Dr. David Kirschke, honored as the "Best New Birder of the Year" by the Bristol Bird Club in 2007 when he formerly lived in Northeast Tennessee, has returned to the region to work, live and bird. His arrival creates excitement among the NET birding community because he not only has good birding skills but a passion for frequent birding. He left the Northeast Tennessee Regional Health Office of the Tennessee Department of Health in January 2008 to become the deputy state epidemiologist for the Department of Health. He went to Nashville to oversee the Department's Environmental Epidemiology, Tuberculosis and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Programs. David Kirschke (left) and Rob Biller when he made a surprise visit to the BBC March 2010 meeting. At Nashville, he birded constantly throughout Middle Tennessee and was active with the Nashville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. Two weeks ago, he returned to Johnson City to be the medical director with the Northeast Tennessee Regional Health Office of the Tennessee Department of Health. His birding will take the level of bird finding in the region a notch higher due to his love for regular field work. Kirschke obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., and a Medical Degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine before training in family practice at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Prior to coming to Tennessee in 2001, Kirschke also worked as a family physician at the Buncombe County Health Department Primary Care Clinic in North Carolina. He served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer with the Centers for Disease Control stationed at the Tennessee Department of Health from 2001-2003. From 2003 thru 2007, he was medical director of the Communicable and Environmental Disease Services and the Emergency Preparedness Sections of the Northeast Tennessee Regional Health Department and as an associate professor of clinical medicine at the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University.