Dave Menke
Dave Menke has been an Outdoor Recreation Planner with The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service at various National Wildlife Refuges throughout the United States since 1978. In this position, Dave has been involved with all aspects of public use on national wildlife refuges including law enforcement, hunting and fishing programs, educational programs, planning, public relations, photography and wildlife viewing programs, interpretive signs, visitor center operations, publications and interactions with a variety of user groups. His current and past work locations include the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges in California and Oregon (1991 to present), Kodiak Refuge in Alaska (1984 to 1991) and DeSoto Refuge in Iowa and Nebraska (1978 to 1984).
Dave has a Masters Degree in Recreation and Park Administration from the University of Missouri and an undergraduate degree in biology from Drake University. His main hobbies are enjoying his children, wildlife photography, nature study, travel and hiking, in approximately the order listed.
Dave's interest in photography is to concentrate primarily on portraits and close up action photos of birds, especially passerine species, in their natural habitats using ambient light. He often uses strategically located blinds to achieve these images. He has pursued wildlife and nature photography as a serious amateur since 1979. As part of his job at the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges, Dave set up and administers a photo blind program on Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuges. A complete description of the program is listed in the photo blind section of the Refuge web page at www.fws.gov/klamathbasinrefuges/photoblind.html.
His life's ambition, beyond career and family, is to achieve publication-quality photographs of over 500 North American wild bird species.
He has been seriously interested in wildlife photography since the late 1970's; at times to the point of obsession. The technique he often uses involves trying to obtain a detailed wildlife "portrait" of the subject. He also often waits in anticipation of a wildlife photograph which shows behavior or conveys a resulting image which the viewer finds humorous. In many instances he has used blinds to capture wildlife in their natural habitats at a close distance. His avocation of wildlife photography has closely followed his career working on National Wildlife Refuges in the Midwest, Alaska, California and Oregon over the past 25 years.