US Forest
Service, University of Minnesota, Minnesota Forest Resources Council,
Minnesota Public Radio, and IUCN, just to name a few. These funds,
totaling almost $6 million, have gone towards supporting the research and
restoration of several species as well as the training of hundreds of
students.
Dr. Cuthbert is an active member of the scientific community. She has
spent most of her career as faculty at the University of Minnesota, working
through the ranks to Professor and for several years served as department
head and director of graduate studies in the Department of Fisheries,
Wildlife, and Conservation Biology. She is also a visiting
professor/investigator at the University of Michigan Biological Station,
which serves as her summer base for her piping plover work. Dr. Cuthbert
is an active member of the MOU and has given several presentations at the
Annual Paper Sessions. She is also active in other bird-related
organizations - Fellow of the American Ornithological Society, member of
MN Nature Conservancy Advisory Board, member of Minnesota Audubon
Advisory Committee, and Past President of The Waterbird Society.
Additionally, she is a passionate teacher as evidenced by several teaching
awards and is a perennial favorite of the undergraduates at the University
of Minnesota. Dr. Cuthbert has taught hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of
students at University of Minnesota (both Duluth and Twin Cities
campuses) and at the University of Michigan Biological Station in various
subjects related to ornithology and conservation. She has advised over 50
graduate students – 40 MS and 14 PhD – as well as mentored hundreds of
undergraduate researchers. As her students will attest, Dr. Cuthbert is an
active and highly supportive mentor that goes out of her way to help her
students.
Finally, we think an important part of Dr. Cuthbert is her collaborative
nature. It is clear from her list of publications and grants that Dr. Cuthbert
seeks out and is successful in building connections with other scientists
and across many different organizations. Her desire is not to achieve
something for herself but to help others (especially early career scientists)
on their path to success. Collaborations are hard to build and time-
consuming to maintain, and the high-degree that Dr. Cuthbert strives to
make them productive is admirable. The varied array of co-authors and co-
investigators on her projects shows that Dr. Cuthbert believes that working
together with people from diverse perspectives is a valuable aspect of
science. She is a model of how one can have a fruitful career in
science by building a collaborative, supportive, and encouraging program.
Congratulations to Dr. Francesca Cuthbert, our 2022 Thomas S. Roberts
Memorial Award Winner!
2023 - Ann Kessen
Nominated by Paul Budde; presented by Ben Douglas
I’m honored and a bit out of my league to read for you and celebrate the incredible achievements
and dedicated service of someone that has been a member of the MOU for 42 years. For context I was
five years old in 1981 when she became a member of this organization.
From handling our finances as Treasurer from ‘94 to ‘97 to taking on the Vice President title in ‘98,
she consistently showed she’s a leader and contributor. She took the stage as President of this
organization twice in ‘99-2000 as well as 2010-2011.
She dove deeper in bird studies than the vast majority of us by earning a Ph.D. in Ornithology
in 2004 while studying Fox Sparrows.
She even did the very job I’m doing right now as the Awards Chair from 2003 to 2008, and steered
the ship as the Savaloja Grant Committee Chair from 2007 to 2009. Her impact as the Associate Editor
of The Loon from 2007 until today demonstrates incredible dedication within the organization.
You might think all of this would require a break, but she has been back in the Treasurer role since 2020,
keeping our finances on the up and up.
Simultaneously, she has coauthored the Summer Seasonal Report since the 2004 season, and has served as a
member of the Records Committee from 2004 to 2010 and again from 2019 to today. That’s commitment on
another level and is making me tired just reading it all out to you.
So, as we celebrate and thank Dr. Ann Kessen today, let’s not just give our appreciation for her
accomplishments and contributions but also be in awe of how much she has sacrificed for our organization
over the last 42 years. It is my pleasure to present the 2023 Thomas S. Roberts Award to DR. ANN KESSEN.
2024 - Bill Litkey
Nominated by Ezra Hosch and Eric Collins; presented by Liz Harper
This year’s recipient of the Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award was co-nominated by Ezra Hosch and Eric Collins; I am honored to be able to present it in their absence.
The Roberts Award is MOU's lifetime achievement award and is given for “Outstanding Contributions to Minnesota Ornithology and Birding”
This year’s recipient has spent over five decades in the field, adding to what we know about Minnesota’s birds and inspiring other birders. Although you’re most likely to find him along his beloved Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers, his birding and discoveries have taken place across the state, from Blue Mounds State Park to Grand Marais.
Our recipient has found many remarkable birds over the years. Here is a highlight from each decade:
On 31 August 1973, our recipient was in Lincoln County when he discovered the first state record Mississippi Kite. According to his Note of Interest from The Loon, he spent an hour waiting for it to reappear from a woodlot, and once it did, he sped through the countryside for a closer observation. It put on a show, flying within 50 feet of him.
He was also part of a group in Lac Qui Parle County that on 14 May 1983 found Minnesota’s second Hermit Warbler.
On 21 May 1994, he discovered Minnesota’s first Curlew Sandpiper along one of his favorite birding stretches in Goodhue County. Like so many of the rarities he has found, he got word out and other birders were able to chase it and enjoy the sighting.
In the 2000s, he visited a Turkey Vulture roost near Afton each spring with the hope that a Black Vulture would someday roost with them. At that point there had only been three Black Vulture sightings in Minnesota and none away from the North Shore. On 24 March 2007, his dedication to finding this species paid off. The following day the vulture reappeared, and several other birders got to see it, too.
Our recipient was one of the first birders in Minnesota to reach 400 for a life list. He is in the 200 Club in 12 counties and the lead lister in Goodhue, Ramsey, and Washington. He is still birding, chasing, and adding to these lists.
But more importantly than numbers and amazing bird finds, our recipient is kind, generous, and humble. He is a husband, father, grandfather, and man of faith. He is an inspiration. Among a group of Washington County birders, he’s known affectionately as the Godfather.
It is my pleasure to present this year’s Thomas S. Roberts Memorial Award to Bill Litkey.
1988 - Barb Coffin & Lee Pfannmuller
1989 - Steve Carlson
1990 - Peder Svingen
1991 - Peder Svingen
1992 - Karl Bardon
1993 - Anthony X. Hertzel
1994 - Kim Eckert
1995 - Jim & Jude Williams
1996 - Jan Green
1997 - Betsy Beneke
1998 - Kim Eckert
1999 - no award
2000 - Mark Alt; Ron Erpelding
2001 - Karla Kinstler
2002 - no award
2003 - Bob Williams
2004 - Bill Marengo
2005 - Dave Cahlander
2006 - Dave Grossheusch
2007 - Ben Wieland
2008 - Kelly Applegate; Mike Hendrickson
2009 - Peder Svingen
2010 - Karl Bardon
Written by Kim Eckert and presented by Steve Stucker
Although he has traveled around the world doing various field projects with birds – radio-tracking eiders in the Arctic, studying trans-Gulf migration from an oil platform off Louisiana, and nest searching in the rainforests of Chile – his favorite jobs are those spent counting birds. His specialty had been water birds, having spent many seasons as the water bird counter at Michigan’s Whitefish Point and New Jersey's Cape May. But after witnessing the awesome migration through Veracruz, Mexico, as an official hawk counter in 2006, he decided that raptors are pretty cool, too.
He just finished his fourth season in Duluth at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory as the lead bird counter for raptors and other diurnal migrants. On his perch at the new platform at Hawk Ridge he is there just after dawn until dusk (unless it really rains or snows), keeping cool by counting barefoot, and keeping warm by munching goodies. As Hawk Ridge Education Director Debbie Waters reports: "I have photos of cookies, bars, and other goodies often seen in a pile ON the count sheets."
One would be hard-pressed to find a more skilled and dedicated bird counter. This fall, his efforts have paid off at Hawk Ridge with a Mississippi Kite and a Band-tailed Pigeon, plus over 250,000 diurnal non-raptors and 53,000 raptors, including 4,450 Bald Eagles. The passerine counts are impressive with such seasonal totals as: about 65,000 Blue Jays, 34,000 Cedar Waxwings, 80 Black-backed Woodpeckers – and high daily counts for Rusty Blackbirds (5,100), American Pipit (1,056) and Purple Finch (835), not to mention 33 Winter Wrens in one day in the woods.
Elsewhere in Duluth this year, while haunting Park Point, he found (and instinctively photographed) a Black-throated Gray Warbler last spring, only the seventh state record, and turned up two Pomarine Jaegers and three Sabine's Gulls this fall.
But Park Point primarily beckons him to indulge his passion for gulls. Last winter he meticulously documented with photographs: 40 Thayer's, 11 Iceland, 16 Great Blacks-backeds, 3 Lesser Black-backeds, and one Slaty-backed Gull at either Canal Park or the Superior Entry. This fall he has already photo-documented two California Gulls, and gull addicts await another winter’s tally from him.
Although the gulls probably do not adequately appreciate the attention, they are rewarded with handfuls of stale bread. This chum is stored in large bags from a local bakery and fills lots of space in his car as he drives around town – as Hawk Ridge volunteer Andrew Longtin describes it: "He hides it under his green hawk counting mat like it's contraband!"
The 2010 Brother Theodore Voelker award for special achievement in field ornithology during the past year goes to KARL BARDON.
2011 - Jan & Larry Kraemer
Written and presented by Kim Eckert
....presented to someone with contribution to field ornithology during last year/12 months – usually finding significant rarity or rarities. But this year, we decided to recognize those who FAILED to find the birds they were supposed to, and NOT SHOW THEM to those birders they were supposed to be guiding.... and no, it's not MBW!
Before explaining what I mean, I'll start by saying most of you probably don't know our 2011 recipients, even though they could be considered the most active birders in perhaps the most productive birding place in Minn.
Even I don't know them as well as I should. I didn't meet them until 2007 on the day they and others had found a Com Moorhen/Gallinule far north of its normal range. Or I should say I ALMOST met them. As I was out trying to relocate the moorhen, this pair of birders I didn't know were approaching me on the path when my cell phone rang. So I stepped off to the side to take the call, thinking it was information on the moorhen or some other rarity, and didn't acknowledge these mystery birders, who then moved on while I was on the phone.
I later learned who it was I ignored, and that they were probably coming up to tell me I was looking in the wrong place. I did eventually see the moorhen later, but I probably would have seen it a lot earlier if my phone hadn't rung at exactly the wrong time....
Anyway, they somehow managed to survive this missed opportunity and honor of meeting me, and they quietly went on to other birding successes: the first St Louis Co record of a Yellow-thr Warbler in 2008....just two months later, a record late date Gr Crested Flyc on Nov 9...the first and only Minn summer record of Pomarine Jaeger in June 2009....and most recently, a first Crow Wing Co breeding record of B-g Gnatcatcher found by one of them just after the other stopped to rest and declared “I’m going to sit down here to cool off and wait for a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,” which neither of them had ever seen in Crow Wing Co.
But more to the point of this award, on Apr 28 of this year they were asked to lead a so-called DAS warbler walk at Park Point in Duluth. The weather was cold and miserable, of course, and there were no warblers. So, in blatant disregard of their Mission Statement, they started looking at gulls instead and found a handsome adult Laughing Gull. This accidental species had not been seen in 14 years in Minn, and it was seen by many Duluth birders in the coming days.
Then, just one week later, on May 5, they were again asked to lead a DAS warbler walk at Park Point in Duluth. Again the weather was cold and miserable, of course, and again there were no warblers. So, again in blatant disregard of their Mission Statement, they started looking at ducks instead and found a sub-adult male King Eider – a casual species only seen once before in spring in the state and never seen before in this plumage in Minn.
Two remarkable rarities found at the same place by the same people leading the same field trips just one week apart....I don't know if there was another warbler walk a week later on May 12, but if so I'm sure it was well attended!
So, in this age of Facebook and blogs and "hey lookka me", it's refreshing to recognize these modest, low-key birders who don't call attention to themselves. So we have to do that for them....AND LET ME MAKE SURE MY CELL PHONE IS STILL TURNED OFF....
2012 - Anthony Hertzel & Peder Svingen
Written and presented by Kim Eckert
The Brother Theodore Voelker Award originated in 1988 in order to recognize a "Special Achievement in Field Ornithology" during the past year, usually involving the discovery of an especially significant species. And when that discovery involves a first state record, so much the better.
It also adds to the significance if this sighting involved an identification challenge (which it did in this case), if the bird was somewhat unexpected (this western species had only been recorded in five states or provinces east of the Mississippi), and – perhaps above all – if it stayed around long enough for others to see. That certainly was the situation here, since it is estimated that well over 100 birders (many of them in this room) were able to eventually observe it, including more than 50 on November 3rd alone.
Despite the skill that the two original observers so clearly demonstrated in the discovery, identification, and documentation of this bird, it is fortunate that the criteria for the Voelker award does not necessarily require any botanical expertise. One of the observers told me that prior to its identification the bird flew off before reappearing a short time later in a nearby mountain ash tree. But in the excitement of trying to point it out he just said, "It's in the ash tree!", leaving the other observer to not only wonder why he couldn't spot the bird right away but also why there weren't any green ash or black ash trees around to look in.
One of our award recipients couldn't be here today, but I'll be sure to see he receives his plaque by tomorrow. Among his other accomplishments this year, all in Duluth, included: contributing his always-meticulous documentations to last winter's records of Glaucous-winged Gull, multiple Barrow's Goldeneyes, and a hybrid Common x Barrow's goldeneye; and his attention to detail as he carefully monitored some significant concentrations of migrants – 2,087 Common Terns at Park Point on May 15, 4,241 Common Nighthawks in a single hour on August 14, and 1,035 White-throated Sparrows along a 2.5-mile stretch of road on September 22. This represents his fourth Voelker award, more than anyone else, and additionally he received the T S Roberts Award in 2000.
So, that leaves us with one of the two recipients present here to receive his well-deserved award – and to tolerate our attention and appreciation.
This is his second Voelker award (boy, what a slacker, compared to that other guy!), and he was the recipient of the 2003 T S Roberts Award. But much of what he has done this past year, as well as in several previous years, goes unheralded. Most notably, of course, this has been his 16th year as editor of "The Loon", widely recognized as one of the best – if not the best – state birding journals. In addition, he continues to edit the statewide Rare Bird Alert, currently serves as interim editor of the newsletter, works behind the scenes assisting Dave Cahlander on maintaining the excellent MOU website, and tirelessly works for the MOU in ways I'm pretty sure I don't even know about.
One thing I admire about our co-recipients is their quiet self-effacing manner, preferring not to call attention to themselves – rare qualities in this "Hey looka me!" era of Facebook and Twitter. Despite all that modesty, though, they're still going to get this award. I promised the one here he didn't have to make eye-contact – so if you'd like, cast your gaze downwards now and send him a text message with your appreciation. Or if you insist, go to the MOU's Facebook page and post one of those silly thumbs-up "Like" icons.
Still, though he'd probably prefer no applause, I'm going to ask for it anyway, as we present the 2012 Brother Theodore Voelker Award for their Cassin's Kingbird in Grand Marias, Cook County, present October 27 through November 12, and species #439 on the Minnesota state list, to Peder Svingen (in absentia) and Tony Hertzel.
2013 - Karl Bardon
Written by Kim Eckert and presented by Linda Sparling
As mentioned earlier, the Brother Theodore Voelker award is "for special achievement in field ornithology" during the past year. And, given this person's multitude of special sightings in 2013, there really wasn't any competition this time.
He also received this award in 2010, and those who were here for that presentation might recall his past experiences have included field research from the Arctic to the Chilean rain forests, in Veracruz and the Gulf of Mexico, at Whitefish Point in Michigan and Cape May in New Jersey.
You might also remember we reported on his idiosyncrasies closer to home. That he often stands barefoot while on duty at Hawk Ridge in Duluth where he serves as official hawk counter. That he drives around town in a car full of loaves of stale bread he claims are intended to attract gulls for closer study.
This award is for his accomplishments in the field here in Minnesota this year, and there were so many it's hard to know where to start. One way to look at it, though, is to describe the Voelker award as second only in importance to the Roberts award, which is coming up next. And, indeed, he came up with a long list of bird sightings, all of them in Duluth, and all entirely appropriate for our "second-best" award, since in a way all of them could be characterized as "second-rate"....
- On March 25 he found and photographed not just a male Barrow's Goldeneye, but also a second Barrow's the same day – a harder-to-identify female.
- Especially impressive to be sure was that Wilson's Plover he found on May 27, a species not seen in the state for over 30 years – it wasn't a first Minnesota record, of course, but the second Wilson's Plover ever seen here.
- Even though the high temperature reached 88 degrees on August 21, like proverbial mad dogs and Englishmen, he was out in the mid-day sun to count Common Nighthawks and came up with a sunrise-sunset total of no fewer than 30,874 of them – no, not a record, but the second-best one-day count ever.
- Not only did he spot a Mississippi Kite flying overhead on August 27, but on September 4 he also had – you guessed it! – a second Mississippi Kite.
- What about that Long-tailed Jaeger he saw on September 19? Impressive, but doesn't it go without saying that it was the second one seen in the state this year?
- He photographed a Eurasian Collared-Dove on October 2nd – predictably, it wasn't the first, but the second ever seen in St Louis County.
- As for his Sabine's Gull sighting on October 20: not bad – it was the second one on the Minnesota side of Lake Superior this fall.
- He continued with others to systematically monitor the significant migration of passerines and other non-raptors along the North Shore of Lake Superior each fall. This season, their best one-day tally was an impressive 38,418 individuals on August 21, including 283 Eastern Kingbirds which was – wait for it! – the second-highest count for this species ever in the state. And, naturally, this survey of migrants is the second one ever conducted in the state – the first was here back in the 1980s and 90s.
- He has just completed his 7th year as official hawk counter at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, where he counted no fewer than 155 Rough-legged Hawks on November 2nd and finally managed to break out of his rut! – 155 was actually the third-highest total ever in a day, not the second.
- And that's about it – but no, wait a second! – on second thought, we almost forgot to mention his continuing and comprehensive studies of the various gulls wintering at Canal Park and the Superior Entry in Duluth.
- Finally, it's certainly impressive that this will be his third Voelker award, the other two in 2010 and 1992. But – wouldn't you know it? – he's now the second one to accomplish this, a year behind Peder Svingen who received his third Voelker award last year.
All kidding aside, of course, he's anything but a second-rate birder, and it would be hard to name anyone else who has ever come up with more first-rate sightings in any year in Minnesota. And besides all his birding achievements, he is to be especially commended for his modesty, and his ability to let his accomplishments speak for themselves. He's anything but one of those who are into self-promotion with a need to call attention to themselves – including those who may have little to promote and nothing worth calling attention to.
So, Karl may have no need for awards and won't be with us today. But still, the 2013 Brother Theodore Voelker award for special achievement in field ornithology during the past year is obviously well-deserved and goes to KARL BARDON.
2014 - Mark "Sparky" Stensaas
Written and presented by Dave Benson
The recipient of this year's Brother Theodore Voelker Award for Special Achievement in Field Ornithology during the past year has facilitated the field ornithological pursuits of many other people--leveraging his efforts to preserve important birding landscapes, improve the experience of hundreds if not thousands of other birders, and taking action to make things happen where many of the rest of us have only wished or mused about the possibilities.
Even though this award is specifically intended for achievements during a one-year period, his work in the same realm stretches over decades, including wide-ranging work as a naturalist; conductor of bird surveys for the DNR County Biological Survey, Natural Resources Research Institute, and other organizations; Counter at Hawk Ridge for two seasons; compiler of the Sax-Zim Christmas Bird Count since 1986; birding guide for many groups and individuals; author of several natural history books; publisher of over twenty natural history books and field guides, including a couple on birds. Even given all of this, he is best known as a wildlife photographer, and his blog, thephotonaturalist.com, displays a spectacular collection of images, many of which required great personal effort and field work skill to obtain.
And in the past year, which is what the Voelker award is all about, he has:
- Worked with Carlton County Land Stewards to cause the re-routing of a pipeline to an existing trail path;
- Completed fundraising for and purchase of an additional 60 acres of prime habitat in the Sax-Zim bog, adding to the 40 acres acquired in 2013, and built the foundation for the acquisition and protection of much more land in the future;
- Been the main tour group leader and educator for a busy schedule of programming in the bog;
- Overseen (and by this, I mean looked after myriad details, hauled materials, organized volunteers and construction workers, helped with the building, fundraising, research, public relations, responded to all kinds of crises, and more) the completion and grand opening of the Friends of Sax-Zim Bog Welcome Center on Owl Avenue.
(In case the significance of having a gateway center to one of the premier birding locations in the state, with an emphasis on conservation and education, has not been noticed, let me add this statement: there are now bathrooms in the middle of the bog!)
All of this has been done as part of his broadly-defined role as the Executive Director of the Friends of Sax-Zim Bog, an organization which was his brainchild, and which he has tended and grown through the laborious process of getting IRS 501(c)3 status, achieving the major goal of completing the welcome center, and taking great strides toward both directly preserving bog lands and increasing their value in the eyes of the public.
In University of Minnesota-Duluth circles, though, all of this may pale in comparison to his being the founder of the outdoors club, Wuda Wooch! (beats me why it's called that). In fact, a while ago, our recipient was birding in Rocky Mountain National Park when he ran into a large tour group led by a ranger. The ranger asked where he was from, and soon revealed that she too had once lived in Duluth, and attended UMD. She then lowered her voice and asked, "Were you in Wuda Wooch?" When he replied in the affirmative, she said in a hushed. awestruck tone, "Did you know Sparky?" When he told her that he was Sparky, she surprised her tour group by spontaneously leaping into the air in excitement, almost losing her Smoky Bear hat.
Sparky lives with his wife, Bridget and their sons Birk and Bjorn, under the big pines in the Nemadji Valley of Carlton County, Minnesota.
For those of us who have known and worked with Sparky over the years, it is not a huge surprise that he has accomplished everything he has. This has been a banner year for him and for Northern Minnesota birds and birders, and it is my honor to present Mark "Sparky" Stensaas with the Brother Theodore Voelker Award for 2014.
2015 - Bruce Fall
Written and presented by Kim Eckert
The Brother Theodore Voelker Award is presented, as it states on the plaque, “for special achievement in field ornithology” during the past 12 months. In most years this achievement involves the discovery of a significant rarity or rarities, and such is the case this year as we recognize an accomplished field ornithologist. It’s unfortunate, though, that he had a prior commitment and couldn’t be here today. I suppose then that it would be OK to just make up stuff to say about him since he isn’t here, but I’ll resist that temptation. After all, this is not Iowa, and I’m not campaigning for President.
His wife Susan tells me his interest in birds started in the 5th grade, as he grew up in Indiana (and, no, he wasn’t born in Kenya, as a certain candidate might claim), and attended Purdue University. He earned a masters degree from Texas A & M as he studied the birdlife at the King Ranch and elsewhere in South Texas. From there he moved on to Minnesota in the 1970s for graduate school at the University of Minnesota, where he worked on a Ph.D. before retiring recently from the Biology Department. (And, no, contrary to what Donald Trump might say, Ph.D. does not stand for Phony Doctorate.)
Our recipient not only found something significant in 2015, but he also has a long history of accomplishments. It was in the 1970s and 1980s (his first article in The Loon was in 1977) when he reported several significant records in and around Itasca State Park while on the staff of Itasca’s University of Minnesota field station. These included his account of a third-state-record Williamson’s Sapsucker he found with the late Bud Tordoff in 1988.
He went on to publish accounts of other birds from elsewhere in the state:
- His discovery of a second Ivory Gull in 1991 along the Mississippi River in South St Paul, after others had reported just one there initially;
- His analysis of the Calliope Hummingbird specimen from Minneapolis in 1994 and the identification of this first state record;
- His discovery of a third-state-record Ross’s Gull in 2007 – at the same location as those Ivory Gulls 16 years earlier!
In addition, he has a knack for finding nests and studying mixed species pairs, as his articles in The Loon documented:
- A comparative study in 1981 of the breeding distribution of Alder and Willow flycatchers in the state;
- Minnesota’s first documented nesting records of both Hooded Warbler and Kentucky Warbler, and the first nesting records of Henslow’s Sparrow and Acadian Flycatcher in the Twin Cities;
- A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher paired with a Western Kingbird and attempting to nest in Sherburne County;
- And a mixed pair of Summer and Scarlet tanagers nesting at Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve in 2003 – the same year that the late Jim Mattsson found another mixed pair of tanagers at Lebanon Hills Regional Park.
Our recipient was presented with the T S Roberts Award in 1997, and he is currently a member of the MOU’s Records Committee and serves as the state’s editor and compiler of eBird reports. But what he is recognized for today is his discovery on June 24 of a certain flycatcher while en route to conducting a census of Henslow’s Sparrows at Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve.
At first this bird appeared to be a Western Kingbird, but he is so familiar with Murphy-Hanrehan that he knew there were no previous park records of that species and began to suspect this was either a Tropical or a Couch’s Kingbird. Indeed, it was confirmed as a Tropical Kingbird six days later when the bird finally gave its diagnostic call, and it represents the first confirmed record of this species in Minnesota (although there is a previous record of an unidentified kingbird in Duluth which was either a Tropical or a Couch’s.)
But what is most remarkable about this record is our recipient’s dedication and persistence in confirming the bird’s identity, waiting for it to call, observing its behavior, and studying its molt pattern. He didn’t just check it off his list and move on, but instead spent a total of 17 hours over 10 days observing this bird in the field and eventually obtaining a recording of its call. Many hours were also spent in research at home on this species’ molt and pattern of vagrancy, as he learned it was probably an adult female, one-and-a-half years old, and that it most likely migrated here from South America! I urge all of you to read through the amazingly detailed documentation which appears on the MOU website in the “Review Reported Birds” menu. It’s probably the most impressive documentation I’ve ever seen for a Minnesota bird.
With this award, our recipient shares the company of other previous award recipients who tend to keep to themselves, prefer to avoid attracting attention from others, don’t have a need for awards or recognition - just like those Norwegian Lutheran Bachelor Farmers that Garrison Keillor talks about.
This may make the task of the MOU Awards Committee more difficult as we try to make sure all the recipients are in attendance here. But such modesty is the Minnesota way, I guess, and at least it’s preferable to the approach of those who engage in tireless and tiresome self-promotion – especially those with little or nothing to promote but who do so anyway. (Those who, you might say, Trump-up their accomplishments?)
So at this time I’d ask you to put away your smartphones – you can update your Facebook page later, and those tweets about what you had for lunch can wait. Just put them away long enough to recognize the recipient of the 2015 Brother Theodore Voelker Award – BRUCE FALL. Congratulations, Bruce!
2016 - Pete Hoeger
Written by Barb Martin and Bonnie Mulligan; presented by Kim Eckert
There is something special about the number three in our culture, such as the three bears, three wishes, and this time of year the three ghosts that appear to Scrooge. The MOU had its own three in 2016, in the number of first state records: Mottled Duck, Gull-billed Tern, and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. Some of you lucky folks may have gotten three wishes and added all of them to your Minnesota list. This Voelker award recipient was the first to find and identify one of these birds. Growing up in South Dakota, he was introduced to birding by his dad. He recalls family vacations that were usually birding trips in disguise. Kim Eckert knew his father, Augie, back in the 1970s in Sioux Falls, but he didn't know his son who attended the junior high school where Kim taught English.
After moving to Minnesota's McLeod County, he began feeder watching and casual trips around the area. Early in the 2000s, he joined the Huchinson Area Bird Club and participated in Christmas Bird Counts. And as a measure of his success, he now holds the highest McLeod County list, having seen 250 species out of the county's total of 295. This modest guy attributes his inspiration and confidence to the experienced birders/teachers he has met along the way in McLeod and Meeker counties, and at the various "hot spots" where birds and birders gather. He has participated in week-long Minnesota Birding Weeks trips where he has gained the reputation of being an excellent spotter, and photographer, and with a tendency to frequently wander off from the group - often finding good birds as a result.
He believes birding to be a great obsession. Equally important is the bond that is present among birders and photographers as they line up scope to scope, often ignoring the weather - this is Minnesota, after all - for the pleasure of viewing birds. His many hours of study and in the field have paid off in his ability to pick a different bird out of the flock. He may also have recorded a first in Minnesota ornithology by describing his find as "beguiling". So one of our Voelker award winners for 2016, for finding and identifying that beguiling Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, is Pete Hoeger.
2016 - Kathleen MacAulay
Written and presented by Bob Dunlap
It's certainly not every year that the MOU presents the Theodore Voelker Award twice. In fact, this has happened in only two other years since the MOU began presenting this award in 1988. So you know that when we have a second recipient, it means something special.
On the morning of February 16, those of us who regularly check the MOU-net listserve read an email sent out at 11:48 the previous evening. In the subject of the email were the words "possible Mottled Duck." Having not received any emails, texts, Facebook messages, or phone calls about this from my usual birding cohort, I clicked the link to the photo album with a healthy dose of skepticism. Upon viewing the images, my pulse began to increase. I quickly looked up some online resources on Mottled Ducks and made a few calls. Within the next hour or so, I found myself and two other interested individuals at the Rum River Dam in Anoka County, looking at the bird.
Now it must be said that identifying a Mottled Duck away from its expected Gulf Coast range takes careful scrutiny. And to even entertain the idea of a Mottled Duck in Minnesota, in winter no less, might seem far-fetched to most birders. Nonetheless, my birding companions and I remained transfixed on this duck, carefully scrutinizing the field marks for signs of hybridization with Mallard. Try as we might, we found none. Many fortunate observers were able to view the duck later that same day, acquiring additional photos and field notes aiding in the identification of Minnesota's first state record Mottled Duck.
But this was by no means a chance discovery by some lucky birder. On the contrary; this observer, I believe, was actually looking for a Mottled Duck. Or at least she knew that the possibility existed, and in turn used her skill set to capitalize on the opportunity that presented itself. In her own words, she says she loves "patiently sorting through big flocks for rare things" and that she is "interested in and very familiar with black ducks and black duck x mallard hybrids (being from Nova Scotia)."
Her patience and persistence have rewarded her with a few other notable sightings throughout Minnesota this year, including a Townsend's Solitaire in Morrison County, a Great-tailed Grackle in Swift County, a Hooded Warbler in Wabasha County, a White-winged Scoter in Kandiyohi County, and just last week three Long-tailed Ducks in Otter Tail County.
Our recipient's experience in the field of Ornithology is no less impressive, to say the least. Among her many accomplishments thus far are working as a wildlife rehabilitator specializing in avian species in Nova Scotia; undergraduate research on the nesting habitat of Boreal Owls; a myriad of volunteer work with zoos, symposia, and citizen science projects; and finally earning her Ph.D. in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Prince Edward Island.
We are privileged to have her currently working as a Veterinary Intern at The Raptor Center, where her supervisor often tells colleagues that our recipient loves ornithology as much as veterinary science. In fact, our recipient talked the veterinarians there into letting her stay on for a second year of internship so that she could get more experience in avian orthopedic surgery and conservation medicine research. Says her supervisor, "How could we say no?"
This award, today, represents just one of her contributions to ornithology in Minnesota. But we can certainly expect many more to come, and I can't wait to see them. It is thus with great pleasure and distinction that I present our second Theodore Voelker Award of 2016 to Kathleen MacAulay.
2017 - John Richardson
Written and presented by Clinton Nienhaus
Today, I am honored to present The Brother Theodore Voelker award. As an alumnus of St. Mary's University of Minnesota, I feel a special connection to the awards namesake, as he was a professor at St. Mary's long ago.
For those who do not know, the Brother Theodore Voelker Award is given out annually for "special achievement in field ornithology." Typically, recipients of this award are honored for state record finds, for thorough documentation of migration or rare species, and for various other achievements in field ornithology.
I first learned of this year's recipient in March of 2015 after a post he made on the Minnesota Birding Facebook page. The post read "Confirmation or rebuke. Looking for help. This struck me as a Brambling? Help please." Of course, very clearly documented was a Brambling... in his backyard! I had only an inclining of who this individual was and knew enough to know that he should know what a Brambling looks like. I fondly recall that post as a reminder of the humility of our recipient, never one to boast an ID, no matter of his confidence.
Our recipient hails from across the Pond! His birding life begins in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England. His brother, Neil, tells me that our recipient's obsession with birds started when he was 12 or 13 on the Isle of Arran, part of the inner Hebrides Islands off of the west coast of Scotland. Here, he was part of the Hull Watch, which was a junior branch of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. He participated in this for "two years on the trot, spotting birds and adding to his life list." While in his early birding years, our recipient spent time at Spurn Point, a well known migration viewing location in Yorkshire. While on family walks at Spurn Point, our recipient could often be heard complaining to his parents that "he could never see any birds due to his two screaming younger brothers dashing around the woods."
Fast forward a few years, and our recipient has set down roots in Brainerd, MN. While there, he was active in the Brainerd Lakes Area Audubon Society and worked for the USGS and Minnesota County Biological Survey, surveying prairie birds and searching for nests and banding Bobolinks. While working on a USGS survey in Polk County in 2002, our recipient found not one, but two Baird's Sparrows on the Glacial Ridge Nature Conservancy property (which is now part of Glacial Ridge NWR). These two birds proved to be a substantial find as they were the last found in the state until the discovery of one last year in Douglas County!
In 2014, our recipient, his wife Shelly, and three boys, Liam, Callum, and Kieran, moved to Duluth, where they have been ever since. Our recipient has had a great deal of luck with backyard birds: In Brainerd with the aforementioned Brambling, but also a Black-headed Grosbeak two months later! In Duluth his yard has hosted Bohemian Waxwings, Red Crossbills, 7 species of woodpecker including Black-backed, a number of warbler species, and even a Northern Saw-whet Owl. Our recipient currently works as Count Interpreter at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory and runs the newly minted Skylark Guiding Service, all the while keeping track of three busy boys (who may or may not always like to go birding with dad).
Duluth also is where our recipient made his "special achievement in field ornithology." I first heard about the discovery, while I was in Colorado. I sent our recipient a text message 6 minutes after the discovery and was absolutely floored to see photos of a recently dead NORTHERN FULMAR!! This bird, a light morph of the Atlantic subspecies, not only represents an amazing find, it represents a first state record, a first record for the Western Great Lakes, and the only mid-continent record of this species, albeit a deceased specimen. What an amazing record for an superb birder.
Our recipient certainly shares a slew of amazing bird finds and fastidiously documents unexplored areas with his use of eBird, but, according to Butch Ukura, there may be another amazing finding of our recipient's that should be noted. Butch notes, "There is no doubt in my mind that John's most significant sighting and then find is Shelly. Not only is she a good wife, great mother, but the most UNDERSTANDING wife that we fanatical birders could possibly have as a wife. To put the icing on the cake, Shelly is a lifer. Life does not get any better than this for a birder."
32 years on from his first brush with birding and just as passionate about his feathered friends as he was at the start, is with great pleasure that I present the 2017 Brother Theodore Voelker Award to an accomplished birder, amazing father and husband, and my friend: JOHN RICHARDSON. Congratulations John!
2018 - Jim Pifher and Jean Ranweiler
Written by Todd Kreymeyer and Kim Eckert; presented by Kim Eckert
Todd Kreymeyer has known the recipients of this year's award for 22 years and has been birding with them for the last 15. Todd first met this couple as co-workers who were just starting to get into birding. They both loved it and developed a passion for the hobby. They have amassed a substantial Minnesota list in their own right: he is at 340 and she at 339. The difference is a Prairie Falcon that he saw without her. So, if you happen to find a Prairie Falcon, be sure to call her – not him.
Todd reports how excited they get seeing a bird for the first time. For instance, this year they got great looks at a Yellow-billed Cuckoo at the Bass Ponds – the first good looks they ever had of this species. They watched it for 20-30 minutes, and she made sure to point out the bird to anyone walking by. I‘m sure all of these non-birders were wondering why this crazy woman was so excited over a “pigeon” sitting at the top of a tree.
Which brings us to the afternoon of August 26. They frantically called Todd to put the news on Facebook: they were at the Old Cedar Avenue bridge looking at a Roseate Spoonbill! They are not on Facebook (which I think is reason enough to receive an award), but had posted it on the mou-net listserv but weren‘t sure if that post to went through, and they wanted to make sure that other birders knew about this first state record.
Although they might not be well known in the birding community, Todd hopes that some of you recognized them on the boardwalk that day, and he congratulates them for their dedication and birding expertise.
________
Our recipients had gone down to Old Cedar Avenue just to see how the construction on the new bridge was coming. They were not looking for spoonbills and had no knowledge of Kevin Smith's sighting of the spoonbill earlier that day near Hastings (which unfortunately flew off after just a few minutes).
As far as I know, this had to be the biggest birding spectacle ever in Minnesota. At least I can't think of any other rarity seen by so many birders in one day...and a big, beautiful, pink first state record at that! So can I now ask you to stand if you were one of the dozens – or probably hundreds? – who were there on August 26 and saw that Roseate Spoonbill thanks to Jim and Jean's sighting and prompt reporting of their find...
And while your standing, with your applause please congratulate and thank JIM PIFHER and JEAN RANWEILER – this year's recipients of the Bro. Theodore Voelker Award.
2019 - Jim Lind
Written and presented by Ezra Hosch
Our Brother Theodore Voelker Award recipient this year has earned the reputation of being one of the finest field birders in Minnesota, and his extraordinary find of yet another first state record has only solidified the esteem for him among those in the birding community.
Although our recipient is being recognized for his achievement in field ornithology in 2019, it would be amiss to not acknowledge the numerous rarities this man has documented over the years. In 2000, our recipient discovered a fifth state record Black-throated Gray Warbler. In 2004, he found and documented a third state record Black Vulture. In 2005, he located a third state record Common Ground Dove, and two years later a first state record Inca Dove! In 2015, he found a fourth state record Brewer’s Sparrow, which was also the first record in Minnesota of this species that was supported by physical evidence. Some of his exception co-finds have included Accidental species such as Tricolored Heron and Curlew Sandpiper. Obviously, this man has a knack for finding extraordinary vagrants!
Last, but not least, our recipient discovered a first state record Cassin’s Sparrow in Two Harbors, Lake County, on 29 September of this year. As his fellow eBird reviewer, I must say that his detailed writeup and numerous photos were as appreciated as his amazing find! Also, to the delight of his fellow North Shore birders, he quickly got the word out about his sighting, which he hopes makes up for any shortcomings in this area when he found that pesky Brewer’s Sparrow four years ago.
May I offer a hearty congratulations to the 2019 Brother Theodore Voelker award for special achievement in field ornithology, birder extraordinaire Jim Lind!
2020 - Ezra Hosch
Nominated and presented by Isaac Hosch
The Brother Theodore Voelker award is given to those who have made a
special achievement in field ornithology within the past year. Our recipient
this year has made multiple notable achievements in the past year. In late
December, 2019 he found a second county record California Gull in
Washington County, in the spring of 2020 he found multiple pairs of
Yellow-throated Warbler and confirmed the state’s fourth breeding record
when he documented the fledged young.
While conducting daily counts of
the passerine fall migration at Sucker Lake, he found his most notable
rarity; the state’s tenth Black-throated Gray Warbler, which he found and
identified by call note before seeing the bird.
It should not come as a
surprise that a significant amount of effort has been put into learning the
vocalizations of birds to be able to identify rarities by call note; in fact, one
can hear our recipient religiously studying recordings of songs and call
notes on Macaulay Library and eBird at all hours of the day and night.
It is my honor to present the Brother Theodore Voelker award to Ezra Hosch.
2020 - Frank Nicoletti
Nominated and presented by John Richardson
All of us in the birding community know of and highly respect Frank Nicoletti. Frank is widely recognized as one of the premier raptor experts in the United States. He has traveled throughout the country conducting various raptor related projects including migration studies, nesting surveys and tracking winter raptors.
Frank joined the Hawk Ridge staff in Duluth, MN in 2011 and is the Banding Director/Spring Count Director. He has published a number of papers on birds and has helped many authors working on books and articles about raptors.
This year, Frank - along with fellow experts Jerry Liguori, Jesse Watson and Dr. Dave Oleyar - has published the “In-hand Guide to Diurnal North American Raptors” throughout HawkWatch International. This photo guide book features over 450 color photos and accounts of seventeen species for raptor researchers, banders, and enthusiasts alike. The guide includes information on molt, sexing, and aging for commonly captured North American diurnal raptors, including morph variations and subspecies.
A big congratulations to Frank Nicoletti - a 2020 Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union Brother Theodore Voelker Award Winner!
2021 - Ezra Hosch
Nominated and presented by Alex Sundvall
I remember when this year’s Voelker award recipient told me about Paul Hugo Farms WMA. He had just gotten back from birding there and described it as “one of the best marshes in the Twin Cities area” mentioning Black Terns, Ring-necked Ducks, both Least and American Bitterns, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds.
He knew that one day something special would show up in this marsh, and he was going to be the one to find it. He spent hundreds of hours over the course of many months and a few years at Paul Hugo looking for that rarity.
And on the 26th of May this year, I was happy to be with him when the two of us discovered Washington County’s first record of Black-necked Stilt there; a pair of birds that stuck around for only about 15 minutes before taking off and disappearing.
While this was a good bird, nothing would prepare the world for what he discovered just a few days later. On the 30th of May, 2021 as this year’s Voelker Award winner visited Paul Hugo Farms WMA just like he had countless evenings before, he encountered an unfamiliar sounding bird. He recorded it but passed it off as a weird-sounding Sora as he and the rest of the state were suddenly preoccupied with a Black Rail report in Anoka County. However, after listening to the recording again that night and comparing it to spectrograms, he realized there was some real potential that this weird bird was in fact the first state record and farthest north record of Limpkin! After sending it around to some friends and experts who all agreed that it was a Limpkin, he reported it out and the entire state descended on Paul Hugo. After the initial discovery on May 30, the Limpkin was reported until at least the 18th of July with over 250 people seeing it.
Limpkin is the 447th species added to the Minnesota list and the first to be added since the Lesser Goldfinch in late 2019.
For the second year in a row now, It’s my honor on behalf of the MOU to present this year’s Brother Theodore Voelker award for special achievement in Ornithology to Ezra Hosch!
2022 - Kara Snow and Steve Kolbe
Nominated and presented by Alexis Grinde, Ph.D
I am pleased to present The Brother Theodore Voelker Award for “Special Achievement in Field
Ornithology” to Steve Kolbe and Kara Snow.
For the past four years Kara Snow and Steve Kolbe have worked in the Avian Ecology Laboratory at the Natural
Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. They have been dedicated and
instrumental in a research study focused on understanding the ecology of Minnesota's peatlands. Specifically,
Kara and Steve have conducted field work in Minnesota's lowland conifer forests studying two bird Species in
Greatest Conservation Need; Boreal Chickadee and Connecticut Warbler from 2018-2022. These imperiled bird
species have long been understudied, generally because of their low densities and because they breed in hard-to
access habitats. Kara and Steve have lived in the most remote areas of Minnesota from May to August for the past
four years, working in some of the harshest habitats in the state. Nest searching and telemetry is difficult under
most circumstances, add in hiking through peat bogs, unbelievable amounts of mosquitoes, flooded roads, down
trees, frustration and sadness documenting predated nests and the mortality of juvenile birds- well, there are not
two humans that are more deserving of an award for their efforts. The data they have collected has helped us to
better understand the breeding ecology of these species, is being used by managers to improve habitat and forest
management practices, and we are in the process of submitting the results of the study to several peer-reviewed
journals. I cannot overstate the importance of the data Steve and Kara collected for informing conservation efforts
for these birds in Minnesota and throughout their range. Their passion to do the hard work for bird conservation
is admirable and inspiring.
Please note this study is part of a larger study that is led by myself and Marcella Windmuller-Campione at the
University of Minnesota, and has been funded by the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. I have
provided a summary of the outcomes of the research projects below.
Study overview. Connecticut Warbler and Boreal Chickadee are listed as Species in Greatest Conservation Need
(SGCN) in Minnesota. Preserving and restoring quality breeding habitat is critical for conservation of these
species, but there is a significant knowledge gap associated with basic breeding ecology and breeding and post
fledging habitat requirements for both species. To develop effective conservation, additional information about
their basic ecological needs is necessary to help identify forest and habitat characteristics that influence full- life
cycle events such as nest success, juvenile survival, and habitat needs of post-fledgling birds.
Connecticut Warbler. To better understand the breeding ecology of Connecticut Warblers, we studied their
nesting and post-fledging habitat use and survival in northern Minnesota at two study sites in 2019 (Sax Zim Bog)
and 2020 (Red Lake Peatlands). We mapped territories of 49 singing males, located and monitored 11 nests, and
tracked the post-fledging movements of individuals from 5 broods. Results for 13 individuals tracked 0-7 day
post-fledging had a mean daily distance from nests of 35.5 m and a maximum range of dispersal of 104 m during
that time period. Connecticut Warblers were not observed making movements of greater than 55 m/day until day
8 or movements of 100 m/day until day 19 post-fledge. Our findings indicate that micro-site areas with high stem
density were important features for post-fledgling birds and that the same habitats were used for breeding and the
post-fledging time period. Results from this study can be used by land managers to develop and promote
conservation strategies that will provide critical habitat to support this species.
Boreal Chickadee. Boreal Chickadees are cavity-nesting species and readily use nest boxes for breeding.
Therefore, we deployed nest box arrays in two study areas located in the Sax Zim Bog (2019) and the Red Lake
Peatlands (2020- 2022). Nest boxes allowed us to control for potential differences in cavity availability between
study areas and sites within the study areas. Study sites had similar forest cover types (predominantly mature
black spruce) but were different ages and have varying degrees of fragmentation in the surrounding landscape. To
quantify differences in habitat quality between sites, we documented nest density, parental provisioning rates, and
nestling body condition and growth rates, as well as post-fledging movement and juvenile survival.
During the 2020, 2021, and 2022 breeding seasons we documented outcomes of 33 nests, tagged 58 fledglings
from 24 broods, and collected data at 1,274 habitat vegetation points. The overall nest success (one or more
individuals fledged) has been high (80%), with Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) and Pine Marten (Martes
americana) predation as the leading cause of nest failure (20%). The highest risk of post-fledge mortality is
within the first three days after leaving the box. During this time period survival is 58%; we estimated that 66% of
mortality was caused by predation and the remaining 33% due to exposure to the elements (e.g., strong storms the
night after fledging). Very few mortality events occurred after 4 days post-fledgling. Through our tracking of
juveniles we have learned a lot about their behaviors during the post-fledging time period. For example, the
broods typically stay with both parents and move around together for the first 21 days post-fledging. Daily
movement distance averaged 100 m (328 feet) during the first 10 days after leaving the nest and increased to 200
m (656 feet) as the juveniles grew and became more proficient fliers. In general, the broods remain relatively
close to the home range of the parents and would avoid large openings and hard-edged transitional areas of the
black spruce forest. Once the juveniles reached approximately 21 days post-fledge, the broods split from the
parents and began to make longer movements of, on average 300 m, (984 ft) from the “core” post-fledgling area
and tended to join up with mixed-species flocks consisting of juvenile Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned
Kinglets, Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis), and Nashville (Leiothlypis ruficapilla) and Yellow-rumped
Warblers. (Setophaga coronata) We also frequently were able to document juvenile Boreal Chickadees from
multiple broods joining a single mixed-species flock. Much longer daily movements of up to 1.7 km (a little over
1 mile) also occurred during this period, presumably as Boreal Chickadees sought suitable available (i.e.,
unoccupied) habitat. Around 40 days after fledging, the Boreal Chickadee juveniles typically settled into a regular
area and started to make less frequent large movements (approximately 200 m average daily movement) across
the landscape. These data are being used to provide breeding cycle habitat recommendations for managing
forested landscapes to maximize productivity and prioritize conservation efforts.
2023 - Hannah Toutonghi
Presented by Ezra Hosch
I first met this year’s Voelker Award winner sometime in the fall of 2017, when she was doing a traineeship
at Hawk Ridge. Although she was officially the education trainee that year, it seemed like she quickly learned
counting was where it was at and spent most of her time that fall at the platform assisting the counters. The
next year, she came back to the ridge as the count trainee, but then ended up spending a lot of time that
season in the banding blind. Of course, it was natural that in 2019 she would do a third and final traineeship
as a bander, before returning to work as the Hawk Ridge owl bander in 2020. With her work as an owl bander at
both Hawk Ridge and Whitefish Point in Michigan, it came as no surprise when her graduate research at the
University of Minnesota Duluth focused on one of our least studied and most fascinating species in Minnesota —
the Northern Hawk Owl.
The Northern Hawk Owl is a difficult species to study, due to it being a low-population-density species, having
nomadic movements, and favoring habitats that are difficult to access, but that was not enough to deter our
winner from being at the forefront of working to fill in our knowledge gaps about this species. Studying this
species required putting satellite transmitters on individual birds — the first time such a study has been
conducted with hawk owls — but first the birds had to be found, as well as trapped and banded, in order to
successfully deploy a transmitter. This required countless hours driving snowy and icy roads in the Minnesota
and Manitoba winters scanning the spruce and tamarack tops hoping to get lucky and find an owl. Even when an
owl was found, that did not mean deploying the transmitter was a given — some birds frustratingly required hours
and even days to trap. Despite what was no doubt many disappointments along the way, our nominee was able to band
an excellent total of 19 hawk owls, with transmitters being deployed on ten birds.
Once the transmitters were deployed, the data started pouring in, with many interesting and even surprising
discoveries being the result. These included surprisingly small winter ranges of individual birds and larger
migratory movements than were anticipated, and the data also showed that some birds even utilized deciduous
forest along with the more expected coniferous forests. The study also made important discoveries related to
hawk owl microhabitat selection; her vegetation plots showed that snag density and heights of snags were
significantly different between used and unused sites. We all eagerly await her final published results, which
will no doubt play the leading role in our understanding of how we can better protect this climate-imperiled species.
Since graduating with her master’s degree this past spring from the University of Minnesota Duluth,
Hannah has done field research for the Natural Resources Research Institute and has now returned to
her home state of Washington to take on a teaching position at a community college and doing marine
research in the Puget Sound. I would also like to stress that not only is Hannah a careful and dedicated
scientist, but she is also one of the best birders I know! Surprisingly, being a great ornithologist and
field birder do not seem to regularly overlap, but if you have ever observed her identifying warblers by
flight call or distant migrating birds in an instant, you know that she is truly at the top of her game.
Of course, it would be amiss if I did not mention that not only is she a great ornithologist and birder,
but is also a gem of a person, which all of her many friends in the Minnesota birding community attest to.
Although she unfortunately cannot be in attendance today, please join me in congratulating our winner of the
Brother Theodore Voelker Award for special achievement in field ornithology: Hannah Toutonghi!
2024 - Karl Bardon
Nominated by Ezra Hosch
Our Voelker award winner this year is no stranger to this accolade, having won it three times previously.
This year, our winner made a major return to the rarity finding scene in the state, starting out with finding
a Yellow-billed Loon with Paul Jantscher in December of last year in Wabasha County. That was just a precursor
to the fantastic spring of birding he would have while doing shorebird surveys at a drawn-down Long Lake in
Cottonwood County. On one of his first visits to the lake, he found a stunning male Garganey, which was the
first for Minnesota in 31 years. While Garganey was the most impressive bird of the spring, he also found
three Western Sandpipers, a Casual species in Minnesota, was involved in the discovery of two Glossy Ibis
this spring and found a regionally unusual Hooded Warbler in Murray County. Later in the year he would discover
another Glossy Ibis and a Houston County Eurasian Wigeon. Perhaps most impressive was that he finally added
Black-necked Stilt to his personal found list.
You might ask – why does this observer find so many rarities? I believe that it is largely because of
his persistence and focus on looking at every bird. This can also be highlighted by the fact that he is a
master at counting birds. Not only did he find many rarities this past year, but he also set several state
high counts, which are of vital importance to our understanding of status and distribution of Minnesota birds.
Some highlights included impressive concentrations of Bonaparte’s Gull, Greater White-fronted Goose, Tree Swallows,
Great Egrets, and Brewer’s Blackbirds. Another impressive count – while not a state record – was over 37,000
Common Nighthawks in Duluth this August.
While finding rarities may impress listers and accurately counting birds greatly improves eBird and
MOU datasets, I personally believe the top achievements of our winner are his morning flight counts and shorebird
surveys. It would be difficult to find more than a handful of birders who have contributed more to our understanding
of morning flight along Lake Superior’s Minnesota shores or of shorebird use of stopover sites in the state.
Somehow, he still manages to do this despite his frequent travels to study birds, and in 2024 his trips took him
to Kansas to count shorebirds, Iceland to count puffins and gannets, and Thailand to count the raptor migrations
and shorebirds. Please join us in congratulating our 2024 Brother Theodore Voelker Award winner, Karl J. Bardon!
2005 - Ben Fritchman
2006 - Bob Dunlap
2007 - Alyssa DeRubeis
2008 - no award
2009 - no award
2010 - Kevin Gohman & Benjamin Stubbs
Written and presented by Pam Perry
Both of the recipients are charter members of the Forestview Middle School Bird Club in Baxter. Both of the recipients are a prime example of what the MOU Youth Mentorship Kits can mean to the future of birding. Thank you to Bob Holtz for all your effort for young birders. Both of the recipients were the “Voice of the FMS Bird Club” for two years that shared the observations of its members with other students in the phenology network and the listeners of the Phenology Show on KAXE, Northern Community Radio.
Both of the recipients have participated in numerous Christmas Bird Counts (Crosby, Pillager and Rice Lake NWR), Migratory Bird Day at Rice Lake NWR, Bee Nay She Bird Club Field Trips, MOU Field Trips with Pastor Al and the Brainerd Lakes Area Audubon Society Big Day at the Northland Arboretum. On his first MOU fall trip to Mille Lacs, one of the recipients said, “Those chickadees over there in the bush don’t have black caps.” That turned heads from looking for rare loons very quickly! Both recipients have taken on the role of providing bird identification expertise for less experienced birders in their groups on Big Day competitions. Both recipients were filmed on Public TV as the “young birders” at Rice Lake NWR and what’s cool about birding.
Kevin Gohman – 16 years old
Kevin started as a 6th grader with the FMS Bird Club. As an alumni, he continues to provide observations with the group and participate with the Club field trips on campus as a mentor to the younger members. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of birds (and other critters). Over the years his questions have become more complex (and much harder to answer). Kevin was a Naturalist Instructor at the Cuyuna Scout Camp in Crosslake in 2010 and has been invited back to continue to teach the ecology of the Camp again in 2011.
Kevin has twice viewed the Purple Martin roosts in Todd County. After the first time he exclaimed, “That was a life-changing event!” Thanks to MOU member Kelly Applegate. Kevin has completed his Eagle Scout project which was the construction and placement of a Chimney Swift tower at Central Lakes College in Brainerd. Thanks to MOU member and CLC natural resources instructor Dr. Bill Faber.
Ben Stubbs – 15 years old
Ben first became interested in birds during the Owl Irruption of 2005 while living in Grand Rapids. Ben’s family moved to the Brainerd/Baxter area the next year and he joined the FMS Bird Club as a 5th grader. Ben quickly established himself as a birder that was eager to learn and persistent in correctly identifying the birds he saw. He has found an amazing number of species right around his home in a subdivision in Baxter.
Ben viewed the Purple Martin roost at Lake Osakis in 2010. Along with Kevin, he received an evening of birding mentorship from MOU members Bob Janssen and Dave Cahlander. Ben is an active contributor to the Breeding Bird Atlas and owns 3 blocks; 2 in Roseau County where he birds with his grandfather and 1 in Crow Wing County where he lives. Ben has a total number of Atlas entries of almost 400 and can’t wait for the next breeding season to start.
A Note from the Nominators
Our favorite quote from all of our trips into the field with the boys comes from a day when we were birding with a group of people we did not know. One of the women approached the boys and said, “Isn’t it wonderful that your parents bring you birding!” To which they replied, “They aren’t our parents (and we aren’t brothers).” It has been a great adventure watching their birding skills develop over the years. Their parents have been very supportive of their interest. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for them.
2011 - no award
2012 - Lars Benson
Written and presented by Dave Benson
He began birding from riding in a backpack, and - once you see how much he's grown - you can imagine how glad his parents are they no longer need to carry him around to bird.
He has participated in 30 Christmas Bird Counts, over a dozen birdathons, and multiple Big Sits on Minnesota Point in Duluth. He is a multi-year defending champion of both the Hawk Ridge Birdathon and the BRRRdathon sponsored by Friends of Sax-Zim Bog. In 2009, he did a Minnesota Big Year, and while his final tally of 302 species is far from the highest ever, it may well be the highest for someone who did not yet have a driver’s license.
He has worked as a guide at the Grand Marais Birding Festivals, as well as the Sax-Zim Festival, and for private clients. His early birding experiences included annual Loon Counts with his grandfather in Kandiyohi County. This past summer, he conducted breeding bird surveys around the state for Jerry Niemi at the Natural Resources Research Institute. He has assisted on migrant counts and owl surveys when I worked as the naturalist at Hawk Ridge. I haven’t heard his state list total recently, but I expect it is over 330 species.
In 2008, he found a Brant at Bayfront Park in Duluth–at the time, the first Brant found in Northeastern Minnesota in over 25 years; and he did it in prototypical Young Birder fashion: he was playing ultimate Frisbee on the field next to where the Brant was grazing. Just as impressive, he keeps close tabs on the avifauna wherever he is, including at St. John’s University, where he is a student now.
Many of my favorite memories of birding with him are from Grand Marais; one early winter day, on the west side of the harbor, he noticed crows mobbing something out near the end of the breakwater. Our group agreed that he, then a little boy who was impatient with adults picking their way over icy rocks, should go on ahead. When he reached the crows, he lifted up off the rocks about 18 inches and when he came back, all he could say was, “Yellow Eyes!” and indeed, an annoyed Snowy Owl with bright yellow eyes was hunched down in the rocks as the crows wheeled above it.
Another is on one of his first birdathons, when he was allowed to drink some coffee for the first time, which led to general animation and a heated argument with the rest of the team, as he insisted vehemently that there was one long-billed in the group of dowitchers we were watching. Later that day, when I glanced back at our car up in the bog and saw him lifting the trunk lid, was the only time I have ever hollered the words, “No more coffee!” at the top of my lungs.
His extensive birding experience as a young man is a testament to the Minnesota birding community, especially in Duluth. A partial list of birders who have taken a special interest in Lars over the years, one way or another, includes his uncle, John Ellis, John Heid, Kim Eckert, Sparky Stensaas, Frank Nicoletti, Peder Svingen, Mike Hendrickson, Lori Williams and Dave Steininger, Dave Grosshuesch, Jim Lind, John Hockema, his brother, Jonas Benson, and certainly, his long-suffering mother, Pamela Benson.
His remarkable visual acuity has long passed me by, and I am resigned to his ear for birdsong passing mine sometime soon. He has become a skilled and accomplished birder. I am proud of him for many reasons, but it gives me special pleasure to be here to present Lars Benson with a well-deserved Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union Young Birder Award.
2013 - Garrett Wee
Written by Kim Eckert and presented by Paul Egeland
He's only 17 years old, still in high school, active in sports, and described by those who know him as outgoing, enthusiastic, and well-respected. He has been actively birding for just 3 years, his interest especially encouraged by his great grandmother and grandparents, and reportedly the first bird that really excited him was a Northern Cardinal at his bird feeders in Cottonwood – and cardinals are not at all common out there in Lyon County.
But he has gone on to find and document a lot more than cardinals in the county. These include a pair of California Gulls he reported in October, a species only Casual in the state; Blue Grosbeak and Great-tailed Grackle, both well-documented and quite unusual in this county; an out-of-season Red-breasted Merganser photographed in June; an overwintering Harris's Sparrow photographed at his feeder; and recently a probable White-faced Ibis that he called me about this fall.
But even more impressive, even though they are not included in the official record, were his account of a possible White-throated Swift last year and his photograph this year of a bird closely resembling a White-winged Tern.
His sketch and careful description of the swift he saw in Cottonwood, which would have been a second state record, were actually good enough to initially convince a majority of the records committee in a preliminary vote that his identification as White-throated Swift may have been correct.
It was only after further information and discussion that the report may have fallen short of confirmation. But perhaps more importantly, the documentation itself was skillfully done and actually at a higher level than many accounts from more experienced birders which were accepted.
As for that possible White-winged Tern near Cottonwood, which obviously would have been a first state record, you had to be impressed he was even aware that this species existed and what it looked like, and that his eye was keen enough for him to notice this distant image of an odd-looking tern in the photo he had taken of some Black Terns earlier in the day.
He was cautious enough to never claim it was a White-winged Tern, but his photo was intriguing enough that I and other Twin Cities birders drove out to Lyon County to try and confirm the ID. Closer examination of the image later suggested it was possibly a preening Black Tern sitting at an odd and misleading angle – but it certainly got the attention of other birders with far more experience.
He regularly reports his sightings to eBird, and Bruce Fall, Minnesota's eBird coordinator, says he has been reporting since 2011, with no fewer than 209 species seen that year. His birding is done mostly in and around Lyon County and almost entirely by himself, with no one to help him with his ever-improving identification skills.
As with all of us, some mistakes were made early on, but he has learned from them, which after all may be the most important thing in bird identification. Bruce uses words like experienced, accomplished, and respectable while describing him and his eBird lists, and while entirely supporting him for this award.
I no longer live in Cottonwood and have not yet had the opportunity to bird with Garrett. But if it's true what I said, as Kim mentioned earlier, that Garrett reminds me of myself growing up as a birder in Cottonwood in Lyon County, then I certainly and enthusiastically endorse GARRETT WEE as the MOU's Young Birder of the year, and I am happy to present him with this award.
2014 - Clinton Nienhaus
Written by Collin Nienhaus and presented by Bob Dunlap
The recipient of this year’s M.O.U. Young Birder of the Year award was born in raised in a Winnebago, a small town in south-central Minnesota’s Faribault County. In this agricultural region better know for corn and hogs than birds, he developed an early love for nature and wildlife.
At twenty-three years old, he is relatively new to bird-watching. Much of his younger years were devoted to chasing finned rather than feathered critters. However, he picked up birding wholeheartedly during his junior year at Saint Mary’s University in Winona, where he received a bachelor’s in Environmental Biology. Now at the University of Minnesota- Duluth in his final year of his Environmental Education graduate program, he is knowledgeable beyond his years. In the three short years of pursuing bird-watching, he has zealously studied his subject both in print and in the field. Aside from just identification, he is highly-versed in bird conservation, ecology, and distribution.
Naturally, this passion for learning has translated into a passion for teaching, and he has made a point to use his avian knowledge for more than just his own enjoyment. After spending two summers in college doing prairie restoration work with The Prairie Enthusiasts, he was employed as a Naturalist intern at Tettegouche State Park during the summer of 2014. Here, he led educational bird programs at least once a week, sharing his enthusiasm for and knowledge of birds and bird habitats with the public.
The fall of 2014 saw him working to educate other bird-lovers as Count Interpreter at Duluth’s Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory. Here, co-workers and visitors alike were impressed by his enthusiasm, ability to engage with the public, and scientific knowledge. In fact, education director Gail Johnejack stated, “His knowledge of birds is extensive and his enthusiasm is contagious.”
Also during fall 2014, he joined the board of the Duluth Audubon Society. He led well-received Friday morning bird walks for DAS throughout the fall, and his work ethic and commitment to the organization was commended by his peers. DAS President Jane Cleave had this to say about him: “He is ego-less in his desire for people to learn about and learn to appreciate birds, birding, and preserving their habitat.”
In addition, line-items on his birding resume include working as a guide for the 2014 Sax-Zim Bog Birding Festival, participating in Christmas Bird Counts in Winona and Duluth (he’ll be in Fairmont this year), and contributing regularly to eBird. His current life-list stands at 277 species, with 262 species seen in Minnesota (the balance was seen in Wisconsin, so please forgive him for that!) Among his favorite stomping grounds are St. Louis, Winona, and Faribault counties, though he loves exploring new areas throughout our state.
In closing, this year’s award recipient stands to be an ambassador for birding in Minnesota for many years to come. He proudly represents the third of the state that is not the quintessential and picturesque "north-woods Minnesota.” Instead, he looks for birds where others seldom look and helps spread his findings as an educator, dedicated citizen-scientist, and birding fanatic.
Please give a round of applause for the recipient of the 2014 M.O.U.’s Young Birder of the Year Award: Clinton Nienhaus.
2015 - Noah Kuck
Written and presented by Carrol Henderson
There are some momentous events for an enthusiastic birder that exceed the excitement and gratification of sighting a life bird: like meeting an enthusiastic young birder who will carry on our passion for birds to the next generation. The world of birding must include more than the accumulation of life lists—it needs to include a commitment to recruiting the next generation of citizens who care about our state’s birdlife.
I experienced that revelation last year at the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds when I participated in a field trip to the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge with a wonderful young birder. It did not take long to realize I was in the presence of a youthful birding all-star. His ability to spot birds and identify them by their songs was uncanny and I was envious of his incredible hearing. It was obvious that he has a passion for birds that has benefited from some great mentors over the past few years. This enthusiastic young man began birding at the age of 9 and with encouragement from his father, he began feeding birds and avidly reading bird books. A resident of central Minnesota, he learned much from Bill and Ann Hiemenz, owners of the Wild About Birds store in Waite Park, and Jan Bergstrom, owner of the Wild Bird Center in St. Cloud. He has also benefited from the helpful mentoring of Erik Bruhnke, Judd Brink, and Keith Corliss. Keith has extended this young person’s birding adventures to great destinations in North Dakota like the Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. His avian knowledge has also been broadened considerably by feeding birds and managing nest boxes for Eastern Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, and House Wrens.
All of these skills and an obvious passion for birds make him stand out at the age of 15! This year he joined Erik Bruhnke for a 12-hour birding marathon at the Sax-Zim Bog on his 15th birthday. He already has a life list of 218 birds. I imagine that his list of enthusiastic birding friends is growing considerably as well. Keep your eyes on him. He will go far! And take the time to learn from his story. Take the time to mentor a young birder in your life to help inspire another bird conservationist of the future.
Congratulations on your awesome birding accomplishments, and best wishes for many more wonderful years of birding ahead. It is with great pleasure that I present NOAH KUCK with the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union 2015 Young Birder Award.
2016 - Alex Sundvall
Written and presented by Peter Nichols
Even though he is only 19 years old, this young man has already amassed over 1100 hours volunteering at Westwood Hills Nature Center in Hennepin County, where he used to lead bird walks as a Junior Naturalist. To date, he has documented 196 species at Westwood, including the first Hennepin County summer record of a Hooded Warbler (which he found).
This past summer, he put in five weeks of field ornithology work at the U of M's field biology station at Itasca State Park. During that time, he confirmed or assisted in confirming a number of breeding records for Clearwater County, including Red-necked Grebe, Black Tern, Forster's Tern, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. In nearby Mahnomen County, he also helped to confirm breeding Greater Prairie Chicken.
Just this fall, he ticked his 300th MN bird species – Brant – during a whirlwind trip to Cook and Two Harbors. I was with him in November when he ticked numbers 301 and 302: Townsend's Solitaire in Carver County and White-winged Dove in Anoka County. From there, he went on another tear up north and I lost track of his count!
He began birding at age 5, when he got to see a rehabilitated Dark-eyed Junco released into the wild. This was his spark bird, and it sounds like things got out of hand pretty quickly after that. His mother put it to me this way: "I knew we were in trouble with birding when [he] was 5. He and I went to the Field museum in Chicago and we spent 3 hours just in the bird exhibit. [Ever since first grade], when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up "he would say an ornithologist" In second grade when visiting the Arizona Desert Museum, [he] had apparently seen a Masked Bobwhite (that everyone was try[ing] unsuccessfully to find). He then had an entourage of people following him because he was spotting and identifying the birds."
But my favorite of his mother's stories is this one: "We were visiting my husband's parents in Northern Wisconsin" Grandma was telling [her grandson] about the "Blue Buntings" that she had at her feeders. [He] at first kindly disagreed but Grandma insisted. [He] and his not-so-diplomatic 5-year-old self very intensely corrected Grandma and told her they were not Blue Buntings but they were Indigo Buntings and why they were Indigo Buntings. Grandma was not amused being corrected by a 5-year-old."
Many birders have a specialty, and I would argue that this young man's specialty is his expertise in birding by ear. This is unsurprising, given his exceptional musical talent; he has absolute pitch and has achieved a number of musical awards and honors. As a fellow musician, I also bird primarily by ear, and I was both surprised and impressed during our first outing together at Afton State Park two summers ago. He was hearing and identifying all the same species as me, and he even pointed out a Red-eyed Vireo call note that I had not yet learned.
In just the one-and-a-half years that I have known this young man, he has visibly progressed in his bird identification skills and general ornithological knowledge. He has also refined his already mature and kind demeanor. These qualities manifest in a willingness to share his expertise with beginning birders in a way that is neither intimidating nor condescending.
It is for these reasons that Alex Sundvall is being presented with the MOU's Young Birder Award, 2016.
2017 - no award
2018 - Abbie Valine
written and presented by Margie Menzies
Patience, persistence, and passion are standard birder traits. What does it take to rise above and beyond? Our recipient can teach you! Her interest in birds began early in the 3rd grade. Her mother recalls that about the age of 11, she began tempting chickadees and nuthatches to eat out of her hand. Christmas Bird Counts began for her in 2009 in Carlton County and she has participated every year since. One year, as she wrote down the birds she had seen for the count, a chickadee landed on her pen to supervise. Chickadees always know what‘s worth watching!
Her dad helped her build numerous nesting boxes for songbirds and kestrels and established them all over her family‘s property and the neighbor's too. She fed wild birds, raised chickens, pigeons, and quail, and sold eggs from their home.
In 2011, at the age of 14, she began volunteering at Hawk Ridge in Duluth. Too young to drive there on her own, she was joined by Mom who volunteered with her. She made her way to passerine banding in 2012. You know what they say – a bird in the hand... The 4:45 am meeting time for banding never seemed to be a problem. At first, her parents would drop her off and snooze in the car, or run errands and return to pick her up.
Once she had a driver‘s license, she regularly drove the big red pick-up to early morning dates at the station. Through those years she developed identification skills, learned aging and sexing of dozens of species of songbirds, and before long was also a talented "net picker" – one of those critical and not-for-everyone skills necessary for banding. She helped with all aspects of passerine banding at the Ridge, the summer MAPS breeding bird study, and an EPA study of mercury levels in birds along the St. Louis River. Definitely not your typical young adult skill set!
In 2015 she began getting involved with raptor banding at Hawk Ridge. Miranda Durbin, one of the banders, recalls it was easy teaching her the skills of handling the raptors, making measurements, and safely extracting them from the nets. Demonstrate and instruct just once, and she had the idea and quickly became a pro. She is great company in the blind, fun to get to know, and even became relaxed enough to get a little snarky with us – fits right in!
She will graduate in December from the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, with a degree in biology. Her advisor and head of the biology and biochemistry department, Dr. Dale Gentry, recalls that she declared her interest in birds at their first meeting, quickly became part of his research team, and was a standout – enduring long hours in the cold documenting woodpecker foraging behavior in response to an emerald ash borer outbreak. He calls her an excellent student, an avid birder with tremendous potential as an ornithologist, and a future leader in field ornithology.
We are proud to be able to present the MOU's Young Birder Award for 2018 to ABBIE VALINE.
2019 - Breanna Wagner
Written and presented by Ezra Hosch
In a recent conversation with a fellow young birder, concern was expressed about the
general lack of enthusiasm that many of our peers have for counting birds. Fortunately,
I am pleased to say that our recipient of the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union Young Birder
Award does not belong in this category.
Our recipient graduated from Bemidji State University in 2016 with a degree in Wildlife
Biology and minors in Geographic Information Systems and Wetlands Ecology. Since she graduated,
she has had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects. These have included working as a
nest-monitoring technician with Piping Plovers in North Dakota as well as with grassland
birds in Kansas and North Dakota. Her love for birds began when backyard birding with her mom
and grandma. She also became interested in working in a career with birds after taking ornithology
at BSU and while studying the previously mentioned Piping Plovers at Long Lake National Wildlife
Refuge in North Dakota. Our recipient is interested in the behavior of avian species and hopes to
study that aspect as part of a Master’s program in the future.
Last May, she traveled to Braddock Bay Bird Observatory in New York and took their Bird
Banding Course to gain passerine banding experience. When time permits, she volunteers at
Springbrook Nature Center in Fridley, Minnesota during their bird banding events to gain more
experience in handling and extracting passerines from mist nets. She just completed a count
traineeship at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth, Minnesota, where I had the pleasure of
first becoming acquainted with her.
The hours I have spent in the field with our recipient made it obvious that she is both a
talented and careful observer. While scanning for raptors, her ability to pick up on minute
details and unwillingness to shoot from the hip, both of which are traits that are not universal
in young birders, greatly contribute to the fact that our recipient is a rising star in the
birding community. Please give a round of applause for the recipient of the 2019 M.O.U.’s
Young Birder of the Year Award: Breanna Wagner.
2020 - Ezra Hosch
Nominated and presented by Alyssa DeRubeis
I first met Ezra in January 2018. He had just found a Boreal Owl in Ramsey County,
and even though he and I had a recent dispute, he was still willing to share his finding
with me and many others. The diligence and patience it takes to comb through spruce trees,
in the Minnesota cold, hunting for a needle in a haystack is truly remarkable. And by a
20-year old [this needs to be checked] no less! I deeply appreciate him for alerting others
to this stellar Minnesota specialty.
That would not be the last time Ezra would wow me. In the following years,
he would go on to find a Black-throated Gray Warbler, a Yellow-throated
Warbler, and a probable California Gull, among others I am likely forgetting
[will have to look into this, but I believe these are his main highlights]. With
each of these observations came thorough documentation, which is an
absolutely essential trait for phenomenal birders. We have engaged in
countless discussions regarding the finer points of field marks, and more
than once, I have learned something new. I'm sure others have had similar
experiences with Ezra and his ornithological knowledge.
Ezra puts his extensive knowledge to good use: Ezra is an eBird reviewer
for Minnesota, a highly sought-after title that is held by only three people in
Minnesota (the other two reviewers are quite a bit older than Ezra). One
does not simply become a reviewer; rather, you must be recognized for
your talent and selected by expert birders. Per eBird’s website, “ eBird
reviewers are often some of the most skilled and knowledgeable birders in
the world—and they're there to talk to you! Consider a note from an eBird
reviewer as an opportunity to learn new birding skills from an expert
source.” Again, let me remind you that Ezra is now only 22 years old!
[again, I'd need to confirm this]
Ezra also tirelessly encourages Facebook users who have found rare birds
to submit their observations to eBird. I know for a fact that catching every
rare bird post on Facebook is an arduous task (especially during migration),
yet Ezra prioritizes Facebook bird records along with his already big job as
an eBird reviewer. And this is in addition to his college studies!
Perhaps most importantly, Ezra manages to stay humble. Once you reach
a skill level like Ezra’s in birding, modesty is hard to come by. But Ezra will
readily state if he thinks he was previously wrong on an identification. He
recognizes that in order to grow as a birder, one must address past
mistakes, learn from them, and move on. All birders should strive to
shamelessly admit their errors like Ezra does.
Given Ezra Hosch's extensive bird knowledge, attention to detail,
accomplishments, kindness and modesty, I am pleased to present him with
the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union’s 2020 Young Birder of the Year
Award.
2021 - Frank Fabbro
Presented by Garrett Wee
I first met this birder on a cold January day up in Duluth. I was in Duluth trying to
relocate the Tufted Duck that had been seen near Canal Park and the
surrounding areas, as it would be a lifer for me. The duck had a brief absence
when this young birder posted an update on Facebook that the bird had been
relocated with some goldeneyes off "Pier B" just to the west of Canal Park. He
said he would watch the bird until I could get there. I had not met this birder yet,
but eager to do so. I was aware that he had earned a good reputation quickly and
was known for his sharp eyesight. Little did I know I was about to earn two lifers,
the second lifer being a lifelong friend! When I got to Pier B there was a crowd of
people watching the Tufted Duck! My next mission was to surf the crowd looking
for this young birder. We finally met, exchanged some small talk and got back to
birding. There were gulls in the area and we both needed a FOY Iceland Gull.
Joining forces, we carefully scoped through the mess of birds, snot running down
our faces, for what seemed like an eternity but was actually a few minutes, he
calmly blurts out, "Iceland Gull!" Sure enough he had located our FOY Iceland! I
was impressed and even a little taken aback that he found the Iceland Gull
before I did! My thoughts thereafter were "well this kid is the real deal!".
My curiosity was eating me alive and I couldn't help but ask, "How old are you?"
he replied "17!" I followed up by applauding him and that he really has a lot of
people impressed by his persistence and enthusiasm in the birding community.
Despite the brief encounter I couldn't help but think, his humble nature and
already sharp birding skills at the age of 17 are going to make him one heck of a
birder. Since then, he's gone on to find many notable birds. Constantly keeping
us on our toes as we wait for his next find. Some of those finds include:
- Cinnamon Teal in Jackson County in 2021
- 2 Black-necked Stilts in Sherburne County in 2021
- Black-necked Stilt at Rice Lake in Hennepin and Carver Counties in 2021
- Lesser-black Backed Gull on Lake Harriet in 2019
- 5 American Avocets on Lake Byllesby in 2020
- Connecticut Warbler at the Wood Lake nature center in 2020
Many people chased these birds and added them to their Life or County List. His
finds have led to other good birds as well – in 2021 Rice Lake yielded over 20
species of shorebirds for metro birders to enjoy.
All this has us wondering, what will he find next!? But it's not just his great finds
that make him a birder worthy of this award. He began working at the Wood Lake
Nature Center assisting with bird banding for spring migration. He's also helped
with bird banding at the Carver Park Reserve and Nature Center working with
Northern Saw-whet Owls. Now he's continuing his studies at UC Davis in
California studying Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, in addition to working
with Sierra Pacific Industries as a Wildlife Technician banding and monitoring
populations of the Threatened Spotted Owl.
We see his ever-growing skills as a birder and stewardship towards conservation
happening right before our eyes. He's achieved a lot already and demonstrated
his knowledge of birds and still has that sharp eye for the skies. He's very
accomplished and consistent, and quite persistent when it comes to searching for
a "needs" or a FOY bird. His communication skills and his down to earth
personality make him impossible not to like. Knowing all of this, I finally decided I
should nominate him for this award when he relocated some Short-eared Owls
near Marsh Lake this spring. A small group of us gathered and we were talking
amongst each other, I waited for him to move quite far down the road and I
REALLY made sure I was more than an earshot away since he also has really
good ears too! I turned to a fellow birder said "Has anyone nominated him for the
MOU young birder of the year award?" We both agreed that he's WELL
deserving of it. That birder that's gone a long way already (figuratively and
literally) and quite FRANKly, has found some great birds along the way.
The
young birder we all know as, Frank Fabbro.
2022 - Nolan Meyer
Written by Garrett Wee and Ezra Hosch and
presented by Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus
Many of you remember Ben Douglas's impressive year of recording over 10,000
tics in Minnesota in 2019, a feat that involved countless hours of birding in pursuit
of this goal. Ben had some help along the way, and this year’s Young Birder Award
winner was actually the first to spot Ben’s 10,000 tic, a Ruby-throated
Hummingbird at the top of a tree. Impressing Ben and others that morning with
his sharp eyes and ears, our winner would continue to solidify this impression
when he rediscovered the famous Painted Redstart in St. Paul a year later in 2020.
In addition to our nominee having sharp field skills, he also has one of the most
important skills for being a good birder—dedication to being a careful field
observer. Our winner is cautious but knowledgeable with his identifications,
taking care not to shoot from the hip or ID a bird based on what he needs for his
list but rather to be as accurate as possible. He regularly submits documentation
to the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee, whether it is for a
rare bird that he found (such as a Mississippi Kite in Lyon County in 2021) or for
rarities that other people have found that he chased. In addition to contributing
records to the MOU and eBird, our nominee is also the compiler for the Marshall
Christmas Bird Count in Lyon County, yet he remains one of the humblest young
birders in the state. He also has an impressive willingness to pass on his
knowledge and passion to the next generation of birders, exemplified by a trip
this past summer in which he took a boy scout to Marshall to see a Black-throated
Sparrow, an accidental species in Minnesota. Due to his dedication to
documenting birds, careful field birding, and willingness to share his knowledge
with others, we are pleased to present Nolan Meyer with the 2022 Young Birder
Award.
2023 - Sean McLaughlin
Presented by Ezra Hosch
Our winner of the 2023 Young Birder Award hails from Pennsylvania, where he first got bitten
by the birding and hawk-watching bug. Luckily for Minnesota birders, he did not stay in Pennsylvania,
first coming to our region when he attended Northland College in Wisconsin before moving to Duluth.
Over the past few years, he has become a familiar face at Hawk Ridge, first as a volunteer counter
and then as a member of the counting staff in 2021, where he has found multiple Mississippi Kites
and the Ridge’s only record of Swallow-tailed Kite. He also has served as the main counter for the
spring West Skyline hawk count in Duluth for the last two years, as well as the official or volunteer
counter at several hawk watches in Pennsylvania.
Our nominee is not just a hawk watcher, though. This past summer, he worked as a field biologist
in northern Minnesota for the Natural Resources Research Institute on their forest birds and Golden-winged
Warbler projects and is also an avid birder. During migration when he is not engaged with his hawk-watching
duties, he can often be found at the various sites around Duluth renowned for their visible migration of
passerine morning flights. You should check out some of the recent flights of finches that he has helped
document this fall. Finally, our winner is not just a great young birder, but most importantly also manages
to avoid the shameless self-promotion that is so common among many young birders today, so I guess we will
have to do it for him. Please give a warm hand to our 2023 Young Birder Award winner: SEAN MCLAUGHLIN!
2024 - Isabel Martinez
Nominated by Jen Vieth
It is my great pleasure to present this year’s Young Birder of the Year award. As co-chair of MOU’s education
committee, and director of a nature center, each year I have the unique opportunity to meet many inspiring young
birders and nature enthusiasts under twenty-five years of age, including college-aged interns, elementary and high
school students and volunteers, all of whom are interested in becoming field ornithologists, conservationists, or
environmental educators. I first met this year’s award recipient nearly a decade ago, in 2016, when they were a
very young birder.
If you are looking for young birder of the year candidates, one event stands out as a key place to meet the best of
the best. The annual Earth Day Youth Birding Competition, co-hosted by CNC, HEP and MOU, is a terrific opportunity
to see some of the state’s best young birders in action. In preparing this award speech, I researched past YBotY award
recipients. The statistics indicate that if you want to win the YBotY award, you improve your chances by 26% by being
involved with this event. At least four of the past fifteen award winners have either won the youth competition, led
bird hikes, judged the youth competition, or given presentations at the event. Alex Sundvall. Alyssa DeRubeis. Frank
Fabro. Bob Dunlap. That’s some terrific young birder energy and great legacies! This year’s award recipient will make
5 out of 16. Looking back at the past YBothY award recipients, only three of the fifteen have been female. This recipient
will help narrow the gender gap in award recipients.
Another great place to run into fantastic young birders, is to stop by the MOU “Ask me about birds” booth. There’s a
high proportion of Young Birder of the Year recipients on that volunteer list as well. The previously named award winners
all volunteer at the booth. As have others award recipients including Ben Fritchman and Nolan Meyer. This year’s award
winner can also be found volunteering at the State Fair booth alongside adults two to five times their age.
This year’s young birder came to birding through family. A bird-curious family member brought our young birder to a
local bird banding program. Quickly that curiosity turned into birding being a shared family activity. In time, everyone
in the family received binoculars for either a birthday or Christmas present. Within one year, the whole family was also
volunteering in bird-centric activities in the Twin Cities. When I met this person, she was full pre-teen and would
occasionally eyeroll in the presence of her mom. Fortunately, that phase was very short-lived and everyone who volunteers
or works alongside this person today finds them to be mature, kind, thoughtful, a fantastic birder and above all, a joy
to be around. This person exemplifies all the best in Minnesota birders and is a conscientious, ethical role model for
other young birders.
Early in her birding career this young birder focused on giving back through volunteerism. She persuaded her family to
let her stay up late, even on school nights, to assist with Northern Saw-whet Owl Migration Research. She volunteered to
monitor a kestrel nest for Mark Martell. Unlike most other teens, she also voluntarily gets up at 4 a.m. on summer vacation
to assist with MAPS bird banding research at Spring Lake Park in Dakota County. She happily volunteered to get up even
earlier to ride along on annual Breeding Bird Survey routes in Chatfield and Nett Lake, keeping a positive attitude even
when swarmed with more black flies and mosquitoes that I’ve encountered in decades. At Carpenter Nature Center alone, our
recipient contributed more than 589 volunteer hours.
2023 was a big year for our recipient in many ways. You likely heard about this individual in 2023, when she and their
mom gave a presentation at the MOU Spring Primer about their 2022 Minnesota Big Year. The rules were simple, see as many
birds as possible in Minnesota, with a goal of 250 species but ADD IN that you and your mom BOTH have to see the bird
species to count it. At the time, the recipient was also learning to drive, and quickly became proficient at mining e-bird
for the latest sightings, calculating drive time and routes to get them to and from a target bird, sometimes all before
school started in the morning!
2023 was also the year that our recipient was selected to attend Cornell’s Young Birder event, where 16 high school
students spend the better part of the week learning and volunteering in Ithaca. Each graduating class also volunteers
on bird projects, and our recipient worked on a project strengthening Merlin, one of the most talked about bird apps
around the holiday dinner table.
In 2023 this person joined the MOU’s Education Committee, becoming the youngest board committee member ever. The
QR code flyer, and bird coloring sheets at the state fair were just a few of this person’s contributions.
In 2023 and 2024 this person volunteered as an official bird spotter at the annual hawk and migration count at
Carpenter Nature Center. They also helped with the international Wood Thrush migration research project.
I recently road-tripped to the Inland Bird Banding Association conference in Little Rock Arkansas with
the recipient and their mom. During this conference I watched them interact professionally with professors,
students, licensed bird banders and citizen scientists. I also saw their bird identification skills in action
as they nailed most of the identifications on a very tricky bird identification photo quiz. However, my
favorite moment sums up this person’s nature. One our side missions was to see if we could find a Red-cockaded
Woodpecker. Not only did our young birder help identify the key locations to find the birds and help with the
navigation down winding gravel roads with zero cell service, but they were also infinitely patient. We were
running out of light, and time, but they didn’t quit. Waiting calmly and quietly. When the bird finally showed
up for a brief moment, our BotY was able to identify the key features, snap a couple of photos, and quietly enjoy
the moment. Did I mention she’s also a great photographer? Her photo of a Golden-winged Warbler won the Institute
of Bird Populations photo contest a few weeks ago.
I believe our recipient is well-deserving of the Young Birder of the Year award. Everyone who meets her
is impressed with her knowledge, maturity, professionalism and collaborative nature. She displays strong
dedication to bird conservation. She has high goals for her future and I’m certain she’ll attain them.
Kind. Patient. Responsible. Ethical. Relatable. Reliable. Smart. Funny. And one heck of a birder.
I’m thrilled to present the Young Birder of the Year award to Isabel Martinez.
2019 - Lisa Keitel
Written by John Jonas and presented by Ben Douglas
I am honored today to present the MOU’s first Volunteer of the Year Award, and to announce that the Award has been named after MOU volunteer extraordinaire, David Cahlander! Dave is THE reason why the MOU has such a phenomenal website and database. Not only has Dave contributed his remarkable computer skills and spent countless hours creating and maintaining the website, but he has also won the Roberts Award AND the Voelker Award. A big thank-you to Dave for everything that you’ve done for the MOU!
Our nominee for the inaugural David A Cahlander Volunteer of the Year Award, while working through cancer treatments in 2014, found that watching birds at her feeders was an enjoyable way to lessen stress. She decided to share this marvelous activity with others, especially those needing a break from life’s difficulties.
She started with the Minnesota Independence College and Community. MICC is a life skills and vocational program for young adults with learning differences and on the autism spectrum in Richfield MN. MICC teaches and supports these young adults in daily life skills, and they value and promote an active, healthy lifestyle – including finding ways to manage stress. Our nominee wanted to teach these adults about birds and birding, but faced a challenge: MICC did not have binoculars.
She contacted the MN River Valley Audubon Chapter and submitted and received a grant in coordination with MICC. With that grant, she was able to purchase eight pairs of binoculars, field guides, and field bags. With MICC’s support, our nominee organized a bird club and led MICC bird hikes this past summer. She then created an elective, evening “Bird Club” class. Students in Bird Club class are responsible for weekly attendance at the Club and also the bi-weekly bird hikes led by our nominee.
Our nominee also volunteers in the cancer support world, as she is acutely aware of the impact that a cancer diagnosis and treatments can have on the patient and their families. With the support of Gilda’s Club Twin Cities, our nominee submitted a grant application to the MOU’s Savajola Grant Committee for the purchase of feeders, binoculars and field guides for Gilda’s Club. The grant request was approved, and the feeder was installed at the Minnetonka Gilda’s Club location at the end of May. Our nominee assists with weekly feeder maintenance and filling, volunteers for birding programming with Gilda’s once a month, and has created a wonderful birding experience for cancer patients and their families.
Thank-you to John Jonas for nominating our first ever David A. Cahlander Volunteer of the Year Award Winner - LISA KEITEL!
2020 - Linda Whyte
Nominated and presented by Gordon Andersson
Seventeen Years of a Life “For the Birds”
Today I get to present the MOU’s second annual David Cahlander Volunteer of the Year Award to a most deserving Volunteer, Linda Whyte.
Many birders can name a so-called “portal species”—the one that hooked them on birds and birding, and changed their life. In Linda’s case it was a Red-tailed Hawk that led her to life as a volunteer. After retiring from teaching, Linda began volunteering in 2003 at The Raptor Center which provided, as she said, “an opportunity to “give back” to the birds that made so many of our outdoor experiences memorable.” She was assigned to a morning Clinic crew and helped with laundry, floor and mat-cleaning, perch and cage-cleaning, food preparation, feeding, medication, and bird-handling. The latter entails a lot of training, but it is her favorite job: she handles the birds slated for medical treatment or surgery, and she gets to “see a variety of raptors closer than you may ever see them elsewhere.” She is also involved with Transport and Rescue. She likens this part of her volunteer work to a “medevac” crew: she helps bring in a raptor that’s in trouble, and afterwards gets to participate in a bird’s journey from injury or illness to rehabilitation and release. She enjoys her interactions with citizens who help with a rescue, such as meeting a dog walker who had called the Raptor Center about a baby Barred Owl or the bike riders who helped catch a fledgling Peregrine under the High Bridge in St Paul that might have floated downstream.
Through co-workers and contacts made during her seventeen years of unpaid work at the Raptor Center, Linda became involved in even more volunteer activities. These include bird counts and surveys, bird-banding, and leading bird-walks. In addition, and one of the biggest commitments for her, is her volunteer work at Carpenter Nature Center. Concurrent with her schedule at the Raptor Center, she commutes to CNC for weekly raptor care and bird banding. She began this work in 2008 and has since recorded over 2,600 hours (the equivalent of 65 work-weeks!). Most of those hours have related to her passion for birds – she is the lead person in the Mew Crew where she meticulously cleans, and trains others to clean, mews. She is also a part of the bird banding team where she puts her bird identification skills to work and has learned to handle songbirds and to extract them from mist nets.
CNC plays a very big role in nature education for about 40 schools from all around the greater Twin Cities area, providing hands-on education to 7,000 to 10,000 K-12 students. Linda has helped with all levels of education programs, including programs at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. In addition, she leads students on bird identification hikes, has helped with the Apple Blossom Races, Adopt-a-Highway cleanup, Apple Fest, and special events. CNC’s volunteer coordinator says, “Linda is an outstanding CNC volunteer. Her friendly demeanor and willingness to pitch-in are great assets that make her an important part of the CNC Volunteer Corps.” I want to add a personal note here. When Linda is not volunteering she walks A LOT and birds as she can, and freely shares her sightings with others. Linda is the person I call to find out where the birds are (including Winter Wrens in April). I told her once I should have her on a “retainer” for her generous and detailed bird information.
Is there more? Yes. Linda also works in Carver Park doing monthly passerine banding and, in fall, several weeks of nightly Saw-whet Owl banding. During summers she does weekly overnights for more bird banding at Sugar Loaf Cove Nature Center on the North Shore. Linda says this about her countless hours spent volunteering: “Obviously, time for personal birding has become scarce, but I have no real regrets. Although I’ll need to retire from volunteering sooner or later, it has definitely been engaging and fulfilling to live life for the birds.” Wow!
I am honored to present the Second Annual David A. Cahlander Volunteer of the Year Award to volunteer extraordinaire, Linda Whyte.
2021 - Pam Albin
Presented by Linda Whyte
This year’s recipient of the David Cahlander Volunteer of the Year Award, is someone whose name many of you will likely recognize. She is a prodigious e-birder, who has contributed many times to MOU’s notifications of species seen, and to the Rare Bird Alerts, being both avid and diligent about finding and identifying birds. But more than that, this person, who could afford to simply kick back and enjoy a life of leisurely travel and recreational birding, devotes an amazing amount of time instead, to giving back to the world of both birds and people, in countless important ways, some of them very demanding and nitty-gritty.
For multiple years, she has volunteered faithfully on a weekly Raptor Center clinic crew. As many of you out there know, that work is often unglamourous, sometimes tiring, and usually challenging, no matter how rewarding you find it. The fact remains, like so many organizations, the Raptor Center counts on dependable volunteers like her, so she has been known to add rescues and releases to her busy schedule as well. Returning to clinic in turbulent pandemic times was an additional challenge, but she rose to that occasion, too.
Along with all that, our recipient has participated in several Christmas Bird Counts in Hennepin, Washington, Dodge, and Goodhue Counties yearly, slogging through all manner of weather with partners determined to do as much walking as driving. Add to that multiple years of the Golden Eagle Count, and you know how dedicated she is to keeping tabs on our birds.
In fact, as part of the bird-banding crew of Carpenter Saint Croix Nature Center, she oversees the list of birds seen and heard each week, when she’s not dealing with nets and extractions, or putting bands on birds. She even forwards to all the crew members the day’s results, with additional information about any special species of the day. Likewise, she takes the time and trouble to share with the crew, links to important information, events, and opportunities impacting birds and the environment. All that is only a portion of the special tasks, like data entry, that she’s done for Carpenter. It’s easy to see why she was their 2011 Volunteer of the Year.
She is definitely a supporter of the science of birds, having used her bird-banding training this past year or more on two current studies, MMN (Minnesota Migration Network) and MAPS (Monitoring Avian Population Survivorship). These studies start before dawn, on a schedule that is sometimes irregular, depending on weather, and follow a very demanding protocol, with limited time frame in which to be completed. Knowing the importance of dependable, trained volunteers, she even undertook this past summer, the weekly commute up the North Shore to expand her skills by helping out with these studies, at Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center and Wolf Ridge.
There is so much more that could be noted about her activism related to birds and the environment -- bird surveys, bee surveys, bio-blitzes -- all undertaken with an eye to getting herself and us, engaged and connected to the well-being of the natural world, and its creatures. But you can surely understand why, though she can’t be with us today--because, of course, it turned out that she had made another volunteering commitment-- we’re proud to honor with this award, the efforts of Pam Albin.
2022 - Jack Hauser
Presented by Jim Egge
About 50 years ago the Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis founded the Bluebird
Recovery Program. At that time bluebirds were nearly extirpated from the state.
26 years ago, a man named Jack Hauser decided he wanted, as the song said, to
have a bluebird singing on his window sill. So he started with the Peterson box,
and faithful to his engineering training, felt he could make some improvements.
Now an eager birdhouse builder could spend a great deal of time to build say 50
houses, including posts and clamps, and then find promising sites to install them.
He kept making improvements, building house number 100, mostly out of
recycled materials. About 4 years ago Jack built bluebird house number one
thousand.
Today you’ll find bluebird houses on most of the golf courses, and many parks in
the Twin City area. Bluebirders have only to drop off a birdhouse needing repairs
on jack’s porch, and pick it up in a week.
His passion soon expanded to include other cavity nesters, so his next project was
the prothonotary warbler. He found several good sites and built houses to
promote their survival in Minnesota. Wood ducks also benefitted from Jack’s
ambition.
The last few years, he has taken an interest in declining kestrel populations. He
has built 24 kestrel houses, which you may have seen displayed at the MOU booth
at the State Fair. He is currently seeking additional sites and monitors that would
benefit kestrel families.
So Jack Hauser is our winner of the Volunteer of the Year Award for 2022.
2022 - Bruce Fall
Written by Liz Harper and presented by Bob Dunlap
As a member of this volunteer run organization, and a member of our volunteer
supported sport, I am thrilled that we have two recipients of our David Cahlander
Volunteer of the Year Award this year. I am not someone to use a lot of words,
but I don't want that to minimize this recipient's extensive volunteer efforts.
This year's recipient is someone y'all likely know, and someone whose volunteer
efforts we have all benefited from. And, if you use eBird, you most likely have
heard from him directly! I have known this person since moving to Minnesota in
the 90s as I worked with him as a teaching assistant at the University of
Minnesota before he retired. Writing this nomination up, I remembered that he
nominated me for an award back-in the day! How things come full circle!
Since his retirement, Bruce Fall has spent about as many hours volunteering as
he did working! Ok, that may be an overestimate, but it would not surprise me.
Among Bruce Fall’s many volunteer efforts, he has been an eBird reviewer longer
than most people have been using eBird! He started as a volunteer reviewer for
Minnesota in 2007, and did all the reviewing by himself for 10 years. While his
hours go unreported, he volunteers daily, accumulating hundreds of volunteer
hours every year.
There are many duties that come with being an eBird reviewer and Bruce
regularly goes the extra mile. Most eBird users are aware that Bruce sees and
reviews reports of rare birds or high counts of birds for most of the counties in
Minnesota. This alone leads to hundreds of emails being sent to users every
year, and the back and forth communications can take substantial amount of
Bruce’s time. In addition to this though, Bruce follows-up on issues brought to his
attention by other eBird users, spends time reviewing images submitted to eBird
of rare and common species alike to ensure proper ID, manually goes through
1000s of checklists to look for errors such as start time or mileage issues, and
continually refines filters across the state, editing them for species and
subspecies high counts, arrival and departure dates, and seasonal fluctuations of
abundance. All eBird lists go through these filters and the filters trigger “flagged”
records, so they are very important to get correct. I recently asked him how much
time he spends on eBird reviewing – and while he didn’t know – he did note that
every filter takes 40-50 hours of work to create, plus extra hours cleaning up the
newly flagged records that updating these filters creates.
In addition to all that, he will take time to assist users if they have questions
about ID or eBird best practices.
The review work Bruce does for eBird greatly improve the quality of the data that
are uploaded from eBird to the MOU database. The eBird records make up the
majority of new records in the MOU database, and those records form the basis
for things like the quarterly Seasonal Reports.
Speaking of seasonal reports – Bruce also spends many hours on the winter
seasonal report. It is my great pleasure to have the opportunity to present this
year's volunteer of the year award to Bruce Fall in recognition of his hours of
volunteer service.
2023 - Peder Svingen
Nominated by Jen Veith; written and presented by Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus
The David A. Cahlander Volunteer of the Year award is presented to a person whose dedicated, useful service to the MOU
and/or the birding community at large has made a significant difference, and it is a way for the MOU to honor those
individuals who have devoted many hours and much energy to the good of birds. This year’s recipient of this fairly
new award (established in 2019) has made, what I would consider anyway, significant volunteer contributions to our
understanding of birds in Minnesota and has put forward significant contributions of time and expertise to support
the Minnesota Ornithologists Union.
This year’s award winner has contributed to the production of The Loon in many ways. They served as Seasonal Report
Compiler and Contributor for 34 years, starting with the Winter 1990 issue and officially retiring from the post just
last month. Further, our award winner spent six-and-a-half years as MOURC Chair, serving this position from 2003-2010.
The time spent reading over rare bird reports, compiling data for seasonal bird reports, and more helps us all better
understand how birds move through, to, and within our state. Holding the offices of Seasonal Report Compiler and MOURC
Chair in the same season is no small task, and we appreciate the work done for the MOU by this person.
A part of this award’s description states: “whose dedicated, useful service to the MOU and/or the birding community at
large has made a significant difference.” While their contributions to the MOU are impressive, I think our award winner’s
greatest volunteer contributions to the birding community at large and for our understanding of birds in general is through
the contributions made by this person to citizen science. Citizen science platforms like eBird do not just serve as a way
for birders to keep track of our personal birds or act as a database for researching where we might get our next lifer, but
increasingly, this data is being utilized by researchers to better understand birds. Our award winner has made tremendous
contributions to eBird that others benefit from every day.
Our award winner has:
Created dozens, if not hundreds, of eBird Location Hotspots to better guide data collection on the platform
Submitted a total of 108,601 checklists globally (2nd all time, and almost 20,000 checklists more than the 3rd all time!)
Submitted a total of 76,759 checklists in Minnesota (most all time, and 60,000 more checklists than 2nd all time!)
Submitted a total of 64,231 checklists in St. Louis County (most all time, and 56,000 checklists more than 2nd all time!)
To put the above into perspective for you: in St. Louis County, the home county for this birder, they have submitted a
total of 64,231 checklists as of November 20, 2023. I dug back into eBird records and found the first records submitted
by this birder in the county back in 1986. So, running the numbers, our award winner has submitted an average 4.75
checklists a day . . . for 37 years(!) in the county! There is only so much an average can tell us about contributions, however.
Amazingly, this birder has twice(!) submitted more than 10,000 checklists in the county in a year (13,200 in 2009 and 10,024
in 2010). This translates to at least 27 checklists a day, every day, for the entire year! The quantity of data submitted
rivals the quality of the data submitted by our award recipient. I remember back to a talk given in Duluth a few years ago
by Chris Wood, eBird Director, profiling best practices for eBird and what eBird data can tell us. Chris specifically profiled
this birder’s submissions as what folks should strive for when submitting data to this platform.
Whether our award winner’s volunteering hours have been spent leading committees and supporting the Minnesota Ornithologists
Union or supporting the greater birding and research community at large, I hope you will all agree their volunteer investment
to the cause of birds and birders has made a significant difference and is more than worthy of this award.
This year’s David A. Cahlander Volunteer of the Year Award goes to PEDER SVINGEN!
2024 - Chad Heins
Nominated by Aaron Pietsch
When I think of volunteers in the birding world, it’s hard not to think of those involved in hawkwatches.
Hawkwatches demand careful organization of data, a good site to watch migration, and most importantly,
skilled and dedicated volunteers.
In Minnesota, there are only two official hawkwatches that submit raptor migration data to HawkCount.org,
North America’s central database for migration counts. Hawk Ridge in Duluth immediately comes to mind as
a well-established organization that many a birder has spent an afternoon in fall taking part in a count,
but I’m here to recognize Minnesota’s other official hawkwatch: Bethany Hawkwatch at Bethany Lutheran
College in Mankato, MN.
Bethany Hawkwatch began in 2009 when a biology professor started observing raptor migration over the
southeast bluff of the Minnesota River Valley that the college sits atop. Since then, a few key volunteer
counters at Bethany Hawkwatch, namely Jim Amundson and Marty Rost, clock nearly 500 hours each fall
watching the southern Minnesota skies. Bethany Hawkwatch averages over 7,000 migrating raptors each fall,
consistently ranking among the high daily counts in North America.
Bethany Hawkwatch has recorded 19 species of raptors, including rare migrants Black Vulture, Ferruginous
Hawk, and Prairie Falcon. Of particular note was a family of four Mississippi Kites spotted during the
hawkwatch by Jim Amundson, Marty Rost, and John Nelson in August 2020. These birds stayed for several weeks,
drawing crowds of birders to Mankato.
Back to the biology professor who started the count: he has volunteered countless hours of his time to
accurately identify, count, and record raptor migration data. As a college professor, he practices excellent
scientific data collection, but I think he would agree that his biggest accomplishment in relation to the
hawkwatch is his willingness to teach and share his love for birds.
In addition to the Bethany Hawkwatch, “professor hawkwatch” has also been an integral part of the Mankato
Christmas Bird Count for over 20 years and has taken over coordination and submission of the count for the
past few years. His zeal for birds and the CBC regularly draws interested locals to help with the count.
I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the professor’s Spiders of Minnesota project. Even though it isn’t
related to birds, the project is yet another shining example of his dedication to volunteering his time
to the study of Minnesota’s natural world. After finding inadequate documentation of Minnesota’s spiders,
he dove into the finicky art of spider collection and identification and has found a spider never before
recorded in North America, several state records, and countless county records completely on his own time.
This biology professor is well-deserving 2024 Volunteer of the Year Award given his extensive volunteer
work related to birds in and around his home in Blue Earth county. This year’s David A. Cahlander Volunteer
of the Year Award goes to Chad Heins.