Date: 12/29/24 8:02 am From: Robert Lewis (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Re: John Fussell
Very sad news. I have many fond memories of John, mostly from 40+ years ago.
We were about the same age, and I came to know him when I was a struggling graduate student. I wanted to go to the coast to bird but money was tight. John was generous with sharing the house he was living in at that time (he was house-sitting). In the spring of 1980 he suggested I come down in May, as he thought it would be good for migrating Jaegers. Indeed it was, as we saw all three species. Too bad I had no camera then.
On that trip or another, we decided to take a row boat to one of the islands near Morehead. Timing the tide was important, and we got it a little wrong. I'll never forget pushing that boat over the sands as the tide receded.
He was almost shy with his identifications of rarities, always understated. When he said he had a Cave Swallow (in the eighties I think) you knew it was right. Of course, his discovery and documentation of the White Wagtail is legendary.
He was a great guy to have dinner with after a long day's birding. I remember many such events after the Mattamuskeet CBC. The last time I had that pleasure was in 2016 after seeing the Mountain Plover.
He was one of the giants of North Carolina birding of the last fifty years. Good bye John.
Bob Lewis
Durham
On Sunday, December 29, 2024 at 09:20:58 AM EST, Fran Irvin" (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> wrote:
I, like Chris, want to echo all the memories and recognitions of my dear friend Fussell. One thing that has stuck with me throughout many years is his beloved dog Sam and how John would take him surfing. The two of them catching waves from Ft Fisher on his surfboard. John was brilliant and unique and will be missed by all who knew him.
Fran Irvin
Sent from my iPhone
> On Dec 29, 2024, at 9:08 AM, Chris Marsh <carolinabirds...> wrote:
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> I want to echo the salutations shared by Merrill and others. As a high school student growing up in Raleigh I first met John when he was in graduate student at N.C. State. He took me under his wing and let me accompany him chasing black rails at Cedar Island, wading through wetlands at Roosevelt Natural area where he showed me my first canebrake rattlesnake, and exploring Croatan NF showing me how to use Radford and Bell
> to key out plants like pixie-moss. He set a high bar for those of us who wanted to be field ecologists and made us have better lives and careers because of it. He will be very much missed.
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> Chris Marsh
> Winston-Salem
> <cmarshlci...>
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> On Sat, Dec 28, 2024 at 8:46 PM Derb Carter <carolinabirds...> wrote:
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>> North Carolina lost a giant in the birding community with the passing of John Fussell in Morehead City. John was a fixture in NC birding for sixty years starting as a teenager, pursuing hi interest at NC State, then returning to Morehead City. He knew the birds and every birding corner along his beloved NC coast like no one else. In fact, he wrote the book. UNC Press published his Birder's Guide to Coastal North Carolina in 1994 and it remains the definitive guide.
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>> John eagerly volunteered to lead field trips at CBC meetings, Wings Over Water, and other gatherings and many birders in the Carolinas got to know him through these trips. The one thing you could almost be certain of on one of John's trips is you were going to get your feet soaked within the first hour. If the shortest way was dry, John would take the long way through the marsh or tidal flats on the chance of flushing a rail, sparrow, or wren.
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>> John was also well known outside the state as THE guy who could show you your first Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Swainson's Warbler, or Black Rail. His knowledge of NC coastal birds and birding sites was unparalleled.
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>> He also cared deeply about protecting important habitats and as an accomplished naturalist contributed his knowledge and observations to the identification and preservation of lands by state and federal agencies and conservation organizations. In recent years, he frequently visited the massive wetland restoration project at North River Farms documenting the changing bird communities as the wetlands are restored.
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>> John was understated and it was hard to tell when he was excited. In 1982 I found a Masked Duck on a lake in the Croatian Forest. I didn't have a way to document it so called John and he raced over with his camera. After an extended search we relocated it and John got photos, about the most excited I ever saw him. A few years later some of us were birding on Pea Island dikes at the end of a long day when John walked up. We exchanged greetings and started talking about mundane things when John casually mentioned "Oh, I just had a Northern Wheatear in Avon." We, of course, all raced down to see this first documented NC record.
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>> In 1986, John, Ricky Davis, Merrill Lynch, Allen Bryan, and I decided to see how many species we could see in NC in one day, a Big Day. John was working on the Outer Banks at the time and when we made it there in the afternoon he had staked out numerous rarities, like a Black-billed Cuckoo he on a hunch found in a tent caterpillar infested tree. We kept ticking through birds including rails and bittern at night and at midnight had recorded 184 species, a record still standing after nearly four decades. It would never have happened without John.
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>> John was an avid participant in Christmas Bird Counts, including the Morehead City count he started as a teenager and ran for over 60 years. He also participated every year in the Wilmington CBC which will be held next weekend. John always covered undeveloped Masonboro Island. Sun, wind, rain, or snow he would be dropped off on the north end by boat first thing in the morning and walk the eight and a half miles to the south end to be picked up late afternoon. The gulls, terns, shorebirds, and pelicans will be looking for him on Saturday and will miss him. We will all miss him.
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>> Derb Carter
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>> I have attached a profile of John from a few years ago.
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>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://coastalreview.org/2017/02/19052/__;!!OToaGQ!r8kWFcJd-NUR9nkVfu-ARXQUR8eaqbAKKRsJppSNmKx30sc0vvpbqBoXGoYF1uPSKhB-MmCQ5HaDdXkwxW0$ >>
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