Date: 12/29/24 9:54 am From: Ross McGregor (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Re: John Fussell
I'm just so sad to hear of John's passing. I was lucky enough to join his
Sunday morning birding trips when I lived in Beaufort.
What really struck me about John were two things.
Firstly he wore his vast knowledge so lightly. He was a great communicator.
He never bragged and was always wanting to learn. We spent hours talking
about habitat management of Bachman's Sparrows as he wanted to know
everything I had learned about them from my time at Tall Timbers in FL.
Secondly, he could ask questions like few I have met. He would quiz me
about my research on red-cockaded woodpeckers asking questions that really
made me think. I think the questions were coming from his desire to know
more and understand better, rather than to demonstrate my lack of knowledge
and understanding. I learned so much from these chats.
For me, it was these things made spending time birding with JF such a joy.
He was a thoroughly decent bloke and the world is a poorer place without
him.
Ross McGregor
Stirling, Scotland.
On Sun, 29 Dec 2024, 16:57 Harry LeGrand, <carolinabirds...> wrote:
> I was saddened to hear about John's passing --sometime around Christmas
> Day -- though I was not surprised, as he had been in poor health for a year
> and had been weakened by his condition. He lived alone in his later years
> and thus probably did not get as much health care as he might have had with
> a spouse or close relatives/friends nearby. He was 75 years old at the
> time of his passing.
>
> Fortunately, I got to know John about as well as anyone, as we were the
> same age, knew each other before college, and we were in some of the same
> classes at N.C. State University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
> Other folks and the Coastal Review article have summarized the highlights
> of his life, but I do want to reiterate a few of them.
>
> 1. *He was the premier naturalist for 50+ years for the central NC
> coast,* not just with his knowledge of birds but also of botany and
> various other biological sciences, such as ecology and natural
> communities. He provided the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, where I worked
> for 31 years, with numerous reports of rare plants, especially from his
> beloved Croatan National Forest.
>
> 2. *He was THE Croatan National Forest "environmental watchdog" for
> those 50+ years.* As the Coastal Review article mentioned, every few
> years this Federal land was "picked" on by various agencies to nibble away
> for schools, landfills, and worst of all, the dreaded Havelock By-pass,
> which John was able to stall and fight-off for 15 or more years until the
> inevitable forces of the NCDOT and Federal agencies prevailed, with
> construction destroying several important savannas and flatwoods in the
> eastern portions, impacting a few dozen rare species populations that he
> had been monitoring. He worked with staff there regarding burning
> schedules and other management issues for many years.
>
> 3. * He was the most dedicated Christmas Bird Counter in NC during his
> time birding,* starting in the early 1960s and continuing until around
> 2022. Essentially annually he compiled his own Morehead City count, and
> also did his sections of Southport, Wilmington, New Bern, Pamlico County,
> Cape Hatteras, Bodie-Pea Island, Mattamuskeet, a few others, and also went
> well inland to help out with the Wayne County CBC for a number of years,
> and even at Roanoke Rapids for a while. He typically shunned motels, so it
> was mostly sleeping on floors, on cots, or driving home between counts to
> drive to another count pre-dawn the next day! Folks like Derb, Merrill,
> Ricky Davis, Allen Bryan (now in Virginia), and my brother Edmund (now also
> in Virginia) joined John on so many of these counts, often doing 4-6 or
> more in a season for many years, but not with the continuity level and
> dedication that John did!
>
> 4. *He contributed heavily to the ornithological literature of NC.* He
> wrote numerous General Field Notes for *The Chat *that described and
> detailed his important records, such as the White (Black-backed) Wagtail.
> He was on several NC Bird Records Committees. And, most importantly, as
> mentioned by others, his monumental book *A Birder's Guide to Coastal
> North Carolina*, published by UNC Press in 1994 and still in print, was a
> birder's "bible" and is still useful today owing to so many sites in public
> ownership that have not substantially changed since that time.
>
> I will greatly miss JF, as he called himself, as will so many other folks
> who knew him, went on his many field trips, and got to learn so much from
> him.
>
> Harry LeGrand
>
> On Sun, Dec 29, 2024 at 11:02 AM Robert Lewis <carolinabirds...>
> wrote:
>
>> 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:
>> >
>> >
>> > 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.
>> >
>> > Chris Marsh
>> > Winston-Salem
>> > <cmarshlci...>
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sat, Dec 28, 2024 at 8:46 PM Derb Carter <carolinabirds...>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 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.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 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.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 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.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 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.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 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.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 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.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 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.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Derb Carter
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> I have attached a profile of John from a few years ago.
>> >>
>> >>
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://coastalreview.org/2017/02/19052/__;!!OToaGQ!r8kWFcJd-NUR9nkVfu-ARXQUR8eaqbAKKRsJppSNmKx30sc0vvpbqBoXGoYF1uPSKhB-MmCQ5HaDdXkwxW0$ >> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>>
>
