Journey of a Thousand Lifers

Bill Volkert was the naturalist and wildlife educator for Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources at Horicon Marsh for 27 years, where he conducted more than 3,700 education programs for over 220,000 people. His broad audiences included 66 delegations of scientists from 43 countries who came for professional training. In his personal time, he has traveled widely in search of world’s birds and the wild places they inhabit. His travels have taken him throughout Central and South America, across the Canadian Arctic, to Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Borneo, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and Mongolia. Bill has been watching and studying birds for over 40 years and in his travels has sighted nearly 4,000 species (more than 1/3 of the world’s birds). To facilitate his studies, he is also a federally licensed master bird bander, with the Bird Banding Laboratory of the U.S. Geological Survey. Bill and his wife, Connie, make their home in…