Date: 7/17/25 8:58 am From: John Deacon via groups.io <iseekbirds...> Subject: [sbcobirding] Mark Brown
I'm reposting this from Slack with this site's administrator's approval:
I was very sad to learn yesterday that Mark Brown, long-timeNorth County birder, passed away in November 2023. The last time I saw him was in 2019 duringthe 40th Santa Maria/Guadalupe CBC. Mark and his son were birding at the Fairway and A Street hotspot. He was suffering horribly from diabetes andwas almost blind. His son (Gavan) wouldlook at birds, describe them to his dad, and Mark would help identify it basedon Gavan’s description.
When I first moved to Santa Maria in 1978, I didn’t knowanyone. I was birding near the sandplant by the Guadalupe Dunes and I stumbled upon a band of young(ish) birders. It was Mark, his brother Matt, and Mark’ssoon-to-be wife, Margaret. We struck upan immediate friendship and we birded together pretty much every weekend afterthat. Together we established the LosPadres Chapter of the Audubon Society. It lasted for 20 years or so (I think). I remember we were worried that no one would show up to our firstmeeting. We got a nice group of about 20people, including a very young birder named Jamie Chavez.
Together, we also set up the Santa Maria-Guadalupe CBC, establishingthe circle with simply a compass, a pencil, a USGS Topo Map and a ruler. Our first year drew the likes of Paul Lehmanand Louis Bevier. Wes Fritz may havebeen there too, I can’t remember. Anyway, it was our most productive year ever with over 170 speciesspotted.
Mark also had a hilarious, deadpan sense of humor. And he was more than happy to laugh athimself. I remember our first pelagictrip out of Morro Bay. We hadn’t evengotten out of the bay, and we hear Mark yell out “PUFFIN”. The boat almost tipped over as everyonerushed to Mark’s side of the boat. Asyou can probably guess, it was a Surf Scoter. Mark knew what a Surf Scoter was. He was just so excited about his first pelagic trip that his adrenalinlevel clouded his judgement. Who of ushaven’t had that happen when we are in a new area? We just didn’t do it in front of 30 people. Over the years, Mark and I ran into eachother birding in the North County. Markwould be the first to reminisce about his first pelagic trip and how he wasresponsible for almost sinking our boat.
When we weren’t birding together, we would often rush hometo telephone each other with the birds we found. I owe a bunch of my lifers to Mark. Granted, many of them aren’t all thatexciting now, but our friendly competition yielded many early lifers includingDunlin, Wood Duck and most famously, Gray Flycatcher. At the CBC, Mark and I found the GrayFlycatcher at Leroy Park in Guadalupe. But we weren’t at all confident about our identification. Luckily, Paul Lehman and Louis Bevier wereworking on the CBC and confirmed that it was a Gray Flycatcher.
Anyway, Mark was part of the foundation of the North Countybirding community. Lots of pleasantmemories about Mark and Margaret when I review my Birder’s Journal.
