M. Ralph Browning

Inspired by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher’s book Wild America, recent high school graduate M. Ralph Browning embarked on a tightly budgeted, year-long trip in the US looking for birds. The year was 1962. His 1955 VW Beetle broke after nine months, which forced a premature end to the journey. In 2005, after matters of military duty, college, a family, and a career in birds at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the author resumed the interrupted trip. This time, he was with the girl he’d left behind in 1962, and they birded Texas, the Southwest, and California. The author chronicles the trip with observations on birds while touching on history, geology, and conservation. The cost of keeping alive includes periodic notes on the price of gasoline (about $0.33/gallon in 1962) and food. The author had earlier written to numerous birders for information about birding particular locations, and many of those individuals across the country showed him birds and invited him into their homes for a gratefully appreciated warm bed and home cooking. The 2005 leg of the journey was assisted by bird finding guides and the help of the legendary Jon Dunn and numerous motels.

A Twelve-Month US Journey Beginning in 1962 That Ended in 2005

Birder Interrupted

Fulfilling a wish to live in a remote location and the great luck of finding Morgan Spring was a dream come true. The author and Linda, his childhood sweetheart, quickly realized Morgan Spring was a perfect place for retirement and an extended honeymoon. Morgan Spring opened its pages to teach about the day-to-day living where mail came three days per week and where the water was beyond quenching. Their little spot, surrounded by a meadow often filled with elk and a forest with breezes singing through the needles of evergreen trees, offered habitat for wildlife precious to dangerous, from mushrooms to birds, wildflowers to backyard skunks. Thinking of birds invited forays into how some birds acquired their names and occasional swoops into bird business such as catching flies. Morgan Spring is witness to a rich geological history beginning in the shadow of Mount Mazama of the Cascade Mountains. The richness of human history ranges from bad to good and entertaining. The health of the ecology of Morgan Spring country is also varied, but its outcome hopeful. We rarely saw neighbors. When we did, it was a delight knowing that they also loved Morgan Spring.

Life and Wildlife near the Edge of the Grid

Morgan Spring

Brooke Meanley

Craig A. Faanes

Francis H. Fay

Karl W. Kenyon

Laurel F. VanCamp

Margaret R. Petersen

Sanford R. Wilbur

Charles J. Henny

Douglas N. Weir

Matthew H. Dick

Detailed assessment of the relative abundance, seasonal occurrence, distribution, and habitat use of birds in the Kilbuck and Ahklun mountain region of Alaska.

Birds of the St. Croix River Valley, Minnesota and Wisconsin

M. Ralph Browning

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