Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 21:12:07 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bill Ellis Subject: Missing Rick Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 02:28 PM 12/12/02 -0500, you wrote: >I think the web has been rather quiet today. If everyone is going >through what I am, I am sure that losing Rick has something to do with >it. I think we all knew of the battle he was fighting and hoped for >better results. I am sure he fought it right to the end. He was one of >the more self-made men I have ever met. To say that he will be missed >is never sufficient. Does anyone know about viewings and the other arrangements? > Jerry Tarbell > Carroll County I regret having returned to birding too late to go on field trips again with Rick. I met him on my first organized birding trip in Baltimore County about 20 years ago. I remember Bob Ringler and Rick arriving at the meeting site in a VW beetle, for a trip led by Haven Kolb. The overwhelming impression I got was that Rick was very informal - about everything but birding. And he could always keep a straight face when he was teasing you, or challenging you on a field identification. Here are a few items I found on the web that help me to remember Rick. At the Birdwatcher's digest site, you can find a memorial about Rick: http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/rick.html And one of his most recent columns: http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/birds_blom/archives/race.html Pick one from the directory list of 13 different articles Rick wrote, showing his sharp wit: http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/birds_blom/archives/ On the Harford Bird club site, a site guide for the Conowingo Dam: http://www.harfordbirdclub.org/conowingo.html And a Conowingo Dam Annotated Checklist: http://www.harfordbirdclub.org/conolist.html Rick's reports can be found all through the MDOsprey archives. Here are a few early ones. (Love those appended quips!) Nov. 1997 reports and plans: http://mdosprey3.home.att.net/1997-2/0096.html http://mdosprey3.home.att.net/1997-2/0166.html On MDOsprey, crossbills in Baltimore County in Dec. 1997: http://mdosprey3.home.att.net/1997-2/0408.html http://mdosprey3.home.att.net/1997-2/0435.html May 1999 May Count list by location, with commentary: http://marshhawk.home.att.net/1999-1/5674.html These are two of the most recent messages he posted to MDOsprey that I could recall: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0210b&L=mdosprey&D=1&O=D&F=& S=&P=4912 http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0210c&L=mdosprey&D=1&O=D&F=& S=&P=1689 Some neat book reviews by Rick in Birdwatcher's Digest: http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwd/articles/bwd99/may_june99/mj99_book_no tes.html http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwd/articles/bwd99/march-april99/book_note s.htm About the MD Breeding Bird Atlas that Rick wrote so much of: http://www.pitt.edu/~press/1997/robbins.html And, of course, we all know the National Geographic Field Guide that Rick played a lead role in producing, now in its fourth edition. I just bought a new one, because it's lighter than my Sibley, and Rick always appreciated the light side of birding. I will miss him, too. Bill Ellis Recycled Birder, Eldersburg Carroll County ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================