In my recent post about Lamar (Prowers), I mentioned the Paulsen family. This
expands on that a bit. They are friends of mine and maybe some of you, too.
The father, Henry, recently passed away quite unexpectedly. He was a devoted
tree planter and the 5000+ woody plants he installed over the past several
decades have created quite a bird habitat around their home north of Lamar at
the junction of Prowers CR SS/7, and on nearby parts of their farm to the west.
The funeral was this past December 30th. His wife Linda has been a gracious
host when they have rare birds in their yard (Ruby-throated Hummingbirds,
Chestnut-sided Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Purple Finch, Red Fox Sparrow, winter
Gray Catbird, etc.). And their daughters Isa and Emily have contributed
original illustrations to CFO's journal: Isa's colored pencil Peregrine Falcon
was on the cover of the October 1998 issue (vol.32,no.4) and her colored pencil
Curlew Sandpiper was on the cover of the January 1999 issue (vol.33,no.1).
Emily's graphite pencil drawing of the same individual Curlew Sandpiper was
part of the "News From The Field" column compiled by David Ely, p76, in the
January 1999 issue. The sandpiper drawings were inspired by Duane Nelson's
First State Record on 6/30-7/1/1998 sighting at nearby Upper Queens Reservoir
(Kiowa).
Thinking about dear Henry and the living members of his family, looking thru my
old journals on the kitchen shelf to verify the details above, and Paul
Hurtado's desperate plea to COBIRDS this morning for saved copies of old emails
made me think a few words are in order about the value of the present and past.
This would seem to be true for the world in general, and specifically the
birding world. Before we think we'll be prettier after the next molt and fly
gleefully into the future, the landscape of life has three parts. Don't get me
wrong - I will probably love the 4G blah blah phone my son got me for Christmas
to replace the one I lost last month trying for a Red-necked Grebe photo (if I
can master 5% of its capabilities before I lose it, too). I'm just saying, we
all need to remember who planted those trees, who wrote "News From The Field"
in 1999, who found that first Curlew Sandpiper, and that holding those old
journals with covers drawn by youthful human brains (not a computer) was much
more pleasant than anything digital. Grieving people need comforting words
now, not next week or 10 years from now. Like Bob Spencer keeps trying to
tell us, that bird out the window deserves to be appreciated at this moment.
And thank goodness, somebody thought about archiving emails, and that Rachel is
savvy enough to retrieve them (and kind enough to promptly offer her services
in this regard).
In short, to be truly whole we need all three tenses, all the birds alive and
extinct, and all of us. We need John James Audubon, Carolina Parakeets,
Thompson Marsh, museums (full of stuffed specimens, DNA, and dedicated
curators), Eurasian Collared-Doves, Hugh Kingery, Brenda Linfield, RMBO,
Davis's mismatched Chuck Taylors, eBird, cemeteries, Tuesday Birders, Glenn
Walbek, 100-400mm zooms with teleconverters and supportive software, Nathan
Pipelow, future splits, the Such Brothers, the next First State Record, apps,
and colored pencils. Here's to 1813, 2013, and 2113.
Happy New Year.
This is just a thought and isn't intended to start a new thread.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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