AN ORAL HISTORY OF RROS
— preface by Gene Hunn —
I interviewed Dr. Benjamin “Mike” Parmeter at his home in Napa on May 28, 2021, talking about how things first got started with RROS. (There is a brief history of RROS published in Kite Tales Volume 26, number 5, January 1992.)
Dr. Benjamin “Mike” Parmeter is one of the founding members of the Redwood Region Ornithological Society, along with Gordon Bolander and Jack Arnold. Gordon Bolander was the first president, 1962-1963, followed by Eric Spalding, Ray McDuffee, John “Jack” Arnold, Mike Parmeter, and Jack Guggolz. See Kite Tales Vols. 5.2 – 5.5 for biographical sketches of Bolander, Arnold, Parmeter, and Guggolz.
Mike saved every issue of the Kite Tales since the first mimeographed monthly reports in 1967, Volume 1. With the able assistance of Anne O’Donnell and Jeff Valfer we have now scanned every issue since, which may be consulted at the RROS Kite Tales Archive page. To follow up on that bit of historic digging, I set up an interview with Mike to provide his personal perspective on how, when, and by whom RROS was started. I recorded our one-hour interview on my phone and Anne transcribed it. Highlights of that interview are printed below.
I planned to ask him how RROS got started, who designed the logo, the history of early pelagic trips out of Bodega Bay, how RROS relates to Madrone Audubon, and how the early RROS crew interacted with the big names in early [ca. 1960’s] California birding circles, such as, Guy McCaskie, Rich Stallcup, Dave DeSante, Jon Winter, Paul DeBenedictis, and, of course Jon Dunn and Dick Erickson somewhat later, people I knew when I was getting started birding in the late 1960’s.
I discovered birding while in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia in 1965 (not coincidentally that is when and where I met my wife Nancy). Nancy and I got married in 1967 and settled in San Francisco and shortly thereafter, moved to Berkeley. We got involved banding birds at Palomarin, the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, which offered a springboard for some birding up the coast in Sonoma County. I crossed paths with Mike and Gordon on a number of occasions in the late 1960’s, as they are mentioned in my earliest bird notes. Also, it turns out that I was listed in the 1969 RROS membership list, published in Kite Tales. I was one of 43 members at that time, with a home address in Berkeley. (By January 1971 membership had increased to 97.) I moved to Seattle in 1972 and lost touch with the local birding community until Nancy and I moved back on my retirement in 2010, to find Mike Parmeter still active in the thick of all things birding in the North Bay.
AN ORAL HISTORY OF REDWOOD REGION ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY
VIA EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH RROS FOUNDING MEMBER DR. BENJAMIN “MIKE” PARMETER
(May 28, 2021)
G: Interviewer Gene Hunn, current RROS President
M: Dr. Benjamin “Mike” Parmeter, RROS Founding Member
Parmeter’s early birding:
G: So when did you and Gordon start birding? How old were you when you got started? Were you like these kids today?
M: I was birding in the 50’s and 40’s, I got the Bird Study merit badge for Boy Scouts
G: I did too, but I almost failed the test. (Gene laughs)
M: Failed the test. I knew more than the examiner.
G: I bet … So that would have been when you were like 14 or 15 [ca. 1946], something like that?
M: About like that, early High School. And then I stopped when I went to Berkeley. And I didn’t bird again until 1956. A friend and I took a trip around the country to look at Internships, which were coming up the next year. … So, in 1956 I took a month trip around the country. Dick Levy. I just talked to him recently, he’s still living, a psychiatrist. And we hiked in the Tetons and he had binoculars. And I borrowed the binoculars and I said “You know what? You can see the birds with binoculars.”
G: Is that the first time you used binoculars?
M: Yeah. Came home, went to a Sporting Goods Shop. Bought a pair of 8 x 32 binoculars and I’m gone since. I got notes from Day 1 back there.
G: 1956?
M: 1956.
G: So how old were you then?
M: Well, I’d be 24. But I had bird watched before, as I say, I got the bird merit badge. When I came to the Residency Program in 1960, I’d heard of Gordon Bolander, so I looked up in the phone book and there was Bolander. So, I gave him a call and he said “You’re a bird watcher?” And I said, “Yeah, I’m pretty serious”.
And he said, “So am I”. And he says, “Let’s go bird watching”. And I said “OK, when?” and he says “This Saturday.” So we started and we went all the …
G: He lived, what, Timber Hill then? Out there, on the Laguna [de Santa Rosa]?
M: Timber Hill, yeah he lived in Timber Hill
G: So, you were born out there in Duncans Mills or someplace, weren’t you?
M: My parents were living in Guerneville when I was born. I was born at the Shafton Maternity Home in Santa Rosa. My mother went into it and came back. But I was born out in Guerneville. My mother was born in Guerneville, my father was born in Cazadero. I’m a 4th generation Sonoma Countian.
G: Yeah, I see the name out there. I see [the] Parmeter name out there on one property or another.
M: My kids were all born in Sonoma County.
G: So you weren’t related to Duncans?
M: No, Duncans was a guy who had a big mill out there. Big mill pond. The mill pond was still there when I was a kid.
G: Is that where the Wood Ducks are? No, that’s the campground out there.
M: Casini’s…. Well, I went to school two years in Duncans Mills, grammar school. My mother was a teacher, and she came from Guerneville every day. I came down Monday and stayed ‘til Friday, and went back for the weekend. She used to give me half days off to study birds and wildflowers. She’d say, “You don’t have to just go out and look. You’ve got to write it up.”
M: She’d say to me “You seem to be caught up on your work today. Why don’t you take a half day off and go bird watching or collect wildflowers.” So I did that. That’s how I got interested in … Kept it up ‘til I was in High School. And then when I went to Berkeley I kind of gave up and didn’t start again ‘til 1956 when I was in the Tetons.
G: So what birds do you remember from the Tetons?
M: I have a Day List. I bought a little book on the birds that there could be in Yellowstone and the Tetons. There’s some blank pages. Here is the first log book I ever kept: 7/1956: Trip to pond and area surrounding the pond at Duncans Mills. There’s a nice pond at Duncans Mills up in the canyon and not many people know about it. It’s a wonderful place for bird watching. Here’s a trip to Doran Park, my first trip to Bodega Bay. That was 1960. I moved here to take a two-year residency. I called Bolander and he said “Let’s go bird watching.” Bolander was a terrific bird watcher.
G: His uncle was a botanist, Bolander?
M: Yeah, was the state, the official state botanist for years.
G: So, what did Gordon do for a living?
M: He taught grammar school. He worked for the Fish and Game before the war. Then he went to war, in Europe, came back, and went back to San Francisco State and got a Teaching Credential and an Administrators Credential, but he ended up teaching at a grammar school in Santa Rosa. I forget the name of it, in eastern Santa Rosa. But he bird watched on his own. And I went and met him on that Saturday and we went bird watching and he was a hell of a bird watcher. He knew all his sounds, boy. He taught me so much about bird identification and sounds. He, he found a lot of birds there at that Timber Hill, you wouldn’t believe. … Yard list, 228 species on his yard list.
G: I guess you can’t get in there now, it’s somebody else owns it, …
M: He called me and said “I’ve a Parula Warbler singing up here.” I said, “I ought to come up and hear that. “ He said “Yeah, why don’t you do that.” So, I went up. I was living in Cotati. I’d finished my Residency and I was living in Cotati, and I went up and got the Parula Warbler. And about a week later he said “I got another Parula Warbler singing.” I said, “How do you know it’s not the same bird?” and he said “Well, I shot the first one.” He said “I’m sure this is a different bird.” Gordy and I birded together. We went to Arizona together [with a third birder] …. Took six days. One drove, one kept company and one slept. We drove straight through, birded one day at Madera Canyon, one day around the town, then we birded a day down at [Patagonia], went up to the Huachucas a couple of days. We did a lot of birding, big list of birds.
The Redwood Region Ornithological Society gets off the ground:
G: So, you were saying about the first Christmas Bird Count.
M: We had the first Christmas Count in 1960. It was January 16 and the round-up and the compilation was at my house on Strawberry Drive up near the county hospital [in Santa Rosa], a little street that goes down there. I lived two years there when I was a resident physician. Gordy Bolander and I were already birding together all the time. And about the same time Jack Arnold arrived at Sonoma State College and set up the Department of Natural Resources at which the Ornithology was one.
G: I don’t think I ever met him.
M: Nice guy. He had a Masters in Ornithology from the guy at Berkeley, [J.] Grinnell [cf. J. Grinnell and A.F. Miller, “Distribution of the Birds of California,” Pacific Coast Avifauna. No. 27, 1944]. And he had a PhD at Cornell. So, he had about the best [training].….
G: So then RROS, you started meeting at Sonoma State?
M: Well, when Jack Arnold came, he was very interested in the bird society and he and I and Gordy organized it and got it together. And then when Jack arranged for us to meet at Sonoma State, which we did for many years.
G: The Darwin Room.
M: Darwin Room. Man, it was a wonderful room, the Biology room with all these specimens, you know. [After] Jack died, and they kicked us out.
G: Yeah, I wonder when, I know we were out there at the Laguna Waste Water Plant. I moved back here in 2010, so
M: That’s where we moved to from Sonoma State. Darwin Hall. We went to the Water Treatment Plant, and they finally kicked us out of there, I guess.
G: I guess they raised the rates or something
M: Because of, I think it was because of liability.
G: Was there somebody, a member, that worked there?
M: No, we just went and asked somebody. The guy who was running the place was very much in favor of bird watching. He thought that was a good use of the place. But they kicked us out of there. And then we moved to where we are [now].
G: So, RROS got started somewhere along there.
M: Well, we decided after that first Christmas count, we thought we’re going to have a bird club.
G: How many people did you have on the Christmas count? How many people?
M: Twenty?
G: Is it the same circle that they have now?
M: Yeah, I think it is. We had 124 species.
G: It’s not too far off the mark now, it’s a struggle to get to 140 now. A lot of the wetlands are gone. Lisa Hug is very upset about it. I heard their area is ….
M: She’s over there in west Santa Rosa. It’s all built over and dried up.
M: RROS. I’m very partial to the RROS.
G: Yeah, why Redwood Region? Was there a reason?
M: No, we just picked that name. And we picked that White-tailed Kite for our [logo]…
G: Yeah, when did that happen, who designed that?
M: Gordy Bolander drew it. I have the originals.
G: People have been asking about that. When that was, who created it?
M: That was back in the ‘60’s, ’62 or ’63? Early.
More recollections of the old timers:
G: So, let’s see. … Jack Guggolz?
M: Jack Guggolz had a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from UC. He was a bird watcher; he was pretty good. He had a couple of first state records. And he was President, an early president; came and took the reins. He was around, came and did a lot for the group.
G: Yeah, there’s a number of memorials in the Kite Tales of past presidents, and I think Jack Guggolz was one of the first.
M: … Gordon Bolander, Eric Spalding … Ray McDuffee, he was a retired Air Force colonel and he had served in the Air Force, but his jobs were always in the diplomatic centers. But he was pretty good. He and his wife were good bird watchers. They lived right there in Cotati. We had a couple of round-ups at their house.
G: That was ?
M: Ray McDuffee, 1964
G: Eric Spalding?
M: Eric Spalding had a PhD in Botany or something and he was interested in bird watching. Bob Failing. There was a group called the OOC, Oakland Ornithological Club. A young high school kid who had formed a club, and met regularly ‘til the last member died here a few years ago. And Failing was one of those members and Bolander was one of the members. And they only ever took in one additional member. And that was I. They took me in as an official member. I had to pay the dues. The dues were a nickel.
G: A nickel. Can’t afford that….
M: McLean, he was a clergy man. … Clarence Tucker. He was a bird watcher, but he worked at it hard, but he never got really good at it. But he was a nice man. Bud Gralapp was a professor of Art, a professor at Sonoma State. David Hanes was a professor. Lynn Stafford . … I took a course in Mineralogy at Berkeley. His brother, Stafford, was my lab partner. And he and I got the only two A’s in the course. Wayne Tillay was a professor up at the Pacific Union College, a chemist. Died here about two years ago. And, … I know them all. Betty Burridge. Doug Ellis
G: … Doug Ellis I never met but Ruthie Rudesill is always talking about Doug and his owling adventures.
M: He was a good owler.
G: Nobody’s really picked up on that. I’m too old to get out there early in the morning.
M: I’m not going to get up that early. … Baron McLean. Bob McLean was the son of Baron McClean. And Bob was a better bird … photographer than his dad. … He took a lot of detailed plumage pictures. He had a very fast camera. It wasn’t like we use now. It was the old-fashioned camera. He had some wonderful pictures. … Betty Burridge, Doug Ellis, Hal Corey, Dan Nelson.
G: I saw that a Wini Nelson was an officer early on? I thought that was Dan Nelson’s wife; but, no, it was his mother. [Dan’s] not that old, obviously.
M: They were on a bird watching trip to Australia, the mother, Dan, his brother. And the mother died down there.
G: Really?
M: In Australia.
On the formation of the Madrone Audubon Society and our complementary missions:
M: You know, when we first organized, we were the Redwood Region Ornithological Society, and we became an affiliate of the National Audubon. We paid them $35 a year for affiliation with the National Audubon. And there was a couple in the RROS … They didn’t know much about birds …. And, suddenly they disappeared from the RROS meetings, and they’re the ones who founded Madrone Audubon Society, a husband and wife….
M: When they formed the Madrone Audubon Society, Redwood Region Ornithological Society was meeting regularly. They [RROS] didn’t know anything about the formation of Madrone Audubon, and I was President of RROS at that time. I phoned the Sacramento office at Audubon. And I said, “What’s going on?” I said, “You know, we’ve been an affiliate for several years, … and you form a group in Santa Rosa and you don’t even talk to us about it.” And the guy there in the office realized what he’d done. He said, “I’d like to come down and have lunch with you.” … He came down, we had lunch; it was fait accompli by then. So I didn’t care. Besides, we’ve maintained as a bird watching society. … I’ve never thought about it in terms of conservation. In RROS, you’re interested in birds.
G: That’s the way it is, … It’s a division of labor, I guess. It seems legitimate to me.
M: We haven’t missed a meeting, haven’t missed a field trip, published [Kite Tales], so we’ve really been bird watchers, the state bird watchers, and kept it together. That was in ’68 or so ….
G: But there’s some overlap in our membership, …
M: A lot, yeah, there’s a lot. And a lot of people are active in both groups. But the RROS is a bird watching group.
[From the Madrone Audubon Society website: “Established in January, 1967 by Evalyn and Les Bowen "to speak up for the wildlife that was losing its local habitat", Madrone Audubon Society was the "first politically involved conservation organization in Sonoma County" and the first Audubon Chapter in Northern CA, anywhere north of Marin County and Sacramento.”]
RROS pioneered pelagic trips out of Bodega Bay:
M: We had an early boat trip. Turns out the fellow who was the mechanic at the county hospital had a fishing boat [called] The Finback. And so I pursued him.
G: 1965? You published a list … in Kite Tales, Volume 6, Number 6. Fifteen Bodega Bay pelagic trips aboard The Finback. From April 24, 1965 through October 17, 1973. This was just about every month of the year.
M: We published a little book in 1977 and it included that list of birds, the pelagic trips.
G: How far off did you get?
M: We didn’t get to the Cordell Banks ‘til right at the end of the period. And then, we were going out, we were going straight out. But we got to the Cordell Banks and we were seeing storm-petrels the whole time and we were wondering is there some place else after that. I’ve been to the Cordell Banks 60 or 70 times. … And then the Pterodroma comes down from the north, gets into California water. What’s his name?
G: Mottled?
M: Yes, mottled … Gotta go out a ways.
G: Thirty or forty miles. …
M: Yeah, we didn’t go that far normally. We went about 26, 27, 28. And we’d get just beyond the Cordell Banks. It’s a long drive home in the afternoon.
G: So, what were the best birds you saw on these pelagic trips?
M: Well, we didn’t learn about storm-petrels until we went to the Cordell Banks. And we got Ashy Storm-Petrels, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel. Finally the one with the white rump, the Wilson’s, yeah, started showing up pretty regularly. And for many years we saw Wilson’s, including a flock once of 50.
Local rarities:
G: … speaking of rarities, what are your, the rarest birds you’ve found around Sonoma County?
M: Oh, I don’t know. Worm-eating Warbler I found.
G: And, where was that, Owl Canyon?
M: Owl Canyon. Some guy named Forest something was right there and Dan was walking up the trail. And I said, “Dan, I got a Worm-eating Warbler here.
G: Wow! Dan Nelson?
M: Dan Nelson. Dan came running up and that was probably the rarest bird I ever found in Sonoma County. I found a few others. I found a few warblers.
G: I remember the Canada and the Black-throated Blue; you found both of those.
M: Yeah, Magnolia I’ve seen.
G: And I was able to get on them. So, who else, did you interact with? McCaskie and Stallcup and those guys?
M: Not much, I didn’t have much to do with them. They were a different ilk.
G: How were they different?
M: Well, they didn’t birdwatch much in Sonoma County. The only record for King Eider in Sonoma County is McCaskie’s.
G: And the Gray Jay Breeding record, now “Canada Jay.” is Rich’s and a Bank Swallow colony near Jenner.
M: Yeah.
G: So Rich got up here a few times….
M: He got up here more and more; he began to find more and more things.
G: Well, we would go to PRBO all the time and he would go to Point Reyes all the time chasing rarities, which is when I knew him, which was ’68, ’69, ’70.
Nancy and I came up here; we must have been on Ida Clayton Road. All I can remember was that we were on Mount St. Helena somewhere looking for a Pileated Woodpecker; and then I have the Bohemian Waxwing on my county list because of that invasion in 1969. … I must have found them in a few places. And then they were all over the place. Rich and I came up on a very rainy day to look for that Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, first Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Bodega.
M: That was in ’69.
G: Yeah, yeah, and we found it, but it was pouring rain.
M: Laurie Binford and I saw that together. Laurie and I birded together between 1968 until he left to bird all over the state. And I was on the [Bird Records Committee] and he got me on the committee and I spent three years with him as a member of the committee and then [McCaskie] pushed me through as secretary, recording secretary. And I was his recording secretary for five years with the California bird records committee and it was too much work. It was a lot of work and I was busy practicing. I gave it up after eight years on the committee. I was just looking through that book of rarities for California and it lists my name as a member, but they don’t [list me] the fifth year as the secretary. They give credit to [Don] Roberson. He wasn’t there. I took the records to him. I had done five years as secretary.
G: Yeah, let’s see, my first Christmas count was 1968 in San Diego. We all drove down, Rich Stallcup and a bunch of other people. Maybe Jon Winter. I can’t remember who all.
M: Yeah, Jon Winter and Rich birded together. They birded together quite a bit.
G: Stallcup would always say, “Just go for it. Be confident.” So he always encouraged you not to be too [shy].…
M: Rich was the first, I think he was the best bird watcher I ever birded with. … He was phenomenal by sight and by sound.