Hal and other esteemed tweetsters,

This does not deal with birds per se, so hit delete if that bothers you.

Let me be (one of) the first to (publicly) congratulate our own Hal Opperman
for expanding his editing activities.

In the June 1998 issue of Birding (magazine of the American Birding
Association), Hal introduced a new department "possible anywhere" which will
focus on "a neglected band of the Birding spectrum, somewhere between the
rare, local, little known, and declining breeding birds featured in A Closer
Look, and the ultra-rare, visitors that turn up now and again [ ]."

The first edition by ABA Conservation and Education Director Paul Green
deals with the Fieldfare _Turdus pilarus_ (a bird from my beginning birder
years). The subject matter, wealth of illustrations with extensive captions,
in addition to the detailed text are a winning format.

In the past I've had the pleasure of working with Hal on an article for
Washington Birds (publication of the Washington Ornithological Society). It
is nice to see Hal "spread his wings" and share the fruits of his labor as a
capable, patient, and gracious editor with a larger audience.

Congratulations Hal.

Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com