You’d think that a person’s centennial, even a posthumous one, would be easier. The long-awaited newly revised Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America is released to the avid masses almost 100 years to the day after the Great Man himself was born and yet, the world did not spin off its axis. Humankind was not suddenly imbued with the innate ability to identify all North American bird species by scent or the rustling of their feathers as they fly overhead. Heck, I’ve heard that some birders didn’t even burn their now superfluous libraries in a pyre of Peterson purification. What is a birding legend to do?
The Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America is just a field guide, not the second coming of Roger Tory Peterson himself. Of course, it is an excellent field guide, one that every birder is going to want on the shelf. Beginning birders in particular will appreciate the myriad ways in which RTP and his more contemporary colleagues make avian identification more accessible.
But the guide is not the man and, more important, the man is not the guide. One can imagine that, considering the incredible esteem in which so many of us hold the King Penguin, there isn’t a work on this Earth that could live up to the impossible expectations. Some readers may not realize Peterson’s venerated position in the pantheons of birdwatching and conservation. Here’s our opportunity to set the record straight!
10,000 Birds has the privilege, thanks to our dear friends at Houghton Mifflin, of giving away two copies of Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. One giveaway will be a birding challenge worthy of any who has followed in RTP’s path in cultivating an uncanny eye for American avifauna. I’ll get to that one later this week. This first one, however, will be much easier. All you need to do to have a shot at a FREE COPY of this important North American field guide is to say something nice about Roger Tory Peterson. Think you can do that?
In the comments below, write a single sentence beginning with the words “Roger Tory Peterson” continuing on to a historical fact or personal opinion about him. Your sentence must be original (not a copy of another one in the comments,) factually accurate, and in good taste. One random participant will receive a copy of Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America but we’ll benefit from this lesson in a long life devoted to nature.
The deadline for this contest is 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, September 10. On Thursday, I’ll reprint all of the entries together and announce the winner. So educate, inform, or entertain but please say something about the Great Man, Roger Tory Peterson!
Roger Tory Peterson opened the window to the natural world for everyone with his first of its kind book that illustrated what we could see there and guided us to a way to explore it.
Roger Tory Peterson, many years ago, was making a documentary on the Ring-billed Gull colony on the Leslie Street Spit in Toronto when, by happenstance, I bumped into him while birding and fortunately I had his wildflower guide with me (alas not the bird guide) which he was kind enough to autograph.
Roger Tory Peterson and his life are the inspiration you need as a birder. Not giving up on a glum day – be back the very next day until you succeed!
My contribution!
Cheers, Klaus
Roger Tory Peterson’s down-to-earth, accurate descriptions of bird behavior, songs and field marks introduced birding to me and were the reasons it became a lifelong hobby of mine.
Roger Tory Peterson had the dedication to accomplish so much in his field, but also to inspire many others to love nature and explore it. I share his vision with my teenagers, who despite lack of peer sympathy, have an appreciation of nature that will stay with them throughout their lives.
Roger Tory Peterson is the author and illustrator of the field guide I use the most–an 80s edition of Peterson Field Guides’ “Eastern Birds.”
Roger Tory Peterson is the ideal that each and every naturalist,
conservationist, birder or nature lover aspires to.
Roger Tory Peterson, definitive birder, wrote the book that declared me as a birder when I was given it at the age of 17.
Roger Tory Peterson with his field guide, revolutionized the way birding was done. Before RTP many so-called experts did not think it was possible to ID many birds in the field, with his field guide the average Joe could ID just about any bird in his yard and suddenly our knowledge of birds, their habits and ranges and the very way we look at birds was forever changed.
Roger Tory Peterson was only 25 years old when he published his Field Guide to the Birds. Although he was not the first to publish a field guide, his clear illustrations of key features revolutionized birding and influenced at least 3 generations of birding. With the new edition a fourth generation of birders can awaken to the wonders of birding.
Roger Tony Peterson, I am ashamed to say, was someone I was totally ignorant of until just a few days ago, when I was reading archived entries in bird blogs/websites such as this. And then I remembered that the guide at my first ever bird walk last week used an old, worn copy of the Peterson’s guide to show us the difference between a Veery Thrush and a Wood Thrush, illustrations that my own guide didn’t contain.
What a wonderful gift has Mr. Peterson given to the birding community!
A new and very enthusiastic birder,
Radhika Ramesh
Roger Tory Peterson “co-wrote Wild America with James Fisher, and edited or wrote many of the volumes in the Peterson Field Guide series on topics ranging from rocks and minerals to beetles to reptiles.” (from Wikipedia)
Roger Tory Peterson was inspired to create his first field guide by a book called Two Little Savages by Ernest Thompson Seton.
Roger Tory Peterson loved birds, just like me.
Roger Tory Peterson started small and ended up moving mountains, first with his illustrations and then via his love of birds, boosted the entire conservation movement. To me, his name never fails to invoke the mental image of my worn Field Guide of Western Birds and how that launched my enduring love of wild birds.
Roger Tory Peterson was a man of passionate devotion to his cause and his life’s work. He continues to be an inspiration to everyone that is touched by his field guides and his environmental legacy.
Roger Tory Peterson once interrupted a very important person telling an anecdote about Winston Churchill by saying “I guess oystercatchers will eat any kind of mollusk.”
How cool is that?
Roger Tory Peterson was one of the few field guide artists to have painted the ivory-billed woodpecker from firsthand experience.
Roger Tory Peterson was the first Saturday night keynote speaker at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival and was Peter Jennings “Man of the Week” that week.
I remember when Roger Tory Peterson gave a lecture for the Cincinnati Zoo just a few months before he passed away. My buddy and I were working in Indianapolis and took off work early to attend the lecture. We were stoked to see THE MAN! I took my worn out old nasty field guide my mother gave to me when I was young to get it signed if possible. We were late so therefore we were seated in the back and consequently last in line for signitures. When we finally got up to him and his wife he looked at my field guide, then looked at me, then back to the guide and then smiled and said “this is the way this guide was intended to look, very well used.” After a handshake and thank you I left with a feeling that can and will never be taken from me. To get that sort of complement from Roger Tory Peterson is unparalleled. Thank you Roger… I am honored to have mangled your field guide while birding these great United States!
Love and Honor,
Jeff