Cobirds Readers,
It is with both regret and excitement that I announce to the CFO membership and readers of Cobirds that Nathan Pieplow has stepped down as editor of Colorado Birds and is being replaced by Peter Burke.
The regrets, of course, are all about losing Nathan as Colorado Birds editor. Nathan has served as editor for seven and one-half years. I believe that makes him our longest serving editor ever, but certainly our longest serving editor over the past few decades.
During his tenure with Colorado Birds, the journal came to be something we all eagerly anticipated seeing in our mailboxes each quarter. The journal really presents an outstanding, professional image for the CFO as it chronicles the activity of birders throughout the state. Nathan helped introduce full-bleed color front and back covers for Colorado Birds that in turned allowed him to introduce the popular “In the Scope” feature authored by Tony Leukering. Thanks to Nathan’s direction, we also now have a photo editor, currently Christian Nunes, whose job it is to enhance both the quality and quantity of the photo documentation of bird life in Colorado that the journal presents, enlarged by four interior color pages per issue. Additional features developed by Nathan include “The Hungry Bird” column by Dave Leatherman and its antipode, “The Hungry Birder” which is especially useful for those preparing to attending the annual CFO conventions across the far reaches of the state.
Nathan leaves Colorado Birds in order to devote more time to his next project—writing the Peterson Field Guild to Bird Sounds in two volumes (eastern and western) with a possible publication date of 2015. Since aural birding is a critical part of my field experience, I can hardly wait for Nathan’s contribution in this area and wish him luck.
Hard as it is for the CFO to lose Nathan’s skill and experience as Colorado Birds editor, it is nevertheless exciting for me to introduce our new editor, Peter Burke.
Peter is a relative newcomer to Colorado, or more precisely, a relatively recent returner to Colorado. A University of Colorado graduate from 1992 with a degree in English, Peter has worked as a freelance journalist and as a technical and feature writer with a career in advertising and PR including work as an account executive (for some major campaigns that would be familiar to you). Peter returned to Boulder just last year as an advertising executive for a new firm. Unfortunately that fell apart underneath him; but his time between jobs gave Peter the chance to be out in the field birding, and many of us along the front range quickly became familiar with his reports from the field. Recently, Peter became Director of Marketing and Communication for the CU-Boulder Alumni Association, where among other duties he will also be responsible for producing the Coloradan, a publication that any of you who happened to be Boulder alumni will recognize. Peter has the writing, production and executive skills that will help to make him a great editor for Colorado Birds.
Peter has more than 15 years of birding experience back east where he documented a first state record for Elegant Tern in New Jersey and contributed photos to numerous publications. He is expertly informed and prepared as a field birder to say nothing of being a really enjoyable birding companion. Peter has birded with Ted Floyd, Duane Nelson, Tony Leukering, Joel and Marcel Such, Steve Mlodinov, John Vanderpoel, Christian Nunes and other top Colorado birders over the past year, so he already has a good set of Colorado contacts.
But producing Colorado Birds in not solely the responsibility of the editor. Peter could use help from all of us in maintaining the level of excellence that we have grown to expect from Colorado Birds during Nathan’s term. I hope you will help Peter out by contributing photos, notes, articles, news from the field, Hungry Birder reports, suggestions and so forth to him at editor@cfobirds.org.
“Mucho Gracias,” Nathan and “Welcome. How can I help?” Peter.
Bill Kaempfer
President Colorado Field Ornithologists
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