Horicon Marsh Bird Club
N4686 Blackbird Rd
Beaver Dam, WI 53916
(920) 210-4832
email the president
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Your Tour Guides
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Daryl Tessen
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Daryl was the Editor and Compiler for the last three editions of and is currently working on the 5th Wisconsin's Favorite Bird Haunts edition. He has lead/co-lead bird trips to AK, OR, AZ, WY, TX, CO and of course WI. He is a past president, associate editor for 27 years now retired and is the current awards chair for the Wisconsin's Society for Ornithology (WSO). Co-author of Birds of Minnesota and Wisconsin. 24 years as Western Great Lakes Region editor for North American Birds (retired).
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Larry Michael
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Larry is the Founder of the Horicon Marsh Bird Club and its first President (11+ years). Founder of the Horicon Marsh Bird Festival. Field Trip Leader and is active in Citizen-Base Monitoring projects.
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Dennis Gustafson
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Dennis holds a PhD in biology. He was a Biology teacher at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee for 35 years. He has birded for 48 years, primarily in southern Wisconsin. Dennis has been birding Horicon Marsh for most of those years.
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Jack Bartholmai
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Jack has been photographing birds in and around the Horicon Marsh for the last 15 years. Jack has also been doing frog surveys for the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge for the last 7 years. This has given him the opportunity to be in the marsh after dark and become familiar with not only the sounds of frogs and toads calling, but also the birds that call from dusk into dark.
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Marc Zuelsdorf
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Marc’s family has owned and operated Horicon Marsh Boat Tours since 1994. Marc, who purchased the business from his father, Roland, (founder of the business in 1963) has been guiding tours since the age of eleven. Marc enjoys leading and educating visitors through the marsh in an effort to preserve the natural state of Horicon Marsh. In March of 2007 the business received a “Travel Green” certification from the WI Dept. of Tourism and WI Environmental Initiative for there effort in environmentally sustainable business practices.
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Jeff Bahls
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Jeff is a life long resident of Dodge County, Wisconsin. He has been an avid waterfowler for the past 35 years. He has vast knowledge of the Horicon Marsh where he volunteers for the Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Is a Member of Horicon Marsh Bird club for the past 12 years and current President. Jeff was a member of 2007-search team for Ivory Billed Woodpecker in Arkansas..
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Patrick Ready
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Pat has been interested in birds and wildlife since his youthful days back in the 60s. Painting and photographing birds have become his passionate hobbies over the past eight years. Patrick has donated both paintings and photos to silent auctions to benefit the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, the Madison Audubon Society and the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin. He is the editor/designer of the Wisconsin Bluebird and the editor/designer of the CAWS for Madison Audubon
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Marty Evanson
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Marty has been interested in bird watching since the early 1980’s. He has participated in various bird surveys such as the Christmas bird counts, breeding bird surveys throughout Wisconsin since the early 90’s. He participated in the Wisconsin bird atlas project. He has led numerous bird hikes for youth groups, co-lead bird walks for the Friends of the Nature Lakeshore Preserve (Picnic Point) and led bird trips for the Madison Audubon Society. Marty being a very active birder has accumulated a Wisconsin life list of over 315 bird species.
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Erin Railsback
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Erin works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a Visitor Services Specialist at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. She is responsible for the environmental education, interpretive, and volunteer programs at the refuge - programs that provide opportunities for numerous youth, visitors, and volunteers to learn about and connect with the Horicon Marsh.
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Wendy Woyczik
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Wendy is the Wildlife Biologist at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and has been at Horicon for the last four years. Previous to working at Horicon, she was a biotech with the Leopold Wetland Management District for three years. Some of her duties include monitoring and adjusting water levels and conducting wildlife and vegetation surveys
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Bill Volkert
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Bill has been the wildlife educator and naturalist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources at Horicon Marsh since 1984. Over the years he has conducted more than 3,400 education programs for 195,000 people through the wildlife education program. Bill is also a federally licensed master bird bander and has captured more than 9,000 birds over the past 27 years. In addition to his work at Horicon Marsh, he has also worked in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia and Mongolia and helped to develop a national bird conservation education plan for Nicaragua. In his spare time, Bill enjoys exploring remote lands and learning about the birds of the world and in his travels has seen over 2,100 species of birds.
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Mike McDowell
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Mike is an accomplished birder and photographer who gives talks on birding and is a field trip leader for Madison Audubon Society. He also contributes photos to various wildlife calendars and tourism guides, as well to the Wisconsin State Journal's Outdoors page.
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Mariette Novak
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Mariette is the Author of, "BIRDSCAPING IN THE MIDWEST, a Guide to Gardening with Native Plants to Attract Birds". She is a board member of the Wisconsin Society of Ornithology and is a former director of Wehr Nature Center, Milwaukee County, for 18 years. She has served on the National Board of Directors of Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes 2000-4 (national Vice-President, 2002-3). Mariette has a Master's degree in botany & zoology.
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Barbara Harvey
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Barbara has been a Licensed Bird rehabilitator who has specialized in Raptors for over 17 years. She is an active speaker and educator with her focus being the life cycle and protection of all birds of prey. She has given programs and talks to schools, groups and events and is one of the most sought after raptor speakers in this part of Wisconsin. Barbara has left a lasting impression on 1000’s of school age children and adults who are in some way carrying on her goal of raptor and environmental protection.
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Andrew Rothman
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Andrew has been the Assistant Naturalist at Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area for the last two years. He held the same position at the Marsh for a season in 2001. Andrew has spent two field seasons conducting point count bird surveys with Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) in California; and he has spent considerable amount of time birding and conducting bird surveys in Costa Rica as director of the Rainforest Biodiversity Group (RBG). Andrew is on the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiatives' (WBCI) International Committee and has significant experience working with novice birdwatchers.
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Darlene Drews
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Darlene has been fascinated by the bird life on the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, where she works as a Volunteer Ranger with the US Fish & Wildlife Service. She is an active educator, giving a variety of programs for the Refuge. In addition to leading bird hikes for the Refuge she also participates in Refuge bird counts throughout the year.
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Lawrence Vine
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Lawrence worked for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as a Wildlife Research Technician at Horicon Marsh since 1975. He was the Master Bird Bander for the DNR for five years at the time of his retirement. In 1984 he founded & designed Marsh Haven Nature Center with the help of numerous volunteers.
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Holly Bartholmai
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Holly became interested in birding when she and Jack moved to 22 acres of varied habitat in rural Beaver Dam a place they call Hickory Springs - and began feeding the birds in their yard. She has assisted Jack in monitoring their nest box trails. They are avid backyard birders with a list of 170 some species of birds that have visited their Hickory Springs home over the years.
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Gary and Penny Shackelford
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Gary and Penny were introduced to birding many years ago by one of their medical school professors. They have enjoyed local birding when they lived in St. Louis, San Antonio and now Wisconsin. During their travels over the years, they always seem to spend more time birding than shopping or visiting museums. Favorite spots have been Antarctica, Galapagos, the Everglades, Cost Rica and Chile. However, it’s hard to beat their own property near Milton, Wisconsin where they have recorded 171 species.
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