A Love Affair with Birds - The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts by Sue Leaf

[csziggy]

I've just finished reading this book and thought some of the birders here might want to check it out.

Thomas Sadler Roberts was my husband's great grandfather and a pioneering ornithologist in Minnesota. He wrote the definitive bird book "The Birds of Minnesota" based very much on his own and his network of friends' observations about birds from his youth in Minneapolis in the late 1800s. He also promoted education about the state's wildlife, especially the birds, and conservation of habitat to preserve the birds he loved.

While the book is mostly a biography of Thomas Sadler Roberts, it also gives insight into the changes in attitude towards the birds and conservation over Roberts' lifetime. It also shows how he used his influence with his wealthy patients and friends to create Minneapolis' Bell Museum of Natural History (http://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/).

Without people like Roberts and the students he taught and inspired, we would not have the conservation efforts that have helped preserved the small scrap of the natural world he took for granted as a young man. I'm proud that he is an ancestor of my husband!

A more complete review of the book is at http://www.minnpost.com/books/2013/05/love-affair-birds-chronicles-life-thomas-sadler-roberts

[locks]

1. Thank you

I've had the privilege of seeing and hearing the beautiful birds around the states and in other countries and am so grateful to the people who have helped us to know, love, and care for the natural wonders around us.

[csziggy]

2. Thomas S. Roberts did his best to share his love of birds and teach others

Even into his eighties, he taught bird classes at the University of Minnesota and took his students on field trips. While many teachers of bird classes would not accept women as student, he had no problem and many of his classes had far more women than men.

It's no wonder that the generations that have followed him have continued his appreciation of birds - my husband is an avid birder and some of his earliest memories are of going on the Christmas Bird Count with his parents and grandparents!

I hope you can find the book and enjoy it - although I knew some about Dr. Roberts (he was a medical doctor before he became a full time bird expert), the book told me much, much more about him and the environment that gave him his life long love of birds.

[TuxedoKat]

3. Sounds like a great book

and one I would love to read, so I'll add it to my list. Thanks for letting us know about it.