Well, my Christmas Bird Count partner Van Burmeister did it again. He found another great bird in Mason County. This time on a morning visit to Ludington State Park he found a Harris' Sparrow at the feeders that Dave Dister installed and maintains at the warming shed near the park entrance.
To recap in the past 3 years Van had two county firsts in his yard.
In September 2016 a White-winged Dove.
Then in December 2018 he reported a Black-Headed Grosbeak that drew birders from across the state to his neighborhood.
Also in July 2016 he beat me by an hour on discovering a Common Eider in Ludington Harbor. He actually called me when he saw it but he had a bad signal and he couldn't get his message to me. He was using a borrowed phone with a Maine area code so I kept hanging up on his subsequent calls that I thought were from a persistent telemarketer.
I guess I can consider myself fortunate that he didn't scoop me on the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that I found on the day that I met him in October 2014, when Van was a strapping young lad in his early 80's.
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