Erik has been interested in birds since he picked up his first pair of binoculars as a kid. He has taught several courses of field ornithology at Northland College, conducted cavity-nesting surveys along the Pacific Coast and Cascade Mountains throughout western Oregon, chicken/grouse surveys as well as breeding bird transects throughout the vast & beautiful expanses of central North Dakota, and bushwhacked through the bogs and mixed woods of northern Wisconsin & northern Minnesota while conducting avian point counts. Throughout the past five fall seasons, Erik has been the count interpreter (hawk pointer-outer-guy) at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory. He recently joined the board of directors for the Duluth Audubon Society, and leads seasonal bird hikes as well as bird presentations via this local Audubon chapter. Through several years of taking bird pictures, Erik has created his own bird ID workshops that he offers to the public, with the Duluth Audubon Society, local nature-based organizations, and coming-soon at nation-wide birding festivals. Erik currently runs his own birding tour business out of Duluth. His year-round trips are available upon request at http://www.naturallyavian.com. Erik loves all birds, however he gets his bird-nerd on especially with the gulls, owls and diurnal raptors.