Dr. Chandler S. Robbins

    CHANDLER SEYMOUR ROBBINS        7/17/18    to   3/20/17

On the first day of Spring, March 20, 2017, Chandler S. Robbins left his earthly shell to migrate to the high country of Heaven.  Migration makes sense, because Chandler's passion and 60 plus years of vocation involved the study of migratory non-game birds.

At the close of World War II, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made a blue-chip investment, hiring Chandler Seymour Robbins as a junior biologist and putting him to work in the bird-banding office of the fledgling Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, Maryland.  Chan Robbins returned high dividends ever since, and became one of the most respected and influential ornithologists of this country and the world.

During those 60 years, Chan, through his books and articles, his innovative methods for measuring bird population changes, his leadership in bringing together scientist and amateur, and his own meticulous field work, embodied all the best elements of a public servant.

Chan had a lot of help along the way.  He was born on July 17, 1918, in the Boston suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts.  His maternal grandfather, from whom Chan received his middle name, was a world-famous botanist.  His parents and two brothers encouraged Chan’s interest in birds, and Belmont provided the ideal environment for a budding ornithologist.  William Brewster and Ralph Hoffman visited Belmont often, and it was one of the first 25 areas to be included in Frank M. Chapman’s inaugural Christmas Bird Count project in 1900.   Chan first took part in the Christmas Bird Count when he was 16, four or five years after his interest in birds began to gel.  By the time he graduated from Harvard University with a B. A. in Physics (1940), he had already participated in 15 Christmas Bird Counts.  While at Harvard, Chan worked with Ludlow Griscom, a pioneer in identifying birds in the field.   

Armed with this impressive pedigree of acquaintances and experiences, Chan became a teacher of mathematics and science at Windsor Mountain School in Vermont.  Although he had no car in those days, Chan received a number of invitations to local bird-watching expeditions, a role he played with unsurpassed ability, throughout his life.  What a pleasure it was to watch this lean, enthusiastic man, with his vintage flattop, wind his way through bog, swamp, woods, and water to show a mixed flock of people their first Indigo Bunting or Prothonotary Warbler!

When he moved to Patuxent as a junior wildlife biologist in 1945, it was for keeps.  He began exploring the State of Maryland, from ocean to mountains.  His wanderings uncovered much new ornithological information.  One project was his thesis on “The Ecological Distribution of the Breeding Parulidae of Maryland” for his M.S. Degree in 1950 from George Washington University.  Along the way he made many friends.  One was Robert Stewart, with whom he coauthored one of the finest of all state bird books, the Birds of Maryland and the District of Columbia in 1958.

Another important early field trip was with the Audubon Society of the District of Columbia.  On one trip, he met Eleanor Graham Cooley, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J.S. Cooley of horticulture fame.  Chan and Eleanor were married in 1948.  They established a home in Laurel on a 2.5-acre site overlooking the Patuxent river and began a family that grew to include two sons and two daughters, all of whom are now grown and active in environmental concerns.  Eleanor, unflagging in her support, encouraged Chan’s dedication to birds, recognizing that he was one of those rare persons who needed to combine work and play and who was dedicated to public service. 

His career with the Fish and Wildlife Service included a 14-year (1961-1974) stint as Chief of the Migratory Nongame Bird Studies Section.  From the banding office, he expanded his studies.  He conducted population studies of doves, snipe, hawks, and songbirds to determine the effects of pesticides, particularly DDT; some studies were used in modifying hunting seasons for game birds to ensure the species abundance. 

The albatrosses of Midway Island also owe a significant debt to Chan Robbins.  His studies (1958-1970) showed that Navy airplanes and the island’s resident albatrosses could, with some modifications of the Navy’s runways, coexist without literally impacting each other.  Otherwise, there would have to have been the mass slaughter of the albatrosses.  In 2002, Chan returned to Midway.  Among the many he recaptured that trip, was one Laysan Albatross that he had first banded in the 1950s---it was then a minimum of 51 years old, and set the longevity record for the species in 2002.   This is the oldest bird on record, and has been aptly named "Wisdom," and is today 66 years old.  Another word of note, is that it currently is raising a chick.

One of Chan's many “crown jewel” accomplishments was to develop a method for a national bird survey, first tested in Maryland and Delaware in 1965.  Since 1968, roadside surveys have been conducted annually by volunteer observers throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico as part of the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Approximately 500 BBS routes were done in the eastern U.S. the first year; more than 3,000 routes are currently conducted.  The BBS epitomizes Chan’s view of his work.  “The emphasis…is on measuring populations and change in populations of songbirds, with an eye to detecting any change in abundance before a given species decreases sharply or has to be put on the Endangered Species list.”  Serious declines have been detected for many species, such as the Cerulean Warbler, which are now on several ‘watch lists.’

The focus of Dr. Robbins’ studies related the bird’s distribution to its habitat.  His famous:          A Guide to Field Identification of the Birds of North America, coauthored with Bertel Bruun and Herbert Zim, is a triumph of form and substance.  Throughout the text and accompanied by Arthur Singer’s brilliant illustrations, there is the recognition that birds are dependent upon their habitats, and that, if one knows the habitat, the birds will likely emerge.  The guide featured four major innovations: coverage of all North American birds, illustrations opposite the text, sonograms for most birds, and range maps.  In this sense, it is the first thorough field guide. First published in 1966 and revised in 1983, it has now sold over 6 million copies.

The habitat needs of birds occupied Chan’s attention early in his career, beginning in 1944 when he began conducting Breeding Bird Censuses in major habitat types.  The results of these censuses later played a key role in the protection of the Belt Woods Wildlands, in Maryland, several decades later.  He developed a thesis about the area of forest needed to support pairs of a number of species of thrushes, warblers, and other birds—not just in North America, but on their wintering grounds in Central and South America as well.  In 1981, he coauthored, with Bob Whitcomb and others, the first comprehensive paper on forest fragmentation, which documents how developments split habitats into sizes too small for wildlife.  In 1989 Chan and others published a major monograph that documented the effects of forest fragmentation on birds nesting in eastern woodlands—the first publication to evaluate habitat fragmentation on a regional scale.   Based directly on Chan’s research, guidelines to protect and restore forest interior habitat were developed and incorporated into land-use plans for all Maryland counties adjoining the Chesapeake Bay and were extended statewide in the Maryland Forest Conservation Act of 1991.  From 1984 through 2000, Chan, Barbara Dowell, and trained volunteer banders conducted research and ornithological training in the wintering habitats of Neotropical migrants in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America.  As a result, many of those local students are continuing the studies to this day.

Chan maintained historic bird distribution and migration files he began in 1943.  These files continue to guide present and future research. He designed and tested methods for conducting a breeding bird Atlas of Maryland in the 1970’s and those methods are being used in the updated Maryland Atlas project, just completed as well as by other Atlas projects around the country.  He also explored the influence of weather on bird abundance and migration patterns.  Always concerned about the impact of land-use activities on birds and their habitat, Chan worked to increase awareness of the large hazard that industrial wind turbines pose to migratory birds, if sited inappropriately—such as on Appalachian ridge tops. 

His professional activities have taken him to all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Central and South Americas, Western Europe, former Soviet Union, North and South Pacific, East Africa, Cuba, and the Indian Ocean.  He was a member of the delegation that drafted the USA/USSR Migratory Bird Treaty.

Chan recorded the songs and sounds of many hundreds of bird species.  He also photographed many.   He understood that there is a strong need for bird watchers to use their ears, as well as their eyes, to identify birds.  Chan used many of his thousands of photographs to illustrate his talks to groups such as the Maryland Ornithological Society, which he joined in 1945.  He was a technical editor of North American Birds (1952-1989).  He was editor of the quarterly journal: Maryland Birdlife from 1947 to 2014.  He prepared a well-honed Field List of the Birds of Maryland.  He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, among them the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s Arthur A. Allen Award, the Audubon Naturalist Society’s Paul Bartsch Award, and the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Meritorious Service Award.   In addition, he received an AOU Elliott Coues Award, an Audubon Magazine: Century of Conservation Award, Patuxent Research Scientific Achievement Award, among numerous others. At the age of 96, he received the momentous American Birding Association:  Roger Tory Peterson Life-time Achievement Award, the epitome of Ornithological honors, and the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Achievement Award.  The day before his death, he received a Life-time Achievement Award from the Prince George's County Maryland Ornithological Society.  In 1995 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Sciences by the University of Maryland for his decades of research and conservation efforts in the field of ornithology.

This gentle “census taker” cast a long shadow.  To those who knew him, the name Chan, represents birding:  past, present, and the future for those that follow in his ever-present shadow.  To those who understand his innovative techniques, Chan also has come to mean a much more promising future for both birds and people. Chan and Eleanor believed in investing in the future through the conservation of our natural resources.  Early on, they began by donating the proceeds of the Birds of North America field guides to conservation efforts to benefit future generations.  They set up numerous trusts to fund college scholarships and conservation organizations and purchased and donated important habitats in need of protection.  The list of papers, books, maps and articles authored by Chan since 1937 exceeds 650. 

Although Chan officially retired in 2005, he maintained his office and continued his life’s work as a volunteer for 11 more years, until just a few months before his passing.  He continued to band birds until 2013.  In his life-time, he had banded over 190,000 birds, including his favorite species, the WINTER WREN, a small brown unassuming bird, with a beautiful song.  

Dr. Robbins also prioritized time to support his church for more than 60 years of service, singing in the choir and teaching Sunday School.  He also corresponded with extended family and researched family genealogy.  He enjoyed vacations every summer with the family by the lake, in the family summer cottage in New Hampshire for over eighty years.

Chan's wife of six decades, the former Eleanor Cooley, died in 2008.  Survivors include his four children: Jane Robbins of Beltsville, Md., Stuart Robbins of Laurel, Md, George Robbins of Pittsfield, NH, and Nancy Robbins of Beltsville, Md.; two grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held for him at 424 Main Street in Laurel, Md., Saturday April 15, 2017.  There will be visitation with family and friends from 9 - 10 AM, with a memorial service to follow.  Lunch will be served in the church Social Hall, following the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be made to Maryland Ornithological Society, Patuxent Wildlife Visitor's Center, First United Methodist Church of Laurel, or The Brooks Bird Club, Inc, of Wheeling, WVa, or to the charity of one's choice.

Thanks to his co-worker Barbara Dowell for providing most of the verbage for this accumulation of information on this accomplished individual.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/chandler-robbins-friend-to-birds-and-birdwatchers-dies-at-98/2017/03/23/d7c331b0-0f44-11e7-9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?utm_term=.5ab0a30898fe#comments

http://www.audubon.org/news/in-memory-chandler-s-robbins

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