Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 14:55:09 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: John V. Dennis MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline John Weske has brought to my attention the passing on December 1, 2002, of John V. Dennis, age 86, a naturalist, ornithologist and botanist who was born in Princess Anne and lived there the last 27 years of his life. I don't remember seeing anything about this on the listservs so here is a tribute of my own. Much of this, especially the obituaries, is available in greater detail through various internet search engines in Google and elsewhere. More needs to be said about the lives of our naturalists. I can't believe, for example, that there were, I think, only 2 messages on MDOSPREY concerning the passing of Rick Blom. John was probably best known for his books on attracting birds, some of them listed below. He also was an authority on tropical drift seeds and was co-author with C. R. Gunn of "World guide to tropical drift seeds and fruits" (Krieger Publishing Company, 1999). One of these seeds is the ivory palm nut, native to Brazil and Peru, which can be fashioned by carving and somewhat resembles the carvings made of ivory or scrimshaw (sperm whale teeth). John suffered somewhat from the onus of a report he made in the Big Thicket of eastern Texas of his sighting of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the 1960's that was never verified or corroborated. He also had been to Cuba to see the ivory-bills there in Oriente Province. My favorite book of his is "the Great cypress swamps", full of wonderful photographs by Steve Maslowski and John's authoritative and interesting text. The book is dedicated to my friend, Gary M. Williamson, of Chesapeake, Virginia, a remarkable herpetologist, searcher for champion trees, and collector of all manner of things. John and Gary explored much of the Southeast together. The Pocomoke Swamp is featured in "The great cypress swamps" as it is in his other book "The Pocomoke". Gary, John, Liz and I did a bird survey once together on Fisherman's Island. John enjoyed beachcombing that day, looking for his drift seeds or whatever else might have washed up. Later, on October 7, 2001, Liz and I stopped for lunch at his gracious old house in Princess Anne. There was John, all dressed up in suit and tie for his Sunday lunch, as we assumed he was every Sunday, generous with his gifts of books to us, including one by his wife, Mary Alice, entitled "The young griffins of Shanghai", about her girlhood in China as the daughter of a Marine Major. October 7 was the first day of the war in Afghanistan, and John, a World War II veteran, and Mary Alice, were upset about this new conflict. John spent many of his summers on Nantucket where he banded birds. There is a detailed obituary in the "Washington Post" by Bart Barnes (December 7, 2002, p. B06) as well as in the December 3, 2002, issue of "Delmarva Now". He was an outstanding freelance naturalist. John had plans for additional writing, including a book on the waterfowl of the Delmarva Peninsula he wanted me to help with. He was especially interested in the spread of House Finches and other naturalized or introduced birds. If he had been able to he would have continued writing on these and other themes. As recently as 1999 he had published an article in "Maryland Birdlife" entitled "Suburban habitats of waterfowl in lower Delmarva" (March 1999, volume 55, no. 1), concerning places such as the West Ocean City, MD, pond and Silver Lake in Rehoboth Beach. Some of the books John wrote are listed below, somewhat idiosyncratically, since these notations are from my personal library catalog, e.g., AAK represents the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, hb = hardbound, etc.: Dennis, John V. Beyond the bird feeder: the habits and behavior of feeding-station birds when they are not at your feeder. AAK. 1981. 201p. illus. by Matthew Kalmenoff. hb. source: Atlantic, Aug. 2, 1982, $12.56. $13.95. ATTRACTING WILDLIFE. ____. A complete guide to bird feeding. AAK. 1975. 288p. illus. by Matthew Kalmenoff. hb. $10.00. ATTRACTING WILDLIFE. ____. The great cypress swamps. Louisiana State U. Pr. 1988. 142p. photographs by Steve Maslowski. hb. Another copy a gift from the author: "To Liz & Harry, with best wishes. John V. Dennis, Oct. 7, '01". ag. the SOUTHEAST. ____. A guide to western bird feeding. Bird Watcher's Digest Pr. 1991. 192p. illus. by Dimitry Schidlovsky. pb. $9.95. ATTRACTING WILDLIFE. ____. The Pocomoke: history and natural history of Maryland's most scenic river. pa. [1999]. 66p. pb. gift of the author. inscribed: "To Henry, with best wishes. John. Feb. 8, '99." contains letter from the author to HTA. Another copy a gift from the author: "To Liz & Harry, with best wishes, John V. Dennis, Oct. 7, '01" at R.F. MARYLAND. ____. Summer bird feeding. Audubon Workshop, Inc. 1988. 136p. illus. by Irene Brady. pb. ATTRACTING WILDLIFE. ____ & Mathew Tekulsky. How to attract hummingbirds & butterflies. Ortho Books, Chevron. 1991. 112p. pb. $9.95. ATTRACTING WILDLIFE. Some of his other books are: The wildlife gardener. Alfred A. Knopf. 1985. How to attract birds. Meredith Books. 1996. Sea beans from the tropics: a collector's guide to sea-beans and other tropical drift on Atlantic shores. by Ed Perry & John V. Dennis. Krieger Publishing Company. due in June 2003. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119-1225. 215-248-4120. 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