Originally published in the Sept./Oct. 2006 issue of the Albatross, Vol 51, no.1

The Santa Cruz Bird Club’s First Fifty Years

Part 4: 1986 to 1995

By David L. Suddjian

I moved to Santa Cruz County in December 1985 as an avid young birder from Santa Clara County, just as the Santa Cruz Bird Club (SCBC) began its fourth decade. After several months of frequent birding on my own, by May 1986 I still had not connected much with other Santa Cruz birders. This was, of course, long before email lists and the easy avenue they now provide to enter the local birding scene. I had discovered that I should report my observations of color-banded Snowy Plovers to Frances Bidstrup, but although Frances was a Club member, my connection with her was related more to her role with the plover and the Point Reyes Bird Observatory. Instead, my first real entry into the local birding community was through Barbara Scharfenstein.

I recall a phone call from Barb one June day after I had reported a Hooded Warbler at New Brighton State Beach to the Northern California Rare Bird Alert. Somehow she tracked me down, and phoned me to encourage me to call her and other locals if I should find other goodies. She encouraged me to join the SCBC, and led me to bird record keeper Randy Morgan and top birder Bruce LaBar. August 17, 1986 found me as a new member enjoying the club's annual potluck, held that year at the Aptos home of Frances and Dick Bidstrup. In September I led my first field trip for the Club and attended my first SCBC meeting (with Don Roberson presenting the program), feeling more than welcomed by hospitality chairperson Irene Manicci, a small bundle of warmth and interest. The SCBC provided me with a framework from which to take part in the local birding community, and to a great degree in its fourth decade the Club was the local birding community.

Many of the folks at the forefront of the SCBC by the end of its third decade continued strong in the fourth decade: LaBar, The Scharf, Manicci, Morgan, David Ekdahl, Doug George, Bambie Hopkins, Bob Hargis, Milly Rose, Debi Shearwater, Steve Allison, and Jerry Busch. But others joined in this decade, including some who would make their most significant contributions in the Club’s fifth decade. In addition to my own beginnings in 1986, The Albatross (Alby) includes first mentions of Clay Kempf, Bob Merrill and Earl Lebow in 1986, Eric Feuss in 1988, Bonnie Bedzin in 1989, Ken Kellman in 1991, Cliff and Lise Bixler in 1992, and Jeff Davis and Lois and Wally Goldfrank in 1995. Two special members who had made contributions in the Club’s earlier decades became active again after a hiatus in the fourth decade: Steve Gerow by 1992 and Todd Newberry by 1994.

If the Club’s third decade experienced a generational turnover, then the fourth decade brought a continuation of that change, and more importantly a maturation or development of the Club’s role. Comparing the SCBC of the late 1980s to that of the early 1970s, Bruce LaBar reflected, “When I joined, Randy and I were perhaps the youngest active birders. Since then the Club has changed dramatically, with many more younger participants, better field trips and programs, exciting Christmas counts and the Breeding Bird Atlas as a better resource for information on birds and their environment.” But Clay Kempf, part of the younger generation of the Club’s fourth decade, said “I don’t think the younger generation has anything unique to offer the Club because of its age. It is because of who they are as individuals.”

Field trips continued as a principal activity of the Club, accented always by a lively camaraderie. Interviewed in the fall of 1989, Club President Clay Kempf stated, “The trips are what I enjoy most…In our club there’s every level of birder involved. There’s the top in the state—and those who are out for the first time, plus everything in between. [Beginners] are always given support and encouraged.” The 296 trips in the fourth decade represented an increase of 16% over the previous decade, and 34% over the average for the Club’s first 30 years. But interestingly, the number of trip leaders dipped to a new low (29), and just five people led 75% of the 296 trips. This was a labor of love, but of course it led to burn out, and so the plea in a 1991 Alby for “new blood” among the trip leaders. The most active trip leaders in this decade were me (83 trips), Clay Kempf (69), Bruce LaBar (31), Barb Scharfenstein (20), Eric Feuss (19), Earl Lebow (15), Bambie Hopkins (13), Bob Hargis (12), and Randy Morgan and Steve Allison (10). LaBar would have undoubtedly bumped his total up considerably if he had not moved to Washington in 1989. Kempf offered a fitting testimonial to LaBar’s skills as a leader. “He was an incomparable trip leader, not because of his birding ability (which is formidable), but because of his personality. Every new participant was made welcome, each old acquaintance acknowledged. His scope was never moved off a bird until everyone wishing a look had been satisfied.”

We ranged more broadly as the number of trips increased. Sites in Santa Cruz County accounted for only one third of the field trips, with two thirds visiting adjacent counties and places farther a field. Some long distance destinations were featured in the fourth decade: Yosemite and Mono Lake, Sacramento refuges, Salton Sea, Morro Bay, Kern River, Death Valley, and Yuba Pass. Among favored local destinations, trips to the Pajaro Valley (a.k.a., “South County”) and trips visiting an array of county hot spots rose to prominence in this decade. Other local spots included the perennial favorite Rancho Del Oso, as well as the U.C.S.C. Campus, and places on the westside of Santa Cruz. Outside the county Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing remained a top destination, the most frequent for this decade, with regular forays also to Panoche Valley, Pescadero, Half Moon Bay, the Salinas River mouth and sewer ponds, Mines Road, and Los Banos area refuges. Some of these, such as Mines Road, Panoche Valley and Los Banos were annual traditions in season. In the same vein were annual expeditions to Loma Prieta, Point Reyes, and Año Nuevo. But as birding qualities shifted, interest in some annual destinations faded. For example, in 1995, after a few years of dwindling avian returns from Loma Prieta, leader R. Morgan bemoaned: “Every year poor old Loma Prieta is a little deader than the year before, except for those little flies that like to get in your face.”

Ever hopeful, yet perhaps never learning, the SCBC persisted in efforts to find owls on field trips. Bruce LaBar’s comment from his report on a May 1986 effort at Robinson Canyon summed up the typical experience, “It was very difficult to hear with so many cars and people, but we all had an enjoyable time straining to hear anything.” Leader Eric Feuss was swamped with interest in his proposed owling events in January 1992, with 75 people expressing a desire, “some an over-whelming desire,” to attend one of the excursions. With youthful exuberance, Feuss responded to the need by leading three separate trips in one night (!), but “Regrettably, there was not much [owl] activity.”

A field trip on May 5, 1991 in Big Basin resulted in a significant scientific discovery: a nest of Marbled Murrelet! Researcher and Club member Steve Singer thought I was overly optimistic to actually advertise the event in the Alby as “a coordinated group effort to find a murrelet nest”, but observations that morning by members Bonnie Bedzin and Rebecca Cull led to just that. With the aid of several SCBC folks we watched the nest – only the fourth tree nest ever found in North America – to its completion, and we were the first to document the fledging of a Marbled Murrelet.

The SCBC hosted 81 regular meetings during its fourth decade, remaining at the Santa Cruz City Museum of Natural History. The quality of speakers was quite high, pulling from among the best of birders, biologists, natural historians, and photographers. Topics were mostly divided between identification and natural history of California birds, presentations of scientific research (some local), and the avifauna of foreign countries. Although some speakers may have run long – in a 1990 Alby Bill Hopkins opined, “One thing we can do to improve our club is shorten the programs” – meetings often attracted 40-50 people. The Annual Dinner held each winter featured top speakers (Arnold Small, Joe Morlan, Paul Lehman, Herb Clarke, Debi Shearwater) and attracted crowds of 90-120 Club members and guests. The November 1991 general meeting featured a multimedia, all sensory presentation of our discovery of the murrelet nest. Not only was the story told with slides and tape recordings, but there was also a staged reenactment of the initial morning of discovery, complete with the heavy scent of citronella oil to ward off the mosquitoes. However, rumors put forth in the Alby that I’d arrive at the meeting costumed as a downy murrelet chick, with Clay Kempf playing the crop-filled parent, thankfully did not come true.

The Santa Cruz County and Moss Landing Christmas Bird Counts remained annual winter highlights for club members. I succeeded LaBar as compiler for the Santa Cruz County effort in 1989, and the Warriners and Ramers continued as compilers for the Moss Landing effort. This decade was a time of continued growth for both CBCs, each reaching new heights for the variety of species found and participation. The Moss Landing count topped 200 species for the first time in 1986, and the Santa Cruz count reached a zenith at 196 that same year. The convivial count down dinner at the end of the day provided a welcome goal for weary (and sometimes wet!) counters. Irene Manicci recapped one such evening in the late 1980s, “Counters began coming in from the fields at 5:30 to be greeted by the fragrance of freshly popped corn. The tables were decorated with evergreens and candles to welcome the diners. The hot soups and special smorgasbord of goodies [read: potluck] made for a heart- and body-warming meal.”

The Club’s tradition of an annual summer picnic was carried on in this decade, with relaxed gatherings of up to 50 members held at a member’s home. R. Morgan shook things up at the 1987 picnic by bringing a spit of freshly plucked Starlings to BBQ! For several years we enjoyed summer afternoons along the San Lorenzo River at the Launer’s home on well-named Lazy Woods Road in Felton. Ray Launer’s homemade ice cream was a favorite.

This decade was a time of great strides in the understanding our county’s avifauna and much of the flow of information was digested and shared in the Alby. Many people made substantial contributions to the county’s ornithological record. Key reporting observers included Doug George, Bob Merrill, Bruce LaBar, Clay Kempf, Earl Lebow, Bryan Mori, Randy Morgan, Debi Shearwater, Barb Scharfenstein, Bambie Hopkins, Ken Kellman, David Bockman, Breck Tyler, Bob Hargis, Steve Allison, Alexander Gaguine, Steve Getty, Isaac Field, Barbara & Kevin Monahan, Steve Gerow, Janet Linthicum, and me. By 1987 the Alby’s “Unusual Observations” column, listing a bare summary of highlights, had morphed into “Santa Cruz Birds.” This new column was fashioned after the regional reports of American Birds (now the ABA’s journal North American Birds) and tracked county bird records in some detail, providing perspective on the significance of various reports.

The SCBC initiated the Santa Cruz County Breeding Bird Atlas project in 1988. Many dozens of members contributed 1000s of nesting records through 1993 to bring the project to completion. Unfortunately, the results are not yet published, as they have become integrated into the slowly progressing book “Birds of Santa Cruz County.”

Local conservation issues were varied over this decade. The Club was concerned about the expansion of Scotts Valley and Watsonville, preservation of the Watsonville Slough system, logging, oil drilling in Monterey Bay, the threat of oil spills, establishment of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, sewage disposal, conversion of natural areas to sports fields in open space parks, flood control on the Pajaro River, and more. Doing its part in a small way, the Club first printed the Alby on recycled paper in 1991. In addition to its work with the Marbled Murrelet, SCBC members contributed to research and management of the Snowy Plover, and sponsored a statewide Burrowing Owl census. Annual “bird-a-thons” were run to raise funds for Native Animal Rescue. Club members worked together with the California Native Plant Society to implement the Soquel Creek Lagoon Enhancement Project, developing a museum display, interpretive signs, and a “Streamside Care Guide” for local residents. The Club earned over $4,000 for its efforts on this project, helping to pull it out of a significant financial tight spot in 1992.

Junior Activities directors Scharfenstein and Hopkins were kept busy giving presentations and walks for young children for schools, camps, scout groups, and others. Barb and Bambie were co-chairs of this club function for the entire decade. The May 1988 Alby reports that they gave shows and trips for over 25 schools that year, and they also trained docents for local parks. “Most of the trainees don’t know a towhee from a robin,” Barb noted. Still, aside from that outreach to youth, the SCBC had very little active involvement by junior members in this decade.

The Alby continued its evolution into a first rate newsletter in the Club’s fourth decade. After a year without a regular editor, Milly Rose resumed her post from 1987 to 1989, and she continued her series of profiles of active Club members, included Randy Morgan, Frances Bidstrup, Clay Kempf, and Bill and Bambie Hopkins. Bruce LaBar continued his “Bird Drop-Ins” column until he moved away in 1989, offering a review of California rarities and fun summaries of his chasing exploits. Taking the idea farther, in 1988 Bruce Barrett (member from San Jose) began a column (“Vagrants and Wanderers”) that summarized rare bird highlights from all of North America and humorously featured his continent-wide bird chases. In 1990 Ed Frost began a series of entertaining essays as the Club’s “Self-appointed Curator of Birding’s Merely Odd, Really Bizarre, and Humorous” or “Morb HaHa.” One of my favorite of Ed’s Morb HaHas was his “Confessions of a Congenital Sexist”, available on our website here: http://www.santacruzbirdclub.org/David's%20Articles/sexist.htm

After a shuffle of short-term editors in 1990 and 1991, John and Carolyn Bailey assumed the lead of the Alby in fall 1991. Their efforts brought a new level of quality and polish to the newsletter, with many photos and illustrations, as well as many feature articles. In contrast to Rose’s profiles of Santa Cruz area birders, John Bailey reached out of the area to write about interesting personalities such as Don Roberson, Alan Baldridge, Rich Stallcup, and Daryl Wheye (co-author of “The Birder’s Handbook”). Now the Alby had come so far from its mimeographed parochial roots. There were reprints from Birding magazine, and illustrations from famous artists from outside our region. A continental perspective was touched with Barrett’s rarity column and some other articles, while the Baileys kept a focus here at home, too. The Alby swelled for a time to 16 pages per issue. Perhaps we were reaching too far for a local bird club. Indeed, when Bonnie Bedzin took over as editor in 1994 the Alby scaled back, while still retaining much of its excellent style and local content. And Bonnie brought her interesting sense of humor to bear between the lines.

Thoughts shared by two key members of the Club’s fourth decade serve to close this part of the history SCBC. From Bruce LaBar in 1989: “Changes I went through never seemed to alter my closeness with birding friends. The Club’s stability was always a needed part of my changing ways…One way I am finding out firsthand that makes this Club special is the informal friendliness.” And from Ken Kellman in 1995: “I really appreciate belonging to a Club with members who care for each other.”