News

Matthew Cormons, 1941-2022

February 4, 2023

Though Matt Cormons was a Linnaean Society member for nearly 50 years, many current members did not have the pleasure of knowing him, since he left the New York metropolitan area in 1985. He joined the Society in 1973—coincidentally, the same year I joined, and we got to know each other through our involvement in the Great Gull Island project.

Matt was a native New Yorker, born in the City on March 30, 1941. After graduating from the City College of New York in 1963 with a degree in biology, he worked for five years at the American Museum of Natural History as a teacher and lecturer, and, later, as a scientific illustrator. In that last capacity, he accompanied Dr. Pedro Wygodzinsky to Venezuela to study black flies, two new species of which were named for him (Simulium cormonsi and Gigantodax cormonsi). He received a master’s degree in animal behavior from the University of Wisconsin in 1972.

From 1974 to 1983, Matt served as director of the Tenafly Nature Center in New Jersey. It was during those years that I first got to know him. He personified the spirit of the Linnaean Society, being interested in all aspects of the natural world, with a special focus on birds. He was a licensed bird bander and expert bird carver. His wife, Grace Donaldson Cormons, was also a bird bander and led the Roseate Tern work on Great Gull Island for many years. Together they imbued their two sons, Tom and Peter, with their love of birds and nature.

In 1985 the family moved to a 43-acre working farm on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. There, Grace established an innovative, nature-based family learning program: SPARK (Shore People Advancing Readiness for Knowledge); she and Matt ran the program along with the farm for many years. Besides leading nature field trips, Matt contributed material and photographs to SPARK’s nature books for young people and wrote the young peoples’ guide, “Wildflowers of the Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge.” Whenever possible, he continued his involvement with the Great Gull Island project. His trips to the Azores to band Roseate Terns are featured in the recent award-winning film about the project, “Full Circle.”

Matt passed away on his farm on December 16, 2022, after a long fight with cancer. In recent years, his illness curtailed much of his active field work, but he continued to work on his writing. The Entomological Society of Washington recently published a paper on digger wasps based on his master’s thesis, and a longer one on homing behavior has been submitted to another journal.

Grace says that “sharing his love of nature with his five enthusiastic grandchildren was probably his greatest joy.”

—Joseph DiCostanzo

Alan Messer, 1955-2022

January 15, 2023

Alan Messer, past president of the Society, passed away at home on December 26, 2022, after a lengthy battle with cancer. Alan was born in Albany, Oregon, and attended the San Francisco Art Institute. After moving to New York he began spending time in Central Park, deepening his love for nature and birding. Alan was an accomplished artist, especially of the landscapes of New York City and the Oregon coast. He was also a published illustrator of birding journals and guidebooks, and his line drawings graced the pages of both the Linnaean Society’s Proceedings and our annual schedule of events for many years.

Alan joined the Linnaean Society of New York in 1991. He led walks and served on the council (now called the board of directors) for several years, as recording secretary from 1999-2001 and 2003-2005 and as president, from 2005-2007. Below is the eulogy that I prepared for the memorial service that was held on Friday, December 30. A recording of the service is available.

—Rochelle Thomas, President

I know the exact date I met Alan for the first time. It was Saturday, June 2, 2012. The Wild Bird Fund’s center had just opened, and it was packed shoulder to shoulder with people from all over, anxious to see the inside of New York City’s brand-new wildlife hospital.

On that day, I was the unofficial tour organizer, shouting at people to sign in, form lines, and make donations. In the midst of all this chaos, a tall, bespectacled man walked up to the front desk and said, “I’m here to lead the Central Park walk.”

“What walk!?” I barked, “No one told me about a walk! It’s not on the tour list!!” And because the center was teeming with bodies, I sent him immediately to the Columbus Avenue curb, where he waited patiently until I rounded up four people who would go on to enjoy the extraordinary experience of an Alan Messer-led bird walk.

Within a few short months, Alan’s walks were a regular feature at the center, and he and I formed a pretty solid partnership. I organized and promoted the walks and checked folks in at the desk, and then Alan took over, pointing out the subtle beauty of a grackle while implanting an ever-so-important conservation message (along with a requisite number of jokes). On those walks, Alan taught me nearly everything I now know about birds. (I mean—I knew a few birds before I met Alan, but didn’t really consider myself to be a birder.) And for this I feel extremely lucky, because to learn to see birds or to observe any kind of nature with Alan was a special gift. In Alan’s world, every bird or plant had a distinctive shape and color that when described by him, made them seem even more beautiful than they actually were. I joked that Alan had some kind of supernatural color vision, or, at least, could see more shades of green than humanly possible; but I really thought it was true. And it’s because of Alan that I’ll never NOT see the “citrine” breast of the Great Crested Flycatcher or think of a Prothonotary Warbler as anything but “cadmium” yellow.

The Wild Bird Fund walks were also great fun. They were filled with jokes, inappropriate political rants, discussions about art, culture, and New York City, old and new. Often there was more talking than walking, and when Alan got stuck on the splendor of a bird’s scapulars, I’d be right there behind him, physically pushing his body forward so we could move faster than 50 feet an hour.

Alan was the best kind of best friend. The kind who always had my back no matter what. The kind who did not take it personally when I was too stressed out to even meet up in the park. He was also an inspiration to most of us in this room, never giving up on his causes, social and environmental, despite being so sick for so long. Alan’s will to go on, to endure treatment after treatment, hoping to see the return of migrants in the spring, or refine a painting that was already perfect, or, most importantly, to spend just a little more time with his beloved Janet, are sentiments I will carry with me forever.

It’s winter now, but soon it will be spring and I’ll think of Alan when the warblers return. In summer, I’ll remember sitting with him on a park bench while he sketched a robin on its nest, somehow capturing the look of sweet love the mother robin gave to the young she was protecting. When autumn comes, I’ll channel his keen eye and patience whenever I try to differentiate between blackpoll and bay-breasted in fall plumage. And when the leaves fall, and winter comes again, I’ll think about one of my first park memories with Alan, a day in late November when we tallied three different Barred Owls, or as we liked to refer to it later, “the three-owl tour.” I feel so lucky for everything that Alan has given me and although I’ll miss him so very much, I also know that he will always and forever be a part of all of the wild and wonderful things that are outside waiting to greet me.

Louise Fraza, 2022

January 6, 2023

Louise Fraza passed away on November 15, 2022. She was a member of the Linnaean Society for 26 years and a friend to many in the field. I last saw her on February 14, 2021, when a few brave souls battled what felt like near-Arctic conditions at Croton Point Park. She will be missed by many in our community.
— Rochelle Thomas, President

A Personal Tribute: Our Memories of Louise Fraza

Our dear friend has passed. She left swiftly and in peace.

We met Louise Fraza while birding more than thirty years ago, and quickly became fast friends. First we birded together locally, then ventured farther out by visiting parts of Central and South America and Manitoba.

Louise was a kind, generous, and adventurous person who loved being in nature, the sort of person that everyone liked because they sensed her caring nature. She saw good in everyone and was sensitive to the feelings and needs of others. One memory that stays with us took place at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. We were on a trip with the Linnaean Society when we received a report of a Ruff on the East Pond. We hastened our walk, but then noticed that Louise wasn’t with us. She had fallen behind to help a birder who couldn’t walk quickly, because she didn’t want that person to feel alone. Happily, we all saw the Ruff.

Louise gave so much. She was active in the anti-fracking movement. She devoted time and energy to a close friend who was sick in the aftermath of 9/11; this interfered with her beloved birding, but she gave her all the support she could. She also gave much of herself to the Linnaean Society, from her participation on the Council to her work registering many trips, including some to distant places like Arizona.

Louise participated with us in the Christmas Bird Counts as long as she could, including those at Stuyvesant Town and the Cove. It was she who found the Varied Thrush during one CBC. She loved Doodletown, and we shared many joyful moments there among the birds, butterflies, and other denizens of its enchanting woodland. She also devoted time to Keep Conservation, a grassroots organization started by her friend Linda Atkins. It is devoted to preserving and upgrading donated and purchased land for birds and other animal and plant species. In addition to being an expert birder, Louise was an accomplished folk dancer, with a repertoire that included both international and American dances.

She birded with us until mid-July of 2021. On our final trip she saw the Little Blue Heron. On July 28, 2021, she departed for Holland. We always kept in touch, and she sent us pictures of Dutch butterflies.

The bulk of our happy bird memories include Louise. We will miss her each time we go to Central Park. She will also be missed by the many other friends she made here, by her spouse, and by her family in Holland. Her special energy will always be remembered. At the end, she sent us all her love, and that love will always remain with us.

— Anne Lazarus and Miriam Rakowski

Great Gull Island Project 2022 Annual Report and Appeal

December 14, 2022

Setting the Stage: Hammers and a Landing Craft
Spring on GGI began right on schedule, and, thanks to your support, Matthew Male and the carpentry team were able to spend a month getting the island ready for the re-tern of the terns, as well as a re-tern to a full summer of research and monitoring. The carpenters built new raised walkways to move equipment from the dock to the Carpenter’s Shop, built new tent platforms to house students, and installed safety railings on some precarious stairways. We installed nearly ¼ mile of new fencing around the Big Gun and other points on the island where the Army fort presents notable “falling” hazards for the tern chicks. This is always a hurry-up operation as we thread the window between spring’s arrival, and the arrival of the terns – but all the work was completed.

There were two other major tasks to tackle before the birds arrived – battling the invasive weeds that crowd the terns out of their nesting spaces, and gathering marine debris that washed up on the island. With the help of USFWS’ Suzanne Paton, the USFWS landing craft team from McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, and University of Rhode Island students, we were able to get boatloads of marine debris off the island. That work needs to be done each year, but the result is a GGI that is safer for the adult and young birds.

Back Home
The island was Tern-Ready for their arrival on May 2, 2022, when the first birds came home. The trip for the Roseate Terns from the northern coast of Brazil, and the Commons from Brazil and the coast of Argentina, is long and difficult, and their arrival is always inspiring. The terns were not alone in this homecoming. After two years of extremely reduced staffing due to COVID-19 precautions we were able to field a team of seven students and researchers throughout the season. The reduced staffing is necessary because the old dorms are no longer usable, and the physical plant just can’t keep up with more people. This limits the scale of some of the work we can do, but we are learning how to make this work.

Egg, Chick, Band, Feed, Fledge
Nesting proceeded “as expected”, and soon GGI was covered in Common and Roseate nests. New nesting “pup tents” were occupied by the Roseates, and the Commons squeezed into every inch, as usual. Researchers and students from Mass Audubon, University of Connecticut, CEMAM/University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, and University of Rhode Island carried on monitoring the terns. All Roseate Tern nests were marked and counted (about 1,787 Roseate nests), and we continued to use the area “upstairs” (above the Carpenter’s Shop) as our index plot to let us know how the Commons were doing (the number was within 1 nest of the total for the same area in 2021)!

A sample of the Roseate and Common chicks were banded with metal as well as plastic bands with large, easy-to-read codes, and we looked for those chicks every other day until fledging to estimate the survival of chicks. Many of the Roseates were not possible to find regularly, so we spent hundreds of people-hours searching for them at fledging time. This gave us a productivity estimate for both species. We were able to do the “following” by watching with scopes or binoculars from blinds around the island. This reduced our time in the colony, and also lets us gather some other data, like feeding rates, as well as the type of fish delivered to the nests (spoiler alert – it was a BIG mackerel year).

During the fall, URI and UCONN students returned again to help with marine debris cleanup, and helped to close down the island. Invasive plant work continued, and, if all goes well we expect to have even more nesting space on GGI next year.

What’s Next?
In August 2022 the American Museum of Natural History, Mass Audubon, and UCONN hosted seabird and climate change experts from across the US to help build a long-range conservation and climate adaptation plan for GGI. This work is funded by the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, and will set us up with a plan for continuing the important annual monitoring and management work that the terns need to thrive on GGI. At the same time, we need to plan for the future – a future with stronger storms and rising sea levels. The planning will identify strategies for ensuring GGI is able to be a home for the terns for decades to come.

Some of these strategies will be large-scale erosion control. Other strategies will be small scale, and will be designed to provide safe nesting spaces to move terns incrementally above the ever-rising high water mark. Still other strategies will be employed to increase our vigilance for any introduced pathogens or predators, and to be able to respond to the unexpected – this is all part of the plan to ensure the island is resilient in the face of climate change.

Grants, gifts, a healthy dose of “can-do”, chocolate-covered donuts, and a dedicated cadre of supporters has been the engine that transformed GGI from an abandoned Army base, into one of the largest seabird colonies in the United States. That funding engine is as important now as it ever was. The island needs significant improvements to the physical plant (more solar power, replace the defunct dorms with cabins, install a small desalinating unit for drinking water), to the monitoring program (optics, new observation blinds, support for lab work to monitor for disease, support for the fish monitoring program), and also needs support to continue to provide the safest nesting habitat for the terns.

We are thankful for your past contributions and ask that you please consider making a donation to “Great Gull Island Project-AMNH” and sending it to:

Helen Hays, Director
GGI – Department of Ornithology
American Museum of Natural History
200 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

Thank you very much and we look forward to the Spring of 2023 when we welcome the terns home again!

Sincerely,
Helen Hays, Director
Joe DiCostanzo, GGI Associate
Margaret Rubega, UCONN
Peter Paton, URI
Joan Walsh, Mass Audubon
Joel Cracraft, AMNH

Emily Peyton, 2022

December 6, 2022

Emily Peyton passed away quietly in her sleep on October 15, ending a brave, 5-year ordeal with stage-four cancer.

As Emily’s companion and husband for 25 years, the obituary here will run personal, with a focus not just on Emily’s considerable accomplishments, but also on her quiet but indominable character, and her deep attachment with the natural world around her. I believe this perspective will ring true with the many Linnaean members who knew her, from the park and elsewhere, many of whom have expressed deeply appreciated remembrances.

Emily was born in Richmond, Virginia, spent her high school years in Rocky Mount, NC, and attended University of North Carolina (math major), later Stern School in NYC for a masters. She worked for 45 years in technical sales with IBM, before retiring in 2018.

Emily and I met on a Linnaean trip to Brigantine I was leading (on April 8, 1995, to be perfectly exact). By then I was in full transition to butterfly study, working on East Coast book photos. As our orbits began to synchronize, Emily continued to bird actively, while I jaunted off on one photo trip or another. Eventually she would scold me on missing a birding field mark I’d formerly known, but which had slipped away from disuse. She really was good in the field.

As “book work” intensified, Emily became my co-traveling field manager, invaluably helping me relocate subjects that had spooked and flown off, and (importantly) retrieving exposed film cartridges that had slipped from my pocket. But all the while she was quietly studying, and once the book was done, I gave her an old Nikon body, along with a flash and macro lens. She quickly became a proficient field photographer, with a specialty on capturing butterflies in flight that significantly surpassed my own abilities. She never wanted to show her shots in a separate presentation – she was happy just to take them and enjoy what she was seeing. (I have a memorial deck of her photos, presented to NYC Butterfly Club, for any interested.)

We traveled widely in our time together, to visit nature and photograph butterflies – Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Panama, Belize, Mexico, Jamaica, Hungary, South Africa, multiple US/Canadian locations. Photographing 350 some-odd butterfly species at Cristalino in Brazil, in just over a week, was perhaps the epitome of our life together.

Many of us will miss her, and may she rest in peace.

– Rick Cech

Some Boys from the Bronx, The Linnaean Society, and Roger Tory Peterson

August 6, 2022

The Linnaean Society of New York has a long history of helping young people who have found a passion for birds. In the linked article from American Birds, John Farrand tells the story of a group of 1920’s teenagers from across the Bronx who created the Bronx County Bird Club and describes how they received encouragement, advice, and fellowship from the Linnaean Society. They even let one young non-Bronx resident into the Club – Roger Tory Peterson, who was developing his artistic talent at the Art Students League.

Eleanor Mattusch, 1930-2022

June 5, 2022

Hoary Redpoll. A species I have rarely seen as it stays up in the far North even in the bleakest, snowiest of winters. But–Hoary Redpoll will forever be associated in my mind with Eleanor Mattusch, a long-time Linnaean Society Of New York member who died June 1, 2022.

I first met Eleanor in 1977, when I was a rather new member of LSNY. She was one of those people who I had a rapport with, as we had similar views on the absurdities of life, and was able to share it with observational, sometimes ironic humor. She also was a forthright person, never mean-spirited but not sugar-coating either.

Photograph courtesy of Richard ZainEldeen

Eleanor was a retired school teacher out in Queens, where she resided. She often birded in Central Park, as well as attended LSNY meetings. However, it was on the LSNY’s Centennial trip to Churchill, Manitoba in June 1978 that I really got to know her better.

It was I who discovered the Hoary Redpoll in a low, dense thicket east of the town of Churchill. Despite the fact that Eleanor, in her bright, smooth blue jacket and light patterned scarf, was directly behind me, she failed to see the bird. For years after that, she joked that it was my fault she hadn’t seen the Hoary Redpoll; it was years later while in Alaska, that she finally had that species as a Lifer.

Eventually, Eleanor moved from Queens to Cranberry Township, a place north of Pittsburgh where she had family. Just before she left, I paid a visit to her apartment for the first (and last) time and I have a photograph of our having dinner at a local diner. It is something I will always cherish.

I never saw her again. Through the years we did send email messages, and called occasionally.

She was getting frail with her maneuverability affected. But she still enjoyed her occasional Dewar’s on the rocks!

Last August 9^th, I called her up to wish her a happy 91^stbirthday. She told me about the assisted living place she was living at; how her wheelchair didn’t quite fit in her room. All with the same old Eleanor humor.

I never was able to speak to her again. She descended into the labyrinth of healthcare facilities where her phone kept ringing and ringing, but no one picked up and there were no answering machines on which I could leave a message.

Grateful. Yes, I am very grateful for the laughter we shared all those years. More importantly, I am certainly glad she finally saw that darned Hoary Redpoll!

Eleanor, I will miss you.

— Richard ZainEldeen

Stewardship Plan for the East and West Pond area of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

June 5, 2022

The National Park Service (NPS) proposes to initiate a Stewardship Plan for the East and West Pond area of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge within the Jamaica Bay Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area (GATE). NPS is accepting comments on this plan through June 7, 2022.

On Sunday, May 29th, members of our Conservation Committee toured JBWR with Don Riepe, Jamaica Bay Program Director for the American Littoral Society, and lifelong advocate for the Refuge. Our committee saw many of the issues that affect both opportunities to view wildlife while also impacting critical stopover and nesting habitat for many species. Some of the most notable examples include: overgrown vegetation and invasive species, broken benches, fences, and bird boxes, and perhaps, most importantly, limited efforts to control the raccoon population, which is having an extremely deleterious effect on avian and terrapin populations.

Don Riepe is asking the Linnaean Society of New York and allied organizations to join him in developing a living action plan with time frames, a transparent budget, and accountability so that the area can be managed as a Wildlife Refuge according to the initial plan originally intended. We are calling on you to submit comments to NPS by June 7^th using this link. Or, if you prefer you can contact them in writing at:

Daphne Yun
Gateway National Recreation Area
Attn: East and West Pond Stewardship Plan
210 New York Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10305

We have included a short list of action items below, provided by Don Riepe, that you can reference when sending your personalized letter.

Hire a Refuge Manager who can be stationed on site and help supervise habitat plan work.
Train existing interpretation rangers to handle resource needs: manage trails, gardens, ponds, etc., help train maintenance staff, conduct daily ‘working patrols’ where they help control invasive species.
Plan and implement a mowing schedule replete with timeframes and goals. The West Pond viewshed is quickly disappearing as is most of the marsh viewing from designated benches.
Hire an on-site volunteer coordinator to oversee, train, and work with volunteers, rangers, and maintenance staff on various resource projects.
Resurface the West Pond trail and remove the construction-size gravel so trails are fully accessible.
Evaluate and redesign the East Pond valve system.
Reinstate the bird feeder and bird bath.
Repair/replace Tree Swallow, House Wren, and Bat boxes.
Establish a Purple Martin nest box.
Manage open habitats for pollinators (bees, butterflies, moths, etc.) by allowing sterile lawns to grow into wildflower meadows.
Manage raccoon populations on the islands in Jamaica Bay to mitigate effects to heron colonies and nesting sites for egrets, ibises, oystercatchers, willets, waterfowl, and gulls.
Design and construct an additional fresh water pond – A study by NY Polytechnical Institute in the 1980’s concluded that something similar to Big John’s Pond built on the west side of Crossbay Blvd would greatly enhance herptile populations, freshwater birds such as coots, gallinules and bitterns while also adding enhanced viewing for visitors.

Your voice is needed now to ensure the best possible future management for Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

Below you can find Ursula’s photos taken during our tour with Don Riepe.

We have also included a template letter drafted by Linnaean member, Janet Wooten. Please feel free to use them as inspiration for your comments to the National Parks service. To download the template in Microsoft Word format, click here. To download the template in RTF format, click here.

Sincerely yours,

Rochelle Thomas, President
Ursula Mitra, Conservation Chair