Date: 10/29/24 12:38 am From: 'jochen roeder' via Birders <birders...> Subject: Re: [birders] More memories of Bruce Bowman and Dr. Bob Setzer
I am also deeply saddened by the news of Bruce's passing. When I had the chance to visit Michigan in May 2005 and then again for an entire year in 2006 / 2007, he was instrumental in providing the basic information on birds & birding in the Great Lakes region. Through him I joined this birders listserv, which I am still a member of after nearly 20 years, inspite of not living in North America anymore. Bruce impressed me with how he ran the listserv, as in my experience such online communities usually imploded after a short while due to infighting or slipping into irrelevance. Not this one though, as Bruce ensured certain rules were followed by all members. He did that using a minimum of authority, striking the perfect balance between allowing people to communicate freely and remaining within the boundaries of the defined rules.
I was also fortunate enough to get out into the field with him, as he took me - who didn't have a car during my stay in Michigan - to Magee Marsh on a number of occasions, and also elsewhere in SE Michigan. I owe him many wonderful hours there, and also a few instances of "warbler neck". In the field, he again impressed me not alone with his knowledge but also how precisely he took notes of our observations, and with this little gadget he had built himself: he had dificulties with his hearing pertaining to the high chipping calls of birds, so he had deviced an instrument with an ear piece that would lower the frequencies of the calls to an extend that made them audible to him. Now, I have also aged a fair bit since those days in 2007, and while I can still hear bird calls just fine, I begin to struggle with grasshoppers and crickets, a newly-found passion of mine. Thankfully nowadays, such gadgets are readilly available for purchase, but I am still reminded frequently of Bruce standing next to me, with his headphones on, scanning the canopies above the board walk.
Beyond the listserv and the birding, I got to know Bruce as a kind and balanced person, and while we might miss him as a birding companion, I cannot imagine the grief his family and close friends must surely feel now.
Jochen
Am Dienstag, 29. Oktober 2024 um 02:00:51 MEZ hat <ajf-jlf...> <ajf-jlf...> Folgendes geschrieben:
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In the likelihood that all of the remembrances flowing in to the birding center may be compiled and shared with the grieving families, I want to add my personal notes of loss. In this forum of shared interests and reporting there have been hundreds of postings that have added to my enjoyment over the years. Relative recluse that I am, however, very few have resulted in personal exchanges of email or even fewer resulted in face to face meetings. I had the pleasure of the former with “Dr. Bob” a couple of years ago and was looking forward to him dropping in sometime to view our feeder birds from our living room windows. I’m saddened to know now that that will never happen.
And it was decades ago that Bruce contacted me to join him in a birding tour of Augusta Twp one Saturday. I can no longer recall what turned up in some of my favorite haunts east of my then Home in Milan, MI, but I still remember a good afternoon of birding together that day, as well as the long and good service he provided the hundreds of birders who enjoyed our feathered and human friends through <birders...> in ways we’d never done before!
-- John Farmer
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