Date: 12/29/24 11:43 am From: David Howell (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Re: John Fussell
I am deeply saddened by the loss of John Fussell. To reflect on John, I
naturally have to mention my late father, Steve Howell. In 2015, my parents
decided to retire to Morehead City. As a coastal obsessed guy in my 20s, I
found any excuse to visit them. As birders, we soon discovered Fussell and
his weekly North River Farm trips. Supposedly, my dad had heard of John in
the 1960s through their shared birding mentor, John Thompson. While their
paths didn’t cross back then, life moved on, and my dad drifted away from
birding until I became interested in the late 2000s, thanks to Ricky Davis.
Birding brought my dad and I closer together, and eventually, it brought us
to John Fussell.
We were incredibly fortunate to have Fussell in Morehead City. I treasure
the memories of Sundays spent with him and my dad on his trips. He gave me
a deep appreciation for the area’s landscape, especially in winter when the
ground was hard and muted vegetation created stunning contrasts of golden
grasses against deep blue ponds teeming with wintering ducks. Many times,
we’d huddle in his crossover to escape the cold, and it was during these
moments that John’s defining trait shone through: his insatiable curiosity.
He always wanted to hear what others had seen, heard, or deduced about
patterns and behaviors. He was constantly collecting knowledge. To be
curious is to be a birder, and John was one of the best.
I have John to thank for so many unforgettable experiences. He showed me my
first LeConte’s Sparrow at North River Farm, invited me to his downtown
Morehead City kitchen window to spot a wintering Yellow-breasted Chat, and
led an all day search across the Shackleford Banks flats for a Long-billed
Curlew. For my first Christmas Bird Count in the county, he assigned me to
North River Farm, the place I grew to love so deeply.
More than anything, I am grateful to him for being such a good companion to
my dad in his later years. Whenever I called my dad for updates on the
latest sightings in Carteret County, the stories always featured John—they
were inseparable. I like to think they’re birding together again now.
David Howell
Raleigh, NC
On Sun, Dec 29, 2024 at 12:54 PM Ross McGregor <carolinabirds...>
wrote:
> 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$ >>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >
>>>
>>
