Great post Harry Armistead!!
On Jul 2, 2014, at 8:50 AM, va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. "Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope." (Harry Armistead)
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2014 13:44:12 +0000
From: Harry Armistead <harryarmistead@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Virginia Byrd <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Va-bird] "Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope."
Message-ID: <SNT147-W10F8ADFFC7650E20BBBD03CF070@xxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
" ... Desiring this man's art, and
that man's scope ... " -Shakespeare, Sonnet 29. I didn't really desire
those, but got the scope anyway. Leslie Starr's recent fantastic story on
MDBIRDING about the recovery of her camera prompts me to recount here the most
amazing coincidence of my life. In September 1966 Liz and I were
honeymooning in Washington state. While on a walk on the Pacific beach at
La Push before breakfast we were surprised to come upon a Bausch & Lomb
scope mounted on a tripod lying in the surf. If the tide had been higher
we would not have seen this; if lower someone else might have picked it
up. I took this rig back to Philadelphia and sold the barnacle-encrusted
scope to legendary optics person I. Miller for $20.
I still have the tripod. Miller had an interesting business just north of
Market St. near the Delaware River. Once when I walked in, there was a
telescope that had been on a U-boat. On December 29, 1972, I was in Paul
Sykes' Norfolk home the evening after his Back Bay N.W.R. (Virginia) Christmas
Bird Count. A man I had never met, or heard of, before, Howard P. Langridge,
of Lantana, Florida, and I were shooting the breeze. When I told him the
story of the scope he looked at me as if I had come back from the dead.
He'd been canoeing in the ocean, capsized, and lost that scope and tripod
about
6 weeks before our honeymoon visit. We cross-examined each other on
details to make certain everything was legitimate. Howard and I might
have had a perfectly convivial evening without the scope story ever
emerging. What are the chances? This was the first and last time I
saw him.
On this day Micou (Mike) Browne and I were astonished to see an adult male
Western Tanager on Long Island, out in Back Bay proper. In 1972 Back Bay
still had good growths of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), now gone, and
consequent huge numbers of waterfowl that are not there now. On Dec, 29,
1972: Snow Goose 29,000; Gadwall 6300; American Wigeon 4800; Ruddy Duck 1000;
American Coot 7300. Some other counts that day that may not happen again:
Northern Bobwhite 172, Red-cockaded Woodpecker 1.
Further Back Bay digression: Paul Sykes has a special association with
the Back Bay C.B.C. He has compiled it since 1953, missing only 1962 when
he was abroad in the U. S. Navy. He carefully orchestrated his C.B.C.
participation so that his 400th C.B.C. was at Back Bay on Dec. 29, 2008, the
day of his 71st birthday. (cf. "Four hundred and counting: reflections on
a long association with the Christmas Bird Count," in 'American
Birds: the 109th Christmas Bird Count, 2008-2009', vol. 63, pp. 16-23, 119).
He is slightly ahead of Chan Robbins for having participated in more
CBCs than anyone.
Back Bay was my lucky count for several years. One time there I saw a
Cottonmouth, a MInk, and, directly overhead, a Golden Eagle in the same
morning. I know some of you have heard this scope story before, but I
hope not in this forum. The late Howard Langridge (1923-2004) was a top
Florida birder and excellent tennis player. He was good at finding
warblers on Florida Christmas counts, was the compiler of the West Palm Beach
C.B.C. for 40 years (in 1972 - 31 Least Bitterns, 146 King Rails, 754 Common
Gallinules, 136 Soras, 29 Painted Buntings, and 14 warbler species). His
Florida list was 441 the last year he listed it with A.B.A. Paul Sykes
wrote an excellent In Memoriam tribute to Howard in the "Florida Field
Naturalist", vol. 34, no. 4, 2006, pages 121-123 (this will display if you
Google "Howard P. Langridge").
The birding world is full of unbelievable coincidences ... and amazing people.
- Harry Armistead, Philadelphia.
... "Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;" ... - more from Sonnet29.
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End of va-bird Digest, Vol 87, Issue 2
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