Grandfather of Wader Studies
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The Father of Wader Studies Tales of C.D.T. Minton Compiled by Roger Standen May 2015 A reflective Clive Minton, in ‘formal’ attire, on the shore of Delaware Bay in 2006. (Chung Yu Chiang) Contents Preface ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 1 Hatched .............................................................................................................................................. 3 2 Oundle .............................................................................................................................................. 11 3 Cambridge ...................................................................................................................................... 27 4 Marking birds ............................................................................................................................... 33 5 Catching birds ............................................................................................................................... 45 6 A lifetime partner ........................................................................................................................ 61 7 Wash Wader Ringing Group .................................................................................................... 74 8 Victorian Wader Study Group ................................................................................................ 91 9 Northwest Australia and the AWSG .................................................................................. 119 10 International expeditions ............................................................................................... 132 11 America and Red Knot rufa ............................................................................................... 145 12 Accolades ................................................................................................................................ 162 13 Numbers .................................................................................................................................. 173 14 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 181 15 Sources ..................................................................................................................................... 183 Preface n 2012, Clive Minton was awarded the Eisenmann Medal for outstanding services to ornithology. When the Victorian Wader Study Group (VWSG) held a celebratory lunch for him, several people spoke about experiences with Clive I and his waders. That provided the genesis for this story. The irony of Clive’s award from the Linnaean Society of New York being the impetus for this book was not lost on me when I found that the famed Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus, after whom the New York society was named, was a ‘hibernationist’ at least for a time during the 1700s when the, as then unproven, theories of migration and hibernation were still being debated.1 Here, 250-300 years later was a man who has spent his lifetime advancing the understanding of bird migration receiving an award for this work under the auspices of Linnaeus. “He’s writing my obituary while I’m still alive – better to get it straight from the horse’s mouth” is how Clive has described my task of collecting stories and facts about his life and his impact in the world of wader studies. There is much of this book that comes from Clive’s mouth and pencil, but much has also come from family, friends and peers who have walked (or should I say – run) with him on this journey. To borrow the sentiments of Pete Collins, a long-term member of the VWSG, “when you start to examine the mines of the mind, most of what surfaces are near disasters, but few real disasters.” Suffice to say, “Clive’s success in collecting data and encouraging its analysis is amazing and he is rightly acclaimed as the leader of the flock.” Much of this story hangs on what Clive has achieved, but it is also about what people remember of times spent around Clive and what makes the man. The wader stories 1 Lyle 1978 1 are well documented in the research papers, reports, radio programs, newspapers, and award citations. The people stories are the focus of this book. In the Foreword to his autobiography ‘The Eye of the Wind’, Sir Peter Scott says, “Stories that I have been telling with great conviction, believing them to be true to the smallest detail, have proved…to be greatly garbled.”2 He subsequently suggested the application of what he called “the Scott reduction index”, which simply means that the reader shouldn’t expect this to be a true account of everything covered within these pages as some will prove to be exaggerated or indeed concocted unintentionally by memory and time. The material in this book has been checked as much as possible, but the bulk of the stories told to me have been accepted at face value. Please apply your own Scott reduction index to this story too! Suzanne Ishida is a researcher from Japan who studied Little Terns and came to Australia to see where ours bred. In one of her correspondences with Clive, she said, “I sure hope our combined efforts will be beneficial to the Little Terns and …shorebirds. I would be very sad if I went to the seaside and didn’t hear the sound of sandpiper peeping, or terns screeching overhead. What a sad day that would be!” Indeed it would be. It is hoped that Clive’s contribution will help to avert that ever happening. Clive has covered the globe and in doing so, has become multi-lingual. He spoke French as a young man, but that is not what I am referring to. What I need to point out is that there are different terms used for the same things across the globe. The English use the term ‘ring,’ for the circular metal identification marker that Australians and Americans call a ‘band’. Americans call the long-legged birds that Clive has spent a lifetime studying ‘shorebirds’, while Aussies and the English call them ‘waders’. These terms have been used interchangeably throughout this story. In 1983 Nicholas Branson noted about Clive, that it is “impossible to describe so large a character…in a few lines of transcript.” This book is an attempt to expand the story between the many lines already written by Clive and others. 2 Scott 1961 2 1 Hatched ’ve been interested in birds since I was hatched,” has been repeated by Clive many times over the years and when his lifetime with birds is examined in its I entirety, this is absolutely true. Clive Dudley Thomas Minton was born on October 7, 1934, followed a few years later by his twin sisters, Angela and Diane. They lived on the edge of the countryside in Cheshire, northwest England with their parents, who were both born and raised near Widnes on The Wirral in Cheshire. Capitalising on the resources around him, particularly the human kind, was something Clive learnt very early, although like young waders leaving their Arctic birthplace, there must have been something hardwired in Clive’s brain that made this a natural process for him. He soon had his younger siblings trained to carefully hold the birds caught in traps in their back garden enabling Clive to ring them. Looking back now, they say that they “thought this was normal family life.” There are many stories about these early family times that provide a window to Clive’s future life as he not only utilised his sisters’ presence when he wanted them to help, but he let them join him on his daily foray into the woods, playing and bird- watching. He liked other people to enjoy the outdoors with him, but could also build their capabilities into his own interests. They all learnt to love the country life, identify birds and birds’ eggs, fish for tadpoles in the bomb craters and enjoy the animals, both wild and farm. Clive was given the freedom to go off into the woods from a very early age though as he recalls now, those days were different and it was safe to do such things in the late 1930s. He would leave the house at eight in the morning and stay out all day, chopping down trees, building dens, throwing stones at other boys and finding bird nests, returning only for lunch and again at about six in the evening. As his sister Diane described it, “In the late afternoon, after spending 3 all day playing out in the woods, or going on long bike rides, our mother would stand at the edge of the woods at the end of our road and ‘Cooee’. All the kids knew this meant it was time to come home, have a bath and then it would be dinner time.” Ida, with Diane, Angela and big brother Clive. The girls are not yet ready to help, but Clive is probably already planning ways to utilise his younger siblings. (Minton family) As a nine year-old, Clive helped the war effort by selling tin model spitfires door-to- door. In school uniform, short pants and large cap even the renowned village tightwads opened their purse strings. He was on the way to a lifetime of persuading people to do things they may not be initially keen on. Birds became his passion from an early age. All those formative years watching what happened in the woods and the open countryside helped refine the skills of pitting his wits against the birds, watching their behaviour and letting them lead him to their nests. His egg collection grew and filled the drawers of a large desk, as he continued to learn more about identifying the birds, their eggs and their songs. Eventually