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Presidential Birders Presidential Birders a special publication from , FDR Bird Watcher As the biographer Jean Edward Smith notes in his preface to FDR, “there is little that has not been said, some- where, about the president.” Yet his lifelong fascination with bird watching is often overlooked, a dimension that reveals something about FDR the man. It is well known that Theodore Roosevelt, a distant cousin of Franklin’s, was an accomplished naturalist and a skilled birder. While president, TR kept a yard list of the birds he saw and heard around the White House: an impressive 93 spe- cies, including a pair of saw-whet owls. Franklin idolized his elder cousin Ted, emulating him in every respect, down to wearing nearly identical pince-nez eyeglasses. It may not be too great a leap to assume that it was TR’s interest in bird watching that inspired young FDR to pursue the hobby himself. KYLE CARLSEN K YLE C ARLSEN 44 birdwatchersdigest.com • JANUARY/FEBRUARY ’15 • BIRD WATCHER’S DIGEST Springwood, FDR’s home on the Hudson River. A 45 FDR, center, joins the May Census on May 10, 1942. Left to right: Ray Guernsey, Allen Frost, Roosevelt, Daisy Suckley, Ludlow Griscom. A shy and curious youngster, came a strict condition: He was Franklin spent a fair amount to take only one bird per species, of his childhood exploring the and never during nesting season. fields, swamps, and woodlands Over the next few years Franklin surrounding Springwood, his built up an impressive collection family’s estate, situated along of birds, ranging from magno- the Hudson River in Hyde Park, lia warbler to red-shouldered New York. “He would walk for hawk, all from his home county miles, if, at the end of the trek, of Dutchess. Franklin’s parents an unusual bird was to be seen,” were proud of their son’s orni- wrote his mother. thological work, keeping a part Franklin was a collector— of the collection on prominent obsessed with stamps, books of display in the entrance hall of all sorts, and birds. As was cus- their home. Franklin was also tomary in the late 19th century, proud, and protective, of his his bird collection was a literal prized specimens—each clearly one. He begged his parents for identified and arranged in a cer- a bird-collecting gun, which, tain order, and many mounted despite his mother’s initial reser- by the young naturalist himself. vations, he finally received from While away at school, Franklin his father on the morning of his urged his mother to protect his eleventh birthday. That same day work from the curious hands of Franklin shot his first crow. young, visiting cousins: “I hope With Franklin’s birthday gift you will seal up my birds before LIBRARY FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT JAMES WHITEHEAD / COURTESY 3 birdwatchersdigest.com • JANUARY/FEBRUARY ’15 • BIRD WATCHER’S DIGEST Pine grosbeak, one of the many species recorded in young FDR’s bird diary. the babies come to stay with in the sunlight.” A few pages you or else I should be afraid of later, he recorded: “While driving the consequences.” Part of the on the avenue, I noticed a blue- collection remains on display at gray bird fly out of a pine tree, Springwood. and immediately a pine grosbeak Franklin’s contributions to the fell to the ground. It was still ornithological understanding of warm though dead. I suppose the time are both interesting and that the blue-gray bird was a important. His documentation great northern shrike.” of nesting ospreys in 1896 and Though FDR’s interest in least bitterns in 1906 remain the birds continued into adulthood, earliest on record for Dutchess polio paralysis and an increas- County. From January through ingly demanding political career June 1896, he kept careful, near- prevented him from spending daily notes of every bird he saw much time in the field. Unlike and heard at Hyde Park. On the other bird-watching President Thursday, January 23, he wrote: Roosevelt, who would stand “Saw a flock of 9 pine grosbeaks conspicuously on the White at 9:30 a.m. near house and in House lawn to peer up at myrtle orchard. These birds were eating warblers and ruby-crowned the pine cones at the top of some kinglets, FDR seemed to limit large trees; they were all in gray most of his birding to visits home plumage, except one, in whom to Hyde Park, his refuge from GLENN BARTLEY the rusty-red was very apparent the demands and publicity of BIRD WATCHER’S DIGEST • JANUARY/FEBRUARY ’15 • birdwatchersdigest.com 4 Part of FDR’s bird collection remains on display in the entrance hall at Springwood. LEWIS DAVE 5 birdwatchersdigest.com • JANUARY/FEBRUARY ’15 • BIRD WATCHER’S DIGEST FDR’s 1896 record of nesting osprey remains the earliest on record for Dutchess County. Washington. Fortunately for him, those visits were frequent throughout his presidency. Springwood became known as the “Summer White House.” On one such visit, on Sunday, May 10, 1942, FDR participated in a Dutchess County birding tradition known as the May Census—an all-day affair, much like a Big Day, held annu- ally since 1919. Among those involved in the census that year were Ray Guernsey, James Whitehead, and Allen Frost. All three men were interested in birds; Whitehead and Frost USFWS were on the staff of the recently opened Franklin D. Roosevelt We went a little way along Library. the track, then parked facing the Also on the library staff was swamp, and watched the thousands Daisy Suckley, a distant cousin of birds collecting there for the and close companion of FDR, night. The President is awfully who shared the president’s fas- interested, birds being one of his cination with birds. In her pri- many hobbies. Mrs. Roosevelt was vate diary, not recovered until frankly not specially interested. after her death in 1991, Suckley recorded many occasions It was Suckley who invited when she and FDR went bird FDR to participate in the 1942 watching together throughout May Census. The president Dutchess County in the 1930s enthusiastically accepted the and 40s. In one such diary entry, invitation. Also invited was Suckley wrote of an October Ludlow Griscom, the American evening when she was with both ornithologist who advocated President and Mrs. Roosevelt, for bird identification by field watching blackbirds at Cruger marks long before Roger Tory Island, a marshy peninsula that Peterson published A Field KYLE CARLSEN juts into the Hudson River: Guide to the Birds. BIRD WATCHER’S DIGEST • JANUARY/FEBRUARY ’15 • birdwatchersdigest.com 6 Griscom was far less enthu- “FOR AS LONG AS I siastic about the idea. Affectionately dubbed HAVE KNOWN HIM, “Dean of the Birdwatchers,” Griscom was a widely pub- FRANKLIN COULD lished ornithologist, an excellent field birder, and the research curator at the ALWAYS POINT TO A Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. He was BIRD AND TELL ME also a staunch Republican. His political differences with WHAT IT WAS.” the president ran deep; in fact, Griscom had strongly and publicly opposed FDR —ELEANOR ROOSEVELT during the 1940 election. He initially opposed the idea of their spending a morning bird watching together, but his wife, Edith, managed to persuade him otherwise: Ludlow, this man happens to be the President of the United States. There’s a war on, a very serious war, and he is absolutely exhausted. He’s back there at Hyde Park resting. It’s your patriotic duty to go and do any- thing that can relax his brain in any way, shape, or form. Griscom agreed to go, and would later relate in a thank- you note to Miss Suckley that in fact, he’d had a grand time birding with the president. Anyone who has participat- ed in any sort of bird-watching excursion can imagine how KYLE CARLSEN 7 birdwatchersdigest.com • JANUARY/FEBRUARY ’15 • BIRD WATCHER’S DIGEST such an event must have been The president thoroughly a Secret Service nightmare. enjoyed himself, watching war- As the party was gathering at blers and swapping stories with the Hyde Park residence in the fellow bird watchers. One hun- dark at 4 a.m., a Secret Service dred eight species were record- agent asked Griscom where ed, including Virginia rail, they planned to go. Griscom marsh wren, grasshopper spar- replied, “Off into Thompson’s row, and red-legged black duck Pond, but I’m not exactly sure (once considered to be a species where we are going.” separate from American black The birding caravan con- duck). Though the rest of the sisted of the presidential bul- party stayed out until nearly letproof car, a Secret Service sunset, FDR excused himself car following close behind, early to return to his presiden- and a third vehicle bringing tial duties and to his weekend up the rear with Guernsey and guests, the Crown Prince and Whitehead. They started before Princess of Norway. dawn to listen for whip-poor- Shortly before his death, wills and early rising songbirds. weary and heavy-laden with Whitehead relates the experi- war, FDR wrote in a letter: ence in a letter written ten days “All that is within me cries out after the census: to go back to my home on the Hudson River.” Bird watchers At Thompson’s Pond, a little now recognize the Springwood after five we stopped on a little estate as a remarkable area, road built right through the visiting from near and far to center of the marsh—reeds and enjoy red-breasted nuthatches, grasses growing thick on both black-capped chickadees, and sides. We got out and listened scarlet tanagers.
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