Chandler Robbins, Father of Ornithology, Still Saving Birds

Red-tailed hawk on its first flight from its nest, symbol of the resurgence of some bird species, especially bald eagles, due to the banning of DDT in 1972.  Chan Robbins' research showed the danger of the pesticide to birds.  (Photo by Don Comis) 

I was thrilled to find Chandler "Chan" Robbins in the August/September 2014 issue of National Wildlife magazine today.

Robbins, "Father of Modern Ornithology", has helped make birdwatching a popular activity. He was the senior author of "The Field Guide to Birds of North America" and was an author of the Golden Guide to Birds of North America.  In 1945, he began work  as a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Laurel, Maryland.  A website (http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/whatsnew/events/robbins/) devoted to him at his "retirement" in 2005 says that, "In the late 1940s, Chandler’s studies pointed out the deadly effects of DDT on bird populations and led to the 1972 U.S. ban on DDT as a pesticide."

The National Wildlife story describes how Robbins, in 1966, started the North American Breeding Bird Survey to monitor bird populations.  He first tested the techniques on the approximately 25,000 acres the Fish and Wildlife Service and many other agencies--federal and local--share with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland.

The article also mentions his research on forest fragmentation , the idea that development can make islands of forests too small to support certain bird species.

When I worked as a science writer for the USDA in Beltsville, I interviewed Robbins twice for a story on wildlife on those 25,000 acres, a couple of years before his official retirment.

The first interview didn't go so well, partly because I was just beginning my birdwatching hobby.  But the second interview was astounding.  Robbins was nearing retirement then and I think forgot our appointment the day he got back from vacation.

As a result, he was in a more contemplative mood, and all I had to do was listen and take notes as he reminisced about his long career.  He held the same job and lived in the same house nearby all these years.  I found out from the magazine article that, although retired, he still goes to his office at times.

As he talked he sadly said he couldn't believe a certain warbler had disappeared in his lifetime.  He's seen the changes in bird populations both from his work and from his bird feeders and observations at home.

Just for the heck of it, I asked him how many birds migrated over the federal lands' where we worked and he had a fairly exact number.  He got that by staying up with his wife all night and counting silhouettes flying across a full moon.  He watched through a telescope through a grid for counting.

Unfortunately, the powers that be decided to cut two-thirds of my article, including all of the Robbins stuff, because it didn't fit the magazine's emphasis on research, especially present-day research, they felt.  But Robbins and other scientists had cleared the entire article for accuracy.

The remnant article can be seen at:  http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct03/farm1003.pdf.  It at least gives a hint of the value of this land mass and its historical contributions to the conservation movement.

When I find the full article I'll make it avaialble on this site and on my website at www.doncomis.simplesite.com.  And I'll highlight the Robbins section which I think is precious because it contains Robbins' thoughts, as well as a mention of other scientists in the Beltsville-Laurel area who developed the island fragmentation concept with experiments on the 25,000 acre "Green Wedge" in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. corridor.

The more I think about it, Robbins is also the Father of Modern Citizen Science.  Not only does he rely on volunteers for the Breeding Bird Survey, but he and his father go way back as participants in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count.