Minnesota birding expert to retire after 40 years of leading tours

MCLEOD COUNTY, Minn. (FOX 9) - Spotting one type of bird isn’t too difficult for most of us, but spotting and identifying more than 400 species within Minnesota alone takes the sort of expertise of someone like Kim Eckert.

"There are some things flying around, but they are smaller birds," said Eckert casually as FOX 9 caught up with him in McLeod County.

Birding, as the hobby is known, became a career for Eckert nearly four decades ago when he started leading tours. After looking for feathered friends since high school near Chicago, he moved north purely for the birds.

"Duluth, I moved there because it’s the best place to bird," says Eckert. "There were some lean years there, I had hardly any income."

In 1978, Eckert became the first in Minnesota to spot 300 species of birds in a single year. Keeping in mind that was long before the help of smartphones and various birding apps. Topping his list is the Boreal Owl. Some luck and help from fellow birders led to the discovery of the first actual nest for the Boreal Owl in Minnesota and the lower 48 states.

"Back then no one had heard of Minnesota for birding, but now it is a destination," said Eckert. "A lot of tours come up here in Minnesota, mostly in the winter. They want to come up to northern Minnesota and see owls and things like that."

 So Eckert started writing books and leading tours, and flocks of people, sometimes up to 30 at a time, following him to every county in the state, across the country, even to Alaska.

 "I’ve got friends, whether they live in North Carolina, or wherever, they learn about a rare bird, they hop the next flight to California and go!" Eckert said.

That’s never been Eckert’s style, instead preferring to wonder and find his own discoveries. On the day FOX 9 joined, while cutting through a farm somewhere near Brownton, we stumbled onto a bird lovers' paradise.

"We have a wide variety of gulls... shore birds, to pelicans, to egrets, there’s ducks out here," says birder, John Quinn.

"I like to find my own things, I think there is a lot of satisfaction in putting the map away," says Eckert.

The birding never stops, yet for Eckert things will slow down a bit. He’s 78 now, and next year will mark 40 full years of guiding tours, and his last.

 "That was kind of my goal to see if I could make it 40 years," said Eckert. "You know, as you can see and hear. But my eyesight. It’s just natural. It comes with age, you start to lose that."

 Many following him for years say Eckert’s wealth of knowledge is only part of what they’ll eventually miss. Nancy Henke started taking Eckert’s tours 15 years ago.

"It’s the comradery partly. These are my friends now, and I know all of them but one," says Henke.

"He does a great job of leading, keeping both focused in the county you are in, but also not chasing one particular bird," says Quinn.

 Chasing has never been a part of Eckert's philosophy on birding, or on life for that matter. He encourages us all to get off the edge of the map, and see what’s out there.

 "The main thing is, remember what we are doing, this is not rocket science," says Eckert. "You are supposed to enjoy it."