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Phoebe Snetsinger, nee Burnett (9 June 1931, Lake Zurich, Illinois,
USA - November 23, 1999, Madagascar) A resident of Webster Groves, Missouri, was a birder famous for having seen over 8,500 species by the time of her death. The daughter of advertising magnate Leo Burnett, she inherited a small fortune, which she eventually used to fund numerous trips in pursuit of her hobby. At the time of her death she had seen more species of bird than anyone in human history. Inspired to begin birding after seeing a Blackburnian Warbler in 1965, Phoebe did not follow the hobby ardently until a doctor diagnosed her with terminal melanoma in 1981. Instead of convalescence at home, she took a trip to Alaska to watch birds, and returned home to find the cancer in remission. From then on, she would travel to often remote areas, sometimes under dangerous environmental and political conditions, in order to add to her growing life list. As an amateur ornithologist, she took copious field notes, especially regarding distinctive subspecies, many of which have since been reclassified as full species. While on a birding trip in Madagascar in 1999, the van she was riding in overturned, killing her instantly. Her final life bird, after almost two decades as a "terminal cancer patient," was the Red-shouldered Vanga, a species which had only been described as new to science in 1997. Snetsinger's memoir, titled Birding on Borrowed Time, was published posthumously in 2003 by the American Birding Association (ABA). The ABA describes this work as "More than merely a travel narrative, the book is also a profoundly moving human document, as it details how Phoebe Snetsinger's obsession with birds became a way of coping with terminal illness." Three of Snetsinger's four children are active bird researchers in the United States. Thomas J. Snetsinger, her son, specialises in threatened endemic bird species in Hawaii. __________________________________________________________ Phoebe Snetsinger, 68, Dies; Held Record
for Bird Sightings By DOUGLAS
MARTIN Phoebe
Snetsinger, who saw and recorded more birds than anybody else, died on Nov.
23 in a van accident on a birding expedition to Madagascar, shortly after
viewing an exceptionally rare Helmet vanga. She was 68 and lived in Webster
Groves, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. Birding went
from a hobby to a passion for Mrs. Snetsinger on the day in 1981 that a
doctor told her she had an incurable cancer, with less than a year to live.
Rejecting therapy, she took off to Alaska on a scheduled trip, her first
long-distance journey simply to see birds. "She came back and felt
good," her husband, David, said.
"Things just started snowballing from there." Mrs.
Snetsinger liked to say her avian ardor "began with a death
sentence," and her relentless energy reflected that level of urgency as her
cancer went into the first of several remissions. Family members and friends
could not imagine her without binoculars, floppy hat, sneakers, telescope and
other field gear as she scurried around the globe on scores of bird tours,
most costing more than $5,000. An inheritance paid the bills; she supplied
the boundless energy. She said she spent more time in the world's jungles,
mountains and other wild areas than at home. There were
setbacks, as the cancer, melanoma, recurred every five years or so, only to
go into remission again. But her record, as verified by the American Birding
Association, was sighting about 8,400 birds, or nearly 85 percent of the
species now estimated to exist, more than 2,000 birds ahead of her nearest
competitor. "She
was a celebrity in our bunch," said Bret Whitney, a co-founder of Field
Guides, a tour operator based in Austin, Tex. Mrs. Snetsinger was traveling
on one of the group's tours when the van overturned. Whitney said she
apparently died instantly. "She gave so much to the birding world and
had so much more left to give," said G. Stuart Keith, the birding
association's first president. At the highest tier of birding, it was a
common joke to differentiate between Phoebe Snetsinger and the phoebe, a
genus of flycatchers. Genera, or
large groups of species (as in the genus Homo of Homo sapiens), were of
considerable importance to Mrs. Snetsinger, who kept a separate list of those
that have only a single species, known as monotypic genera. Her list of more
than 2,000 such genera far surpassed anyone else's, said Whitney, who also
works as a research associate at Louisiana State University. She also
kept extensive notes on subspecies, using index cards as a catalog until
switching in recent months to a computer from the Remington portable
typewriter she had used since college. Her subspecies notes, in whatever
format, are important because many of the birds have now been reclassified as
species. When she started, here were 8,500 officially named species, compared
with about 10,000 now. A spokeswoman for the American Museum of Natural
History said some scientists believed there could eventually be as many as
18,000 named separate bird species. This means
that her life list will almost certainly grow posthumously. "She has
birds in escrow," Whitney said. Mrs.
Snetsinger was born in Lake Zurich, Ill., where she attended a one-room
elementary school with only two other students. At 11, she met her future
husband, then 13, in 4-H clubs. She
graduated from Swarthmore College as a German major, and then taught science
at the Baldwin School, a private girls school in Bryn Mawr, Pa. When
Snetsinger returned from service in Korea, they both attended graduate school
and she earned a master's degree in
German literature. They had
four children, all of whom survive. They are Thomas, of Corvallis, Ore.;
Penny, of Woodbridge, Conn.; Carol, of Missoula, Mont., and Susan, of Tempe,
Ariz. All but Penny pursued careers relating to birds, Thomas as a researcher
in endangered bird species for the Federal government, Carol as a bird
researcher in Alaska and Montana, and Susan as a student of the spotted owl
in the Northwest. In 1965, a
friend took Mrs. Snetsinger birding for the first time in Minnesota, and when
her husband took a corporate job in Missouri she pursued her interest with a
group of birders. (Birders adamantly spurn the term "birdwatcher"
in the belief that it suggests a lack of gravity.) The group visited local
woods and prairies each Thursday afternoon.
After birding came to represent a new lease on life to her, Mrs.
Snetsinger began to take longer and longer trips. She was hooked when she
visited Kenya and saw 500 different birds in three weeks. Her odyssey was
aided by new technology for recording bird sounds, greater access to more and
more remote habitats and the increasing numbers of tours being offered. The depth of
her enthusiasm is suggested by her response to a fall she took about six
months ago while climbing a mountain in the Philippines: she stayed in the
field for two additional weeks to see more birds. The whole
idea of listing birds, or at least the seriousness of the pursuit, is also
sometimes criticized, or at least satirized.
Indeed, it is called "the game" by birders themselves.
"It's like collecting stamps or baseball cards," said Paul J.
Baicich, editor of Birding, the
magazine of the American Birding Association. Snetsinger said his wife's competitive spirit was kept hidden,
though he did not deny it existed. In a 1996 interview, she insisted that she
wanted to play down her quantitative quest. "I'm going back to being a
birder, not a lister," she said. Ultimately, she felt very lucky, as she explained in an article to be published in next February's issue of Birding. Birding is the best and most exciting pursuit in the world, a glorified never-ending one," Mrs. Snetsinger wrote. "And the whole experience of a foreign trip, whether you see 10 new birds or 500, is simply too good to miss. Cancer survivor turns to birds
By Jerry Hall SAN MARCOS, Texas— Let me tell
you about Phoebe Snetsinger.
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc. 1. World Champ Offers Missouri Birding Tips
Missouri bird enthusiasts have in their midst one of the most illustrious birdwatchers in history. Phoebe Snetsinger of Webster Groves is the current world record holder, with more than 8,000 bird species to her credit. She has some wisdom to pass on to beginning "birders." WEBSTER GROVES, Mo. -- Mention the name "phoebe" to serious birdwatchers, and they will think of a small, energetic bird. Mention the name Phoebe Snetsinger, and they will think of more than 8,000 birds. That's the number of feathered species this Webster Groves resident has accumulated on her "life list," earning herself a place in the Guiness Book of World Records. Until 1995, the world's most accomplished birders had only managed to find and identify something over 7,000 bird species in their lifetimes. Snetsinger set herself the task of seeing more than 8,000 birds for the same reasons that test pilot Chuck Yeager set out to break the sound barrier and runner Roger Bannister set out to break the four-minute mile. It was a quest that would take her many years and several times around the world. Snetsinger, 64, had to be as energetic as her namesake bird to accomplish her goal of "breaking 8,000." But she says that becoming an accomplished "birder" takes more than just stamina. One of her secrets is taking a general interest in nature, rather than focusing exclusively on birds. She says she does her homework before each birding trip, learning as much as she can, not only about the birds that live there, but about the geology and general ecology of the area. All this information helps her know where and how to look for different birds. She says there is a difference between birding and listing. Birding, according to Snetsinger, is a physical, intellectual and aesthetic pursuit. Excessive emphasis on the quest for numbers can reduce the birding experience to nothing more than paying to be taken to a particular place and shown a bird just so you can put another notch on your binoculars. "Birding takes you to beautiful spots where you might never go otherwise," says Snetsinger. "And you go with people who share your interest, so it's a social activity, too." Snetsinger says anyone can get started birdwatching with no more equipment than a bird field guide and binoculars. However, knowing the right people and places is a big help, and she has some advice in those areas. She strongly recommends that novices connect with other birders -- one on one or in groups. She readily acknowledges that her mentors in the Webster Groves Nature Study Society deserve much of the credit for her accomplishments. "A friend who is a birder can lead you to other birders and point you in the right direction about places to go," says Snetsinger. "It's easy if there's an Audubon Society or other group with avid birders." Snetsinger offers several ideas for places to go. "It depends on the kind of birds you are looking for and on the time of year," she says. "Generally you should look at lakes, and marshes and patches of native woods. They don't have to be huge, pristine wilderness areas." She says city parks, such as
Forest Park and Tower Grove Park in St. Louis and Swope Park and Maple Woods
Natural Area in Kansas City, can attract a surprising variety of good
migrating birds. "Songbirds migrate mostly at night, and when morning
comes they're looking for a place to stop where they can rest and feed. When
they see a patch of green in the middle of a city, they come down
there." She says birders should do the same thing; look for a place where you would like to be if you were a bird. "That's one of the neat things about birding," says Snetsinger. "You see the natural world through the eyes of the bird you're looking for." Snetsinger notes that Missouri's big rivers are bird magnets and, therefore excellent places to look for birds, especially during the spring and autumn migration seasons. In the St. Louis area, she recommends the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' new Riverlands Environmental Area along the Mississippi River, the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Shaw Arboretum. Other excellent birding spots in the St. Louis area include Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center (CNC) and August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area (CA), which has habitats ranging from forest and field to lakes. Birding hot spots in the Kansas City area include Grand Pass and Cooley Lake CAs, the Martha Lafite Thompson Nature Sanctuary and Burr Oak Woods CNC. Bluffwoods CA south of St. Joseph supports ruffed grouse and a host of other forest bird species. Springfield CNC and numerous nearby conservation areas supply Springfield area birdwatchers with ample birding opportunities. These and other potential birding areas can be found in the Missouri Department of Conservation's "Missouri Nature Viewing Guide." The paperback book covers 101 sites chosen by wildlife experts and naturalists as top locations for viewing wildlife. Single copies are available for $3.50 plus tax. It is available at conservation service centers and CNCs throughout the state. For mail-order information, write to: Outdoor Library, Missouri Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102. The Missouri Audubon Society also produces a birding guide listing 128 birding hot spots around the state. "A Guide to the Birding Areas of Missouri" is available for $11.50 per copy from: Kay Palmer, 15100 S. Clinkenbeard, Ashland, MO 65010. For detailed information about birding areas in the St. Louis area, try "Birds of the St. Louis Area," available for $19.95 per copy from: Bird Book, Webster Groves Nature Study Society, P.O. Box 2085, Florissant, MO 63032. Make checks payable to "WGNSS, Book Account." How many birds can novices hope to add to their "life lists" in a year? Snetsinger says a serious birder who goes out with experienced companions once a week might accumulate 200 new species in a year as she once did. After a year like that, however, the pace slows down drastically, since you will have seen almost all the state's common species. Snetsinger's own pace is much more leisurely these days. Asked where her tally now stands, she says, "At this point, I'm not really counting. I'm going back to being a birder, not a lister, because I want to de-emphasize the numerical competition aspect of my life. I want to go back to enjoying the birds on the level on which I prefer to do it. I just want to change my style a bit and so what I'm saying is that I'm comfortably over 8,000." -jim low- |