M. BROOKE MEANLEY       

In 4 postings during the fall of 2007 there are what I think are nearly
complete lists of Brooke's books, journal articles, and reports.  Here is
some miscellaneous other material relating to his remarkable life and
contributions.

Areas Brooke was especially fond of were Dismal Swamp, Blackwater and the
lower Eastern Shore of Maryland, Chincoteague, Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center in Laurel, MD (where he worked), the Arkansas wetlands, and swampy
areas and marshes in general throughout the Southeast.  Much of his
professional work was concerned with blackbirds and their depredations on
croplands, and with rails and Swainson's Warbler.

In the mail I received a notice of Brooke's passing last August that was
about as poignant as it could be.  It was a slightly out-sized postcard
that was a painting of a Peregrine Falcon by his close friend, Bud Taylor. 
A copy of a print of the same painting hangs in my son, George's, room
here, a gift to him from Bud.  But the postcard was addressed, I am pretty
sure, in Brooke's hand, his attractive, cursive handwriting having
deteriorated in his last years.  One supposes that he knew he was going to
go soon, made up these cards ahead of time.  The return address was a Ducks
Unlimited label.  

As with some other elderly naturalists and birders (especially, in my
experience, Virginia ones) Brooke was conservative politically.  In one
letter he noted how proud he was to have shaken, during a chance meeting,
George H. W. Bush's hand once in Kennebunkport, Maine.  His last years were
spent at Kennebunkport where his daughter lives.

A favorite photograph of Brooke that I have seen is from his fine book
"Swamps, riverbottoms and canebrakes".  It shows him holding a tom Wild
Turkey in one hand, that he apparently had shot, a knife in the other,
getting ready to dress it.  It's obvious he is in his element and that he
is pleased.  It is a portrait of a handsome, masterful man.  His wife,
Anna, is also in the picture, if I remember correctly (to my shame I've
misplaced the book, or loaned it to someone).

I knew Brooke almost solely from his publications as well as our exchange
of letters and notes several times a year for the last 15 years or so.  The
only time I met him was once at our MD place, Rigby's Folly, when he was an
exhibitor at the Easton (Maryland) Waterfowl Festival Weekend.  Back then
the festival was more invested in people who were actually involved in
regional tradition and heritage than, I would maintain, is the case now.  

Friends who were exhibitors then, including George W. Reiger (author), John
W. ("Bud") Taylor, and Irene Hinke Sacilotto (photographer) sometimes were
our guests at Rigby in the years when they exhibited.  I'd say the festival
has become more commercial since then.  If you didn't bring in big bucks
you didn't get to return.  

Brooke, George, Bud, and Irene, whose credentials were impeccable with
regard to the subject matter of the festival, graced it in its earlier, but
not later, years.  Draw your own conclusions.  Often I preferred to stay at
Rigby or go to Blackwater during the festival to avoid the crowds and
commercialism, and, thus "see the real thing in action."  

Out of misplaced snobbery (there's so much about the festival that IS good)
I used to sometimes refer to it as Waterfoul Festifull Weakend.  I collect
books, not art, but some of the art is very, very tempting.  I will regret
for the rest of my life, for instance, not buying an exquisite carving of a
breeding plumage Ruddy Turnstone, for sale at the festival for $85, perhaps
30 years ago.  

During his visit Brooke warmed himself in front of the kitchen fireplace
and held forth in his urbane manner after I'd been out hunting Canada
Geese, slightly but not that much out of character for me.

I was very flattered that Brooke gave me copies of some of his books, more
flattered when as a younger man I was even cited by him in several.  He was
generous with those who shared some of his enthusiams, including Paul
Sykes, Bill Burt, and Don Schwab.  Bill wrote a profile of Brooke a few
years ago in "The Living Bird" (Cornell Lab of Ornithology).  In it he
describes Brooke's remarkable ability (a gift?) to find bird nests,
especially of furtive species such as Swainson's Warbler.    

In keeping with his fond focus on the Southeast he once told me he had
found Spanish Moss as far north as Eastville on Virginia's lower Eastern
Shore, and that there had been peanut fields nearby.  It would have piqued
his interest to know that several thousand acres of cotton are now grown in
that area.

Brooke became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1935, and
was honored by being made an Elective Member in 1952, a Fellow in 1974.

Brooke's photographs appear on the cover of various issues of "Maryland
Birdlife", including these:    

March 1961 (Osprey on its telephone pole nest in Talbot County)

June 1961 (Blue-winged Teal nest with at least 10 eggs at Elliott Island,
June 2, 1961)

September 1961 (Grasshopper Sparrow at nest)

March 1962 (Barred Owls near Priest Bridge, April 1936)

June 1963 (31-day old King Rail chick)

September 1966 (Bachman's Sparrow at Beltsville nest, June 3, 1942)

December 1966 (Least Bittern at its nest)

September 1967 (Great Horned Owls, Baltimore County, 1937[2 large young out
of the nest])

March 1968 (Red-shouldered Hawk nest [w/ 3 chicks & 1 egg] at McDonogh,
April 1936)

September 1968 (Upland Plover [on its] nest in Baltimore County, May 18,
1936)

September 1976 (American Woodcock on nest at Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center, March 23, 1976)

September 1987 (of Frank C. Kirkwood, taken in 1936)

March 1991 (Horned Lark at its nest with 4 young, College Park, April 1938)

December 1992 (3 Barn Owl chicks, Baltimore County, May 31, 1936).  

The Horned Lark and Least Bittern photographs are of very high quality,
especially considering the early dates when they were taken.  The bittern
shot is undated but it wouldn't surprise me if it was taken long before
December 1966.

We have lost a shining example of a disappearing kind of biologist, the
general naturalist - one who is knowledgeable of natural history in many
areas.  Brooke knew plants, birds, trapping, hunting, ecology, and
physiography.  His books are a marvelous blend of science, illustration
(art AND photographs), and popular writing.  They also showcase the people
who were important in the areas he writes of.

a SOMEWHAT NEGLECTED CITATION.

'Nesting of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker in Maryland' by Robert E. Stewart,
"Maryland Birdlife" 14(3): 63-64, September 1958.  Has photograph by MBM of
the Golden Hill Loblolly Pine forest (Dorchester County).  Brooke was with
Stewart when the occupied nesting cavity was located on May 30, 1958, in
this wet pine forest only a few miles SW of Blackwater N.W.R., the only one
ever found in Maryland.  

Others who visited this location soon afterwards were Chan Robbins and Sam
Dyke.  I saw one of these birds in late September, I think it was 1959, on
a day when, thanks to an early sapsucker, and much luck, too, I saw all of
Maryland's 8 woodpecker species.  On June 9, 1939, Brooke saw "a single
young bird ... on Assateague Island" (Maryland).  Another interesting
record, which should be critically evaluated, if that is still possible,
was of 3 birds seen on Cedar Island, Virginia, on December 30, 1923.  I've
also misplaced the name of the observer (was it Ludlow Griscom?).  

Another tantalizing report is of a young bird seen by Brooke on Assateague
Island, MD, June 9, 1939.  I think Brooke was involved with a sighting near
Patuxent once.  Other errant individuals have been reported from
Chincoteague and St. Mary's County, MD.  For a species always rare in our
region these reports of wandering birds are of very surprising.  Some other
species we tend to think of as totally non-migratory do in fact wander on
rare occasions, such as Brown-headed Nuthatch.   

The above article would add spice as a citation to several books that do
not cite it:  the 1996 "Atlas of the breeding birds of Maryland and the
District of Columbia," the 1994 Red-cockaded Woodpecker account in "Birds
of North America" no. 85, the 1991 "Virginia's endangered species:
proceedings of a symposium," and the 1992 "a Stillness in the pines: the
ecology of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker."   

Fortunately it was cited in:  "History and present status of the
Red-cockaded Woodpecker in Maryland" by William J. Devlin, James A. Mosher
& Gary J. Taylor, "American Birds" 34(3): 314-316, May 1980 as well as in
the 1971 "Symposium on the Red-cockaded Woodpcker."  Devlin et al.
concluded that "It is our assessment that the Red-cockaded Woodpecker is
[now] at best a vagrant to Maryland ... The marginal habitat suitability
also supports this presumption." (p. 314).  

Nevertheless Red-cockadeds were seen at Golden Hill several times in 1932,
1933, 1955, and 1956, including "small flocks", before the area was
"clear-cut in the early 1960s and the nest tree was removed" (Devlin et
al., p. 315).  Brooke's involvement with the nest discovery was a perfect
fit with his abiding interest in special birds of the American Southeast. 
Clearly they were established here as breeding, permanent residents. 
Perhaps when the loblollies in the area mature and the knowledge of
fostering these unique birds improves they can be reintroduced.

Henry ("Harry") T. Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225.  215-248-4120.    (please do not
respond to ).