Have you ever wondered what that speck of a hawk is, way out on the distant horizon or circling right over your head? Do you ponder which birds of prey visit your backyard? Would you like to fine tune your hawkwatching skills and learn more about these exciting birds found here both year-round and in migration? If so, this is the talk for you! Birds of prey are consistently one of the most difficult varieties of birds to identify, and this presentation will raise your appreciation and understanding of raptors to new heights.

​Come join Erik Bruhnke as he shares field-learned techniques for identifying raptors both up close and at a distance. From his raptor jokes and identification anecdotes, to his wide range of impressive raptor photographs, Erik’s raptor identification workshop is sure to captivate and educate audiences of all skill levels!

Erik Bruhnke has loved birds since he was a child looking at chickadees. He graduated from Northland College in Wisconsin with a Natural Resources degree in 2008 and taught field ornithology at Northland College for three semesters. His college summers and summers to follow graduation were spent conducting bird surveys through northern forests, vast prairies, and western mountains. He worked as an interpreter for six fall seasons at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth, Minnesota; counted migrating raptors at the Corpus Christi HawkWatch in Texas in 2015; and was the 2016, 2017, and 2018 hawk counter at the Cape May Hawkwatch in New Jersey. Erik’s wildlife photography has won national awards, and he’s written for the American Birding Association’s Birder’s Guide, BirdWatching magazine, and Bird Watcher’s Digest. Erik is a birding tour guide for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours as well as his own business, Naturally Avian. He enjoys hiking, kayaking, cross-country skiing and just being out in the snow. In his free time he loves to cook and bake.