Page 67 – Birding New Jersey

February 3, 2015July 30, 2018

Burke at 125

Today marks the 125th birthday of Edgar Burke. Head of surgery at the Jersey City Hospital, he was an enthusiastic rod-and-gun man, and a painter of respectable accomplishment.

Anglers still know him for his paintings of flies and other fishing gear, and pigeon fanciers remember Burke’s work with the “pigeoneers” in World War II.

And birders? New Jersey birders? Anyone?

I can almost hear the heads shaking. But think back, and I’m sure nearly all of us have had at least a quick flip through John Alden Knight’s little book Woodcock. Published in 1944, there’s really not much to it unless you’re a woodcock hunter — or like handsome pictures of shorebirds. Worth checking out next time you’re in a used bookstore.

February 1, 2015January 29, 2015

The Beginning of a Career

One hundred years ago today, George Miksch Sutton’s first published drawing, the portrait of a captive Greater Roadrunner “in an attitude of fright,” appeared in Frank Chapman’s Bird-Lore.

When the bird was startled by an unexpected mouse one night, the

lower mandible droop[ed], the wings lift[ed], and the tail spread to its fullest extent.

Chapman praised “Master Sutton,” then fifteen years old, as “an observant boy.”

Little did anyone know then.

January 30, 2015

Yard Sparrow

Yes, I’m grateful that the bitter cup of whatever last week’s blizzard was named passed us more or less by. But that doesn’t make the dribs and drabs of powdery snow — an inch here, two inches there — we’ve been getting any more enjoyable.

Until this morning, that is, when the weather brought a sweet little field sparrow to the feeders.