in praise of a veteran Wisconsin ornithologist: Charles Kemper, M.D.

If you've been around Wisconsin birding and birders a pretty long time, you probably know this guy. If you're relatively new to birds and birding, maybe you don't. Charles Kemper, M.D. has been an ornithological guiding light and mainstay in western Wisconsin for more than a half-century. He's a retired country doctor who along the way has also been editor of the Passenger Pigeon (quarterly journal of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology), a former president of the Inland Bird Banding Association, and the long-time investigator of TV tower kills of migrant birds. If you received a copy of the just-published Christmas Bird Count issue of American Birds, look on page 32 for a great article by Charlie, summarizing 55 years of memories on the counts he has organized, participated in and compiled. It's fine reading. Three cheers for you, Charlie Kemper; here's hoping that there are many years of birding yet to come for you!