There are many interests among the OBOL community, but most of us are life
listers. Recently, the top life lister in the world died, with a count of
9,684.
C.G. Cederlund, a Swedish radiologist, had been doing international birding
for over 40 years. He was the director of a Swedish County hospital
radiation department. To get more time for travel, he worked overtime for
six months, so he could travel the other six months. He was quite active in
research. If you Google his name you will see a long list of research
projects on which he worked. To meet him, you would guess he was English,
as he spoke with a proper English accent. He was friends with, and had
travelled often with another well-known lister, Phoebe Snetsinger. I'm
sure there are Oregon international birders and guides who have met and
travelled with him, as we did.
My wife and I had met and travelled with C.G. and his wife Angie in 2008 on
a Birdquest Trip to Western India. At that time he had about 7500 on his
list, and was already doing what the big listers call "clean up" trips.
That is, returning to areas to try to get the birds they missed on prior
trips. Much of his early travel was with Birdquest, and some years ago that
company identified C.G. as their most often client, with 65 Birdquest tours.
On the India trip, starting in Amritsar going south to the state of Gujarat,
C.G. said at the end of the trip he had hoped for 5 new lifers, but was
ecstatic to get 15. To put this in context with us, we had 130 life birds
on that trip as it was our first to India. So, many trips in recent years
had to be private tours for him to get the rarities, and some trips were for
just two birds for the list. His wife Angie is also a top birder, ranked
51st. We kept in touch over the years, sharing future travel plans,
critiquing tour companies, guides, food, and tour logistics. Before we met
him he had toured Oregon and had a bird nemesis, which in his case was the
Pinyon Jay. I think he got it on a later trip.
C.G. Cederlund was just 72. The next top lister was about 40 behind his
count.
Patrick Gallagher
Salem
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