Dave Dister attended Miami University (Oxford, OH) where he received a BA in Botany in 1975. Subsequently, he earned a secondary education teaching certificate in biology and earth science at the University of Cincinnati. His career has included positions as assistant director at the Roger Tory Peterson Nature Center in Jamestown, NY, editorial assistant for Birder’s World magazine in Holland, MI, and 17 years as environmental scientist with a national consulting firm in Dayton, Ohio. Dave has been birding more than 50 years and has conducted numerous bird surveys and censuses in the Great Lakes region, including breeding bird atlas work in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and New York. He formerly was a committee member of the Ohio Bird Records Committee and the Audubon Ohio Important Bird Areas Committee. Dave moved to Ludington, Michigan in March 2008 and was the seasonal botanist for the Manistee District of the Manistee National Forest through 2014. He is the compiler for the Ludington Christmas Bird Count and the Mason County Migration Count. He also conducts an annual Breeding Bird Survey Route for the US Fish & Wildlife Service that runs 25 miles through parts of Mason, Lake, and Newaygo Counties. After a 6-year study, Dave published “The Vascular Flora of Ludington State Park” in “The Great Lakes Botanist” in 2017. Lastly, in January 2020 he self-published “The Birds of Mason County, Michigan.”
