Robert Sundell, an area ornithologist and biology professor who was engaged on a manuscript of his notes on native birds earlier than passing away in 2017. The guide has just lately been revealed by his buddies.
Submitted pictures
Sundell was a well known member of the Jamestown group and an area ornithologist. He was born in Frewsburg and lived within the Jamestown space most of his life, moreover a little bit of time within the Army and getting his grasp’s diploma in Michigan, together with a couple of different educating jobs. He grew to become a biology professor at SUNY Jamestown Community College, and was energetic in the neighborhood.
Before Sundell died in 2017, he had been engaged on a manuscript detailing his document maintaining of native birds in each the county and throughout Western New York and Pennsylvania. The manuscript was just lately been completed and revealed by individuals who knew Sundell properly.
The guide, “Birds of Chautauqua County and Nearby Areas” was edited and revealed by John Rappole and James Berry.
Berry, one other Jamestown native, mentioned the guide is a historic document of the several types of birds present in Chautauqua County.
Pictured are Robert Sundell and Jim Berry. Sundell’s guide has just lately been revealed on Amazon with the assistance of Berry and some of Sundell’s different buddies.
“Bob’s interest in bird life came out in him as a young boy,” Berry mentioned. “He was a great admirer of Roger Tory Peterson. Bob would study birds with a scholarly or scientific approach to it. This manifest is of his record keeping and includes dates, where the bird was seen, who saw it, and the habitat and behavior of the bird. He began to accumulate a vast amount on avian life in Chautauqua County, Western New York and Pennsylvania, and he took that information and began to assemble it in book form.”
Berry mentioned the guide shouldn’t be a subject information just like the one written by Roger Tory Peterson, and as an alternative is a historic document of chook sightings within the county. Roughly 347 birds are detailed within the guide.
Berry himself was a good friend of Sundell’s since he moved to the world in 1995. The two would spend time collectively observing within the subject or assembly and speaking about birds. Berry mentioned he and plenty of of Sundell’s buddies have been conscious of the manuscript whereas he was engaged on it. Another of Sundell’s buddies, William Seleen, helped Sundell get the guide set into digital kind. Berry mentioned he, Seleen and Rappole all talked at Sundell’s funeral and got here up with the thought to get the manuscript put collectively in a guide kind and publish it.
“Bob passed away in 2017 at the age of 84,” Berry mentioned, “so, it took about six years but then William reminded John and I about our conversation and we took the manuscript, organized it, got it up to date and published it.”
Berry mentioned the guide is for anybody with an curiosity in pure historical past or nature, vegetation, animals or birds in Chautauqua County. He added that the guide has a number of introductory details about geology, local weather, climate, the residing world and migratory chook corridors. The guide additionally contains names of many various individuals within the county from the late Nineteen Fifties to 2000s.
“There are literally hundreds of people who might be someone’s friend or fellow bird watcher that are mentioned in the book,” Berry mentioned. “People might find the name of someone they know. People would call Bob with sightings all the time. You can ask Pat, his widow, and she will tell you this was an almost daily activity in their house, with Bob on the phone with someone calling about a sighting.”
The guide itself can also be distinctive in that there isn’t a different recorded historical past of chook sightings in Chautauqua County, Berry mentioned. He mentioned in additional populated areas of the United States, these kinds of books are most likely commonplace.
“You won’t find this information anywhere else,” Berry mentioned.
For Berry, being a part of the publication of the guide means rather a lot to him and is a strategy to present the respect he nonetheless has for Sundell.
“I have tremendous love and respect for Bob,” Berry mentioned. “He was my mentor and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. I couldn’t even dream of saying no.”
“Birds of Chautauqua County and Nearby Areas” by Robert Sundall is available by way of Amazon. It is self-published by way of Amazon’s self-publishing companies so it is just available on Amazon, in each Kindle and paperback kind, for 99 cents and $10 respectively.
All proceeds from the guide go towards the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, which at the moment has plans to rename one in every of its preserves after Sundell.
