Mark is a wildlife biologist who has studied birds for more than 25 years. He graduated from North Carolina State University in May of 1984 with a B.S. in Fish and Wildlife Science. He began work as a field biologist at Fort Bragg, N.C., then for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. In 1989 Mark went to work for the N.C. Museum of Life & Science as a staff biologist and community educator where he developed, taught and trained other staff members to teach programs about native N.C. wildlife. This career move led Mark and Melanie to Missouri where he worked as the Assistant Nature Center Manager at the Burr Oak Woods Nature Center in Blue Springs. He then purchased the Backyard Bird Center and has owned it since 2002