Teen birder in the news

Luke Seitz, who won the 10- to 13-year-old 2005 Young Birder of the Year award from the American Birding Association and Leica Sport Optics, participated in a recent Christmas Bird Count and appeared in the local media.

Seitz has participated in Portland/Freeport counts for the past three years, but this was his first Biddeford-Kennebunk count. He did the Portland count in the snow the day before, and was enjoying the sunshine on Sunday.

Seitz first became interested in birds when he was a young boy of six or seven. After spinning around and falling to the ground one day, Seitz looked up and spotted a male scarlet tanager. He was intrigued and went to a local nature center to learn more.

That's all it took -- a Scarlet Tanager -- to get and hold a youngster's attention.


Scarlet Tanager courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service