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bird watching/birding



Below are excerpts from an obituary for G. Stuart Keith which appeared in the NYT on March 8, 2003:

"...G. Stuart Keith...was a founder of the American Birding Association...in 1968, Mr. Keith proposed to a dozen enthusiastic bird-watching friends that they form an association and exchange information about the numbers of birds they had spotted. This association eventually became the American Birding Association, as bird-watching was to be known from then on, and the associations' magazine, which first appeared in 1969, was titled simply "Birding." "...He was secretary, then president, of the International Council for Bird Preservation, United States Section, from 1965 to 1973..." "...with John Gooders, he wrote "The Collins Bird Guide" a survey of European birds, in 1980. That year he began his 22-year involvement with "The Birds of Africa" in seven volumes, written with C. Hilary Fry and Emil K. Urban..." "...when he took up birding in his youth, the association recalled when it announced his death, his family did not expect him to live long once he bought his first car, because he swerved too often so that he could see a bird." (My daughter commented that the last statement reminded her of many childhood experiences as a passenger when I was driving.)

Jean R. Hutton
jeanhutton@mindspring.com
Arden, NC