FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Historical Snippet - June 15, 1990

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

 BBC Snippet  
Almost 18 years ago, on Saturday, June 15, 1990, the Bristol Bird Club
met for its annual summer picnic.  There was, however, some important 
business to consider.

About eight years prior, the club had designated Dr. Stephen M. Russell
as an Honorary Life Member.   He joined the likes of F. Rockwell 
Bingham and Ernest Dickey Sr. to be so celebrated.   The club felt it
was now time to do more.

Brought before the membership was the name 
of Stephen Russell, of the Department of Ecology 
and Evolutionary Biology, at The University of 
Arizona at Tucson.  Members swiftly and 
unanimously voted to name the club, the 
Bristol Bird Club -- Stephen M. Russell
Chapter.  He was the present secretary of the American Ornithologists' 
Union.  Wallace Coffey was asked to notify him of the recognition.

A letter to Dr. Russell also asked that the club be provided more 
background on his professional career to distribute to the members.

"I am overwhelmed. I've never had anything named after me. I
don't even know what one is supposed to do when so honored! But
I deeply appreciate the actions of the Bristol Bird Club and I
send my thanks with much humility," he responded.

The following are his activities as he wrote them in a letter to BBC:

Resumes are dry and boring; I'll give you a brief sketch of my 
activities over the years. It seems a very long time since I finished 
a biology degree at VPI and went off to LSU for doctoral work in 
1953. I made rather regular trips back to Abingdon until the early 
1970's to visit my mother and other relatives. More recently, I 
have not been back to southwestern Virginia very often. I did 
return recently for the 40th anniversary of my William King High 
School graduating class (the first reunion of the class and the only 
reunion of any sort I've ever attended).

My doctoral research was done in Belize; I remember talking about 
it before the Bristol Bird Club many years ago!  The study was 
ultimate published as an Ornithological Monograph, The Birds of 
British Honduras. My first teaching position was at what is now 
known as the University of New Orleans. I went there in its initial 
year as their first biologist. That was 1958 and the teaching aspects 
were made more challenging by being on a campus that was one of
the first to be integrated in the South.

I enjoyed six years in New Orleans. My studies took me into the 
marshes and I adapted by growing webs between my toes. That
all changed when I accepted a position at the University of Arizona.
My research shifted to studies of the adaptations of desert birds. 
I tried to find out what behavioral traits were exhibited by birds when 
the temperature exceeded 120° (they do very little - birds are 
sensible) . Sonora, the adjacent state in Mexico, was only an hour 
away and its birds poorly known. Thanks to the flexibility of an 
academic schedules, I've made nearly 200 trips into Mexico over
the years. A book on the birds of Sonora should be published in 
about a year (a classic example of a "long term study")

Currently, my major studies are on hummingbirds. This I do jointly 
with my wife Ruth. This is the third of a projected five year study 
we conduct about sixty miles southeast of Tucson. We use banding 
as the major technique; last year we banded over 2000 hummingbirds 
of 11 species (only four species are really abundant). It is not unusual
for us to catch 100 hummingbirds during migration in a single trap in
less than an hour. Little banding of hummingbirds has ever been 
done and we are learning much. If Ruth and I are in Bristol at a 
time you need a speaker, we'd be delighted to talk about hurnmers!

As a professor, I've done the usual sorts of things. I started with 
large classes of students in beginning biology; now my courses 
are ornithology and graduate seminars. Some 25 or so Ph.D.'s 
have gone off into the world as the next generation of ornithologists,
plus probably 750 students who worked my basic ornithology course 
into their curriculum. I get saddled with miscellaneous titles, such as 
"Associate Department Head' and "Curator of Birds."

We have a world renowned institution in Tucson known as the 
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It is a non-profit organization 
with many educational programs and outstanding exhibits of living
plants and animals. Through good fortune, I was able to serve it 
as a board member and President; it is still a major interest of mine.

I have been active in several ornithological organizations. In 
Louisiana, it was the Louisiana Ornithological Society. Then the 
Cooper Ornithological Society in various capacities, including 
President, and more recently The American Ornithologists' Union. 
That has been intriguing and I am now going into my seventh (and 
final) year as Secretary. The best part of volunteer jobs is that 
one may stop while ahead.

Ruth is President of the Tucson Audubon Society and I am on its 
Board. It is a large (2400 members) chapter and there are many 
issues to  be addressed. I also serve on the Board of the 
Organization f or Tropical Studies, a consortium that (among other
things) operates La Selva and  other biological stations in Costa
Rica. Annual  meetings are always in Costa Rica and Ruth and 
I have become quite familiar with that country. We jump at the 
opportunity to spend time in interesting places - mostly in the 
new world tropics but also Africa. Argentina, and Australia.

I've been very lucky. I started out with an interest in the environment 
through the influence of my father, a forester. Two older brothers 
went the medicine and law route, which to me as a college 
undergraduate seemed absolutely boring things to do. The bird 
interest began in my first year of high school. I still remember the 
occasion when I learned there were other people who watched 
birds; I'd thought I was alone. Carl Fleenor was that first "birder" 
I met. I made trips to Saltville with Dr. Herndon, and Fred Behrend 
started taking me to mountain tops.

The trips with Fred must have provided the major direction of my 
developing career. I still have my field notes; I learned from Fred
to not just take notes but to record the location (including elevation) 
of every bird encountered. Highlights of trips with Fred included one
Christmas count to Mt. Rogers - an account that was never 
submitted. We did it on an absolutely miserable day, with temperature 
near zero, terrible wind, snow and clouds limiting visibility to only a 
few feet. We spent the day on the mountain, saw one bird and 
couldn't identify it. On another occasion, after a fine day on 
Grandfather Mountain, we crossed a wide pasture. The resident 
aggressive bull was not inclined to share his space with us and we 
just barely made it over the fence.

I still don't feel deserving of the honor the Bristol Bird Club has 
given me, but I very much appreciate it. At the first opportunity to 
visit Bristol, I'll get in touch with you. Perhaps we could plan a 
birding trip. I'd enjoy that. In the interim, if any Bristol Bird Club 
members get to Tucson, I'll try to help out in finding birds here. 
As a starter, the Tucson Audubon Society is about to publish the 
third edition of "Birds in Southeastern Arizona" that I have been 
revising. I'll send you a copy for the BBC. My home telephone 
is (602) 743-9707 and it has a machine operating when Ruth 
or I cannot answer.

Sincerely,




Stephen M. Russell