Kirk Payne Bio

Kirk’s interest in raptors and falconry dates back to his boyhood and the book, My Side of the Mountain, and to a 1960’s visit to Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.  After earning a degree in biology from the University of Iowa in 1980, Kirk returned to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary as one of its first interns.  After earning a Masters degree in education he began a career as a teacher and naturalist.  For the past twenty years he has been a science teacher with the Rochester Public Schools and a naturalist with Quarry Hill Nature Center.  He has been a licensed falconer since the mid 1990’s and currently flies a male American Kestrel.