Calling all birders

The Grosse Pointe Audubon Society is looking for birders from all five Grosse Pointes to take part in the Saturday, May 2, annual Birding Challenge. Last year only teams from the Farms and the City took part, but they spotted more than 50 species.

It is pretty low-key competition that starts at 5 a.m., with the easy pickings at the Ford House off-limits.

The bonus bird this year, worth five points, is the Northern Yellow-shafted Flicker. (Say that three times fast and you qualify as an accomplished birder.)

Last year a couple of red-tailed hawks spotted as the City team was headed for the noon rallying point at Panera Bread in the Village put the City team over the top.

Grosse Pointe Audubon officals advise the contest is on the honor system, but if you claim a passenger pigeon or one of those rare or extinct southern woodpeckers you may be asked to provide visual proof.

For more information about the Grosse Pointe Audubon Society you could contact Birding Challenge Commissioner Mark O’Keefe at 313-884-7472 or birds891357@aol.com.

Home Office

Judy Latcha of Grosse Pointe’s Latcha Design Group gives hints on planning a home office in a Detroit News Homestyles article that features her design for Steve and Marcia Sholty of the City.

The article by interior designer turned freelancer Jeanine Matlow quotes Latcha as saying the good home office starts with a comfortable chair and anything from a walk-in closet to a pantry can become an office. You can reach Latcha, who offers an office design consult called “Wellness At Work” for $89, at latchadesign.com, and Matlow at jeaninematlow@earthlink.com.

Legal Fees

Grosse Pointe Park attorney Philip Thomas, who handled ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s claim that his law license shouldn’t be lifted, was paid $9,250 in fees from the Texas transplant’s campaign fund, according to the AM Law Daily. It was a tiny piece of the $980,000 Kilpatrick paid to various law firms for his legal defense in his perjury trial and related claims. Various Michigan officials are reviewing whether Kilpatrick’s campaign stash was an appropriate source for the payments.

Guilty Plea

Rattlesnake Club restaurateur Jimmy Schmidt, who ran Jimmy’s, a predecessor of the Hill Steak & Seafood Restaurant in the Farms, will get four points on his driving record, drive on a restricted license until July 3 and be on probation for a year based on his March 17 guilty plea to operating a car while impaired, according to the Free Press.

Schmidt, 54, a Park resident blew a .23 on a breathalyzer after hitting two cars and a utility pole near Marshall’s Bar on Jefferson on the east side of Detroit last July 12. Legally intoxicated is anything over .08, the Freep reported.

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