Remembering John Purcell
by Edward Warden
Today, John Purcell, a friend and mentor to many in the birding community, was laid to rest. A quick Google search likely won’t turn up much. He was a private fellow who never made it to social media and never seemed that interested in pursuing birding accolades. But to the folks who had the pleasure of meeting and birding with him, he’s as unforgettable as they come.
I first met John when I was seven years old and just getting started with birding. I had begun attending the weekly Wednesday bird walks at North Pond where he was a regular attendee, and while I was clueless and probably quite distracting, I don’t remember him being anything other than kind and patient. He always had a cool story to share and never missed an opportunity to call Yellow-rumped Warblers butter butts, a joke which I’m sure made my parents groan every time but was eternally funny to pre-teen me. A number of years later, when he noticed that I had started to take a liking to botany, he went out of his way to copy and print a guide to local goldenrods which I still use to this day.
He was always one of the first to welcome and offer help to the many young birders who passed through over the years, perhaps because he also got started at a very young age. When I and some of those young birders established the Illinois Young Birders, the idea was thrown out to do interviews with adult birders that were mentors to us. The first choice was obvious, and a few weeks later, the inaugural edition of The Hoot featured John Purcell as the first Adult Birder Spotlight, which I now have the honor of sharing with you here.
John will be remembered as a fellow who loved birding and loved to share the joy of it. And by that metric, he is worthy of remembrance as one of the best birders Chicago has ever seen.
Thank you to Illinois Young Birders and Illinois Ornithological Society for permission to republish and share this interview.
Adult Birder Spotlight
ILYB members Nathan Goldberg and Edward Warden interview their birding mentor, Mr. John Purcell of Chicago.
How did you get interested in birding?
I got interested in birding when I was 13 years old and a bird landed on our bird feeder in the winter. My parents knew Downy Woodpeckers and Blue Jays, but I didn’t know what this little thing was. A little gray bird with a crest, and they had never seen this before. I got curious and my father was in commercial arts, and he had downstairs in his so-called studio, he had file after file of clip art. He’d go through and he’d be clipping out stuff, and he had a big fat file on birds. I went through his bird file and I was really surprised on how many different kinds of birds there. I had no idea. I mean, I knew there was more than one kind of bird, but I didn’t know there were so many. And anyway, I found, of course, it was a Tufted Titmouse.
What was your first Field Guide?
Birds of America, the great big thing. Louis Agassiz Fuertes illustrated it. But the trouble was, there were no clues as to identification. It would have a feather-by-feather description of a bird, and you had to sit there and look at this thing and try to figure out what this bird was.
What year were you born in?
1933 and got I got interested in birds in 1946.
Did you have any favored locations that you would bird a lot?
I had a friend Kenneth. Kenneth Carter. And he was my birding buddy. We were within a fairly short bike ride from the DuPage River around the Churchill Forest Preserve, north of Glen Ellyn. He’d call me up and say, “You wanna go to the Dupe?” We’d get out on the DuPage River and we would see Muskrats and we’d see black snakes. It was pretty neat out there. I think we once had a King Rail. We never did see a Virginia Rail down there.
What is one of your best birding memories?
I got my life Black-throated Blue Warbler on my thirteenth birthday in 1946 at the Morton Arboretum.
Did you ever have a mentor/teacher?
There was a woman there who taught a bird class on Saturday mornings there. Kenneth and I would ride the five miles out there on our bikes. She had a degree in Ornithology from Cornell, and boy were we impressed. She had a pair of 7x35 Bausch and Lomb and we were using Sears Roebuck 3 power field glasses. Binoculars were few and far between. I think the standard birding binoculars were 7x35 Bausch and Lomb back then. I think that any birder that had the money, that’s what they had.
Have you had any big bird finds?
Kenneth and I once had a big find. One spring day, Kenneth and I had found a Red-shouldered Hawk nest at the Morton Arboretum. We told Mrs. Wasson and she took the whole class over there to see it. That’s about the only Red-shouldered Hawk I have ever seen.
I remember it was New Years day, 1981, and I went to Montrose to see if there were any ducks, and there was a Bohemian Waxwing sitting there in a shrub. I didn’t know anybody to call, and I never sent that in.
Have you birded all your life?
Once I moved back to Chicago, after having gone to college and being drafted into the army, I dumbly thought to myself, “What birds are you going to see in Chicago? You won’t see anything.” We once had a Scarlet tanager in the courtyard of my building and I considered that just a fluke. Then I read in the paper that Douglas Anderson was having bird walks at the zoo. So I went up there. I said, “Gee, he was seeing birds!” Blue-headed Vireo’s and stuff. I couldn’t believe it. So that’s when I first realized that Lincoln Park was actually good for birds.
Are there any last words that you would like to say for advice to any young birders out there?
It’s a great hobby, which I guess is what it is. One thing I’ve learned though, is never assume something. If you see a bird and say, “Oh, well that must be a so and so.” It isn’t necessarily. I’ve been surprised. I remember once at North Pond, there was a tan bag up in the treetops, a grocery bag like thing. And I got closer and looked at it again, and it was an American Bittern. Right up in the treetop! Never assume. Learning bird songs is also important. You can see a lot more birds if your ears are good and hear it and you know what they are.
The Hoot, a publication of the Illinois Young Birders
Volume 1, Issue 1 - Summer 2010