BBC Snippets

Link: http://www.freelists.org/archives/bristol-birds/03-2008/msg00117.html

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