What do painted buntings, battery technology, and data dumps have in common? They’re all passions of Paul Messing: General Motors battery engineer and avid birdwatcher.
During the day, Messing works as a battery systems engineer at GM’s Warren, Michigan, Technical Center. When he’s off the clock, he’s scanning the skies for feathered friends.
Taking off
Messing says his fascination with wildlife began with a well-thumbed copy of the “Reader’s Digest Guide to North American Wildlife”.
"My family often camped in the Michigan thumb” - an eastern section of the state that protrudes into Lake Huron - “and vacationed at different national parks,” he said. “We were always identifying our bird and wildlife sightings - of course, using Reader’s Digest.”
Messing’s passion for birdwatching in particular began in 2009, when he sighted what he calls calls his “spark bird” – a cedar waxwing. Today, Paul serves as the president of the Macomb County Audubon Society – a territory that includes Warren. He’s seen more than 250 bird species to date.
While Messing says it’s impossible to pick a favorite sighting, one of his top picks was a painted bunting, a bird in the cardinal family with brightly colored plumage, which he spotted on a trip to Florida.
“I probably have a favorite bird in each habitat. I love pileated woodpeckers in the woods, and belted kingfishers when I’m kayaking.”
Bird nerd
Why the fascination with birds? Messing’s surprising answer is that he “just loves data.”
“I’m a real data geek, and there’s a lot you can track with birdwatching,” he says. “I record my sightings in birdwatching apps and compile a yearly one-pager. And I keep it just for myself.”
And tracking is important. As it turns out, street cred is a big deal in the birding world – from rare bird sightings to correct species identification.
“According to my tracking, I saw the most osprey together at one time in Macomb County last year,” he stated proudly. “I also have the top audio of a black-bellied plover. It was the only recording, but it still counts!”
Birds and business
Messing’s GM career began in 1997, starting as a vehicle validation engineer in Warren. Today, he oversees the high-tech equipment at GM’s battery labs, where the company develops, tests and analyzes current and future battery technologies for the company’s electric vehicle portfolio.
Combining his work with his passion for birds and wildlife, Messing helps organize environmental volunteer events and supports GM’s facilities teams by monitoring different bird species on campus – including mapping nests and tracking animals living on the Warren campus. The Tech Center is one of dozens of GM facilities that include quality wildlife habitats, as part of our longstanding collaboration with the Wildlife Habitat Council to manage corporate lands.
"I saw a snowy egret here on campus one time,” he said with excitement. “It was one of the only sightings of that species in the entire county that year. “
Ready for spring
Messing notes that birdwatching picks up in spring – and he's looking forward to hosting his annual Easter Monday Birdwatching event on the Warren campus.
“Each April, I invite the Macomb Audubon Society to come to the Tech Center to find as many birds as possible,” he said. “Last year, we tallied 37 species in one day!”
What’s next on Messing’s bird bucket list?
“I promised myself I would go to the Galapagos islands one day,” he said. To add to his total bird count, Messing needs to visit other places. As cold as it can get at Warren, you aren’t likely to see any wild penguins in Michigan.
