Frank is an avid birder who first got hooked more than a decade ago. Since then, birding has taken him to every corner of Minnesota, across the U.S., and around the world. For someone who loves exploring new habitats, Minnesota has been an ideal home base. Frank has spent countless hours in the field learning how—and where—to find birds in the state’s tallgrass prairies, hardwood forests, and expansive boreal wilderness. He has seen every regularly occurring species in Minnesota and, in 2021, received the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union Young Birder of the Year Award.
Frank studied Wildlife Biology and Landscape Restoration at the University of California, Davis. While there, he founded the campus birding club and led field trips, bird ID workshops, and presentations for students and faculty. He enjoys sharing the magic of birds with anyone curious about the natural world, and he is equally at home teaching beginners or leading focused searches for target species.
After completing his studies, Frank worked as a field biologist on a wide range of avian projects, including songbird banding in the Sierra Nevada, Greater Prairie-Chicken trapping, Spotted Owl surveys, and nest searching for endangered waterfowl in the Alaskan Arctic. Most recently, he counted migrating waterbirds in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Despite extensive travel, he continues to be drawn back to Minnesota for its incredible migration along the Mississippi Flyway and the charismatic winter birdlife of the northwoods—especially owls, which remain a particular favorite.
