Date: 12/30/24 7:15 pm From: Chris Marsh (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Re: An owling adventure with John Fussell
Edmund,
I’ve told this story many times when introducing barred owls and their
sounds. 🙂 There’s one additional part to the story. There was a loud
“thunk!” under John’s Volkswagen Beetle and then the car died including
the headlights going out, leaving us in the dark. We momentarily wondered
if someone from the prison had placed something metal on the road to
sabotage a passing car. It was pitch black so we couldn’t see what was
around us. We learned much later that John’s Beetle had thrown a piston rod
simultaneously making the sound and killing the engine.
Chris
Chris Marsh
(843)252-9784
<cmarshlci...>
On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 10:07 AM Edmund LeGrand <carolinabirds...>
wrote:
> I appreciate Derb Carter’s notification of John Fussell’s passing and
> everyone’s recollection of John’s life and his huge impact on us. John and
> I actively birded together in our college days at NC State under Dr. Tom
> Quay’s guidance. Since then I’ve spent most of my time away from NC, only
> occasionally birding again with this good friend. Four years ago, I called
> John to ask if he remembered a most unusual night from many years ago. He
> did indeed, and together we put our memories together, each adding key
> details that the other had forgotten (of course, John remembered the year).
>
> After John’s 1974 Morehead City Christmas Bird Count compilation, he drove
> Chris Marsh, Chris’s sister Lisa, and me back out to try to find owls near
> Newport. As he drove us down old logging roads in our pursuit of
> last-minute owls, we started telling ghost stories. Finally I said, “I’m
> not afraid of ghosts. They aren’t real. But crazy people are!” And so the
> conversation shifted accordingly. About 11:30 PM we got on the state
> highway, quite deserted back then. We soon drove past the prison, which
> featured into our conversation. All of a sudden John’s Volkswagen beetle
> went completely silent, and the headlights shut off. We all looked at each
> other in surprise. John, while saying it felt like he was working against
> an opposing force, steered the powerless car to a stop in a wooded section
> of the road. John, Chris, and I got out and were immediately surprised by a
> very nearby, hair-raising laugh: “HA, HA, HEE, HEE, HOO, HAA!!!” Yes, it
> sounded a lot like a Barred Owl, but it sounded EXACTLY like a homicidal
> maniac who had somehow sabotaged the car to catch us in his trap! No one
> said anything as we stood there. It remained quiet. Finally, I broke the
> silence and said, “That WAS a Barred Owl, WASN’T it?” We were all glad that
> we were familiar with the caterwauling calls of Barred Owls—non-birders
> would have been in BIG trouble!!! We were astounded that Lisa, still in the
> car, somehow hadn’t even heard it! We were fortunate in the days before
> cell phones that it was only a couple-mile walk past the prison back to
> tiny Newport. Amazingly, the fire station was hosting a Christmas party
> that lasted past midnight! They let us use the phone to call John’s father
> to get us. Since I doubt there were any available public phones in town
> back then, our next option might have been to walk all the way back to
> Morehead. Chris, did we get this 50-year-old memory right?
>
> Edmund LeGrand, Fauquier Co., VA
>
