David Cutler, a birding legend!
01/06/08 11:28 AM Filed in: birds
David Cutler, was a
very successful, self-made man both in his
professional career and with his vast knowledge,
interest, dedication and contributions to the science
of orthinology. A man who had done so much with his
time, you literally could barely keep up with him,
even in his late 70's he led a more active life than
most people a quarter his age. David had a great
sense of humor and always appreciated a big smile
& kiss on the cheek. I was lucky enough to have
gotten to known David over the years while I was
dating, and soon to be married to, Chris. David
passed too soon in 2004 after being diagnosed with
non-Hodgkin lymphoma, his legacy will never be
forgotten.
This is an article written by the DVOC (Delaware Valley Orthinology Club) which David was an honorary member, titled "Remembrance of Dave Cutler 1925-2004"
http://www.dvoc.org
Here's a great story we found on the DVOC website about David, his achievements and his influence on the birding community!
Adventures in Birding: The Dave Cutler Story
by Chris Walters *original pdf
Dave Cutler in Brazil 2003
It was black as pitch, and early March cold in Philadelphia, as my car tiptoed the unlit path leading down to the Wissahickon. Just above the Livezey dam, off on the right, lights and a big house suddenly appeared among the trees. Turning, I pulled up behind Dave Cutler’s house, to talk birds and DVOC. I learned a lot that night. Including the fact that Time Magazine discussed Dave’s DVOC May Runs in Delaware 35 years ago.
The records show Dave joined DVOC in 1944, after his older brother Herb had joined in 1939. “Bet you can’t guess how long they kept me waiting, until they let me in,” Dave asked me. “Five years”! And even then it took a push from Julian Potter, DVOC’s principal birdman, to let someone so young as Dave into what was the most exclusive bird club around. But among other feats, young David Cutler had spotted three Glossy Ibis, a rare find, and with Potter’s support he was finally nominated for membership. The DVOCers had little choice, really. While on duty with the Navy Air Corps in Rhode Island during World War II, Dave had already been out birding with the legendary Ludlow Griscom. Had Potter done that? Had Choate? And had any of those old-time DVOCers heard Griscom’s prediction (as Dave did, as Griscom looked at a Great Black backed Gull): “Someday there’ll be Lesser Black-backed Gulls here too.”
By profession Dave is an engineer. He runs his own recycling company in Wyncote, PA. But don’t be fooled by appearances. If the May Run competitions of DVOC were run not just for seeing/hearing birds, but for eating them, Dave would still be an eager competitor, and with knife and fork at the ready. Dave grew up in West Philadelphia. His father was a long-time Philadelphia Police detective. His brother Herb, the Boy Scouts, and the Comstock Society were those that introduced Dave to birding. But it was seeing a male Hooded Warbler at an outlet pipe at Centennial Lake in Fairmount Park that Dave remembers, even now, as a defining moment in his birding life. For Dave as for so many birders, it was one bird - - one sighting - - that made all the difference.
Dave’s adventures in birding have included some unusual experiences. Wait till you hear about some of these. For instance, he hitchhiked from Philadelphia to be part of the first Christmas Count ever conducted in Mexico (San Luis Potosi), where he found Mexicans using slingshots to kill birds for food. On another early trip to Mexico, an eight week collecting expedition organized by Louisiana State University, he learned how to shoot and skin birds. To bird Mexico before 1952, Dave recalls, he and his brother Herb had to create their own field guide, making drawings from records of Griscom’s previous collecting expeditions. No field guide existed. Before leaving for Mexico the legendary James “Jim” Bond gave the Cutler brothers guidance while examining Mexican birds in the Academy’s skin collection. While still on active duty in the ‘40’s Dave found himself stationed for a time in Alameda, California. To make the best of this, he birded there with shorebird expert Eunice Kelly and Robert Storer (Museum Curator) while attending meetings of the Cooper Ornithological Society. Dave’s best find during that stint in California was that state’s first Sharptailed Sparrow. Another extralimital highlight that Dave recalls was his finding - -in Lincoln, Nebraska - - an immature Long-tailed Jaeger in the 1960’s. Dave found it sitting on an island while he was swimming at a local lake with his family. Others collected it the following day. It was a first state record.
One of the mysteries of DVOC history got straightened out for me that March night in Cutler’s living room: the establishment of the “Miller Bird Club”. The Miller Bird Club, I learned, was a splinter group formed before World War II by young DVOCers who thought DVOC was too narrow, social, and clique-ish. They also felt the Club was too slow to encourage and take in young birders. The 35 members of this club - - which only lasted a few years due to military service obligations - - met in members’ houses and ran their own field trips. (See photo). Dave claims one had to recite about 100 Latin bird names to join (talk about narrow). The leading “hotshots” in this group were Dick Miller, Bill Jay, Dr. Ed Reimann, Millard Lindauer, John Higgins, Billy Carr, both Cutlers, Bill Yoder, Quint Kramer, and Bob Newman of LSU. Later, these Miller Bird Club troops nominated a slate in opposition to the DVOC’s Nominating Committee’s slate of new officers. The Miller slate called for Joe Cadbury and Ernie Choate to be officers (they each became DVOC Presidents years later). After the war most of the “Miller guys” gravitated back into DVOC activities. Dave related to me another piece of Club lore - - the early debate on admission of women. This debate came to a head in 1951. Quintin Kramer’s wife Evie was an obvious candidate. After devoting a full meeting to the subject in November 1951, women were not admitted. “The Club was split”, Dave recalls, but the “powers-that-be” were against the change. Of course women were ultimately admitted in 1983.
In his early days Dave birded often with current member Dr. Joel Abramson (now residing in Florida). Dave recalls Joel starting his birding tour business, Bird Bonanzas. In fact Dave and Joel together ran the first preliminary camp out trip to Africa for Bird Bonanzas. Another of Dave’s frequent early companion in the field, Bill Jay, was an egg collector who amassed a huge collection. Jay birded virtually every day, and seemed to know where all the nests were in the Wissahickon Valley. Cassinia records a number of the early finds made by Dave in the Delaware Valley. These include finding nesting Great Blue Herons at Centennial Lake in Fairmount Park in 1944, an Audubon’s Shearwater off Asbury Park, NJ on July 29, 1951, and the second North American record of Pink-footed Goose on November 1, 1953 at Bombay Hook. Another major Delaware find was Dave’s getting the second state record of Brewer’s Blackbird.
In terms of formal Club functions, Dave served twice on DVOC’s Council, once starting in 1954 and again starting in 1959. He succeeded his brother Herb as the Club’s Field Trip Chairman in 1952, and he also served on the Club’s Nominating Committee with George Reynard. For many years, the Club’s leading figure was Julian Potter. Potter served as Mid-Atlantic Regional Editor for American Birds, and its predecessor Bird Lore. One job of the Regional Editor was the thankless one of deciding which “hot reports” were too unreliable to be placed into American Birds. Starting in 1958, Dave was asked to perform this function for local reports given at DVOC meetings. To do this job, believe it or not, DVOC created an “Accounting Committee.” Its job was to screen the “local notes” given at Club meetings, to ensure that only reliable “local notes” would later appear in Cassinia. In the early 1960’s, Potter fell into ill health and American Birds turned to Dave Cutler to serve as Potter’s 4th successor as Regional Editor. Dave agreed and continued in that capacity for more than 40 years. Before Potter became ill, however, Dave recalls how the Club held a special dinner in Potter’s honor at a local restaurant. Few if any other DVOCers have ever been so honored. The dinner was kept completely secret from Potter, and proved a big surprise to him. After Potter’s death in 1963, the Club created the Julian Potter Award, that we are familiar with today. The Club has awarded it nearly every year since 1964 for excellence in field birding.
Despite all his other birding accomplishments, Dave is perhaps most renowned for organizing and running his famous Delaware “May Runs.” He has done this every year for the last fifty-five years. The Cutler brothers began doing these Big Days back in 1948, starting sometimes in Pennsylvania but normally spending most of the day in Delaware. The core regulars have been Harry Armistead, Carl Perry, Howard Brokaw, and Dave Cutler. But it has been the policy of this group to add an outside guest, or monitor, on many of the runs. Previous participants include illustrious birding names: Will Russell of Wings, Kenn Kaufman, Ted Parker, Arnold Small of California, Bob Pyle, John Miller, Davis Finch of Wings, Joe Cadbury, Andy Ednie, John Janowski, Herb and Betty Cutler ( originators ), Dick Miller, Charlie Wonderly, Bob Sehl, Alan Brady, Jim Merritt, and many other DVOCers. Dave says the participants have been as interesting as the birds, and the laughs have been many.
Harry Goldstein, Herb Cutler, Quintin Kramer, Evie Kramer, Sid Margolis 1940
This Cutler team holds the Delaware state single-day record of 201 species (205 prior to the A.B.A.’s current rules). Hot competition continues. In 2003, the Cutler-Perry team had 193, Andy Ednie’s team 191, Mary Gustafsen’s 191, and Jim Lenhard’s gang had 189, each team afield on different days. Along the way on the runs, there were a few shockers. Like the one year when the first bird identified – at 12:10 a.m. – was a staked-out Cerulean Warbler! It was on nest with tail seen extended in the beam of the flashlight mounted to a telescope, and taped to a tree the prior evening. Team Cutler is of course famous for “inspiring” night birds to “speak,” so they can be identified. Why wait till dawn? And after all, there are years when the Black Rails will just not respond or speak on cue. More than once when this happened Cutler would announce: “OK, we’re not going to waste any more time. This is it,” and pull out a gun. BLAM! BLAM! The blanks would echo across the fog-covered and moonlit swamp, instantly awakening something – at least a Woodcock.
Time Magazine said this about the famous Cutler Team in its June 2, 1967 issue: “In Delaware, Dave Cutler, who can identify more than 200 birds by song alone, led his five-man team over 500 miles of wind-swept back roads. Armed with a supply of cherry bombs (to startle sleeping birds into song) and a portable tape player programmed with 42 different calls, the team identified 187 species.” But the stories and laughs do not end. There was the time when German U-Boats in 1940 were sinking ships off the Jersey Coast, casting oiled seabirds inland, many to their deaths. Right on the spot appeared the “Dead Birding Clan”: Dave and a gang of others (the Kramers, Harry Goldstein, and Herb Cutler). They picked up dozens of dead alcids in several weekends of systematic beach surveys (see picture of the gang, with this article, with dead alcids, Dave as photographer). Herb Cutler found the first dead Ivory Gull ever for New Jersey on one of these weekends.
Today, Dave remains a force in the field, as Keith Russell can attest. On Keith’s Philadelphia Mid-Winter Censuses, Dave often makes good finds. Just this year he brought back reports of 15 Redpolls, plus an Iceland Gull. Looking back on a lifetime of adventures with birds and birders, however, there is little doubt what has attracted Dave the most: the people and the laughs. At the DVOC Annual Meeting this year, the Club made Dave Cutler an Honorary Member, a recognition long overdue.
This is an article written by the DVOC (Delaware Valley Orthinology Club) which David was an honorary member, titled "Remembrance of Dave Cutler 1925-2004"
http://www.dvoc.org
Here's a great story we found on the DVOC website about David, his achievements and his influence on the birding community!
Adventures in Birding: The Dave Cutler Story
by Chris Walters *original pdf
Dave Cutler in Brazil 2003
It was black as pitch, and early March cold in Philadelphia, as my car tiptoed the unlit path leading down to the Wissahickon. Just above the Livezey dam, off on the right, lights and a big house suddenly appeared among the trees. Turning, I pulled up behind Dave Cutler’s house, to talk birds and DVOC. I learned a lot that night. Including the fact that Time Magazine discussed Dave’s DVOC May Runs in Delaware 35 years ago.
The records show Dave joined DVOC in 1944, after his older brother Herb had joined in 1939. “Bet you can’t guess how long they kept me waiting, until they let me in,” Dave asked me. “Five years”! And even then it took a push from Julian Potter, DVOC’s principal birdman, to let someone so young as Dave into what was the most exclusive bird club around. But among other feats, young David Cutler had spotted three Glossy Ibis, a rare find, and with Potter’s support he was finally nominated for membership. The DVOCers had little choice, really. While on duty with the Navy Air Corps in Rhode Island during World War II, Dave had already been out birding with the legendary Ludlow Griscom. Had Potter done that? Had Choate? And had any of those old-time DVOCers heard Griscom’s prediction (as Dave did, as Griscom looked at a Great Black backed Gull): “Someday there’ll be Lesser Black-backed Gulls here too.”
By profession Dave is an engineer. He runs his own recycling company in Wyncote, PA. But don’t be fooled by appearances. If the May Run competitions of DVOC were run not just for seeing/hearing birds, but for eating them, Dave would still be an eager competitor, and with knife and fork at the ready. Dave grew up in West Philadelphia. His father was a long-time Philadelphia Police detective. His brother Herb, the Boy Scouts, and the Comstock Society were those that introduced Dave to birding. But it was seeing a male Hooded Warbler at an outlet pipe at Centennial Lake in Fairmount Park that Dave remembers, even now, as a defining moment in his birding life. For Dave as for so many birders, it was one bird - - one sighting - - that made all the difference.
Dave’s adventures in birding have included some unusual experiences. Wait till you hear about some of these. For instance, he hitchhiked from Philadelphia to be part of the first Christmas Count ever conducted in Mexico (San Luis Potosi), where he found Mexicans using slingshots to kill birds for food. On another early trip to Mexico, an eight week collecting expedition organized by Louisiana State University, he learned how to shoot and skin birds. To bird Mexico before 1952, Dave recalls, he and his brother Herb had to create their own field guide, making drawings from records of Griscom’s previous collecting expeditions. No field guide existed. Before leaving for Mexico the legendary James “Jim” Bond gave the Cutler brothers guidance while examining Mexican birds in the Academy’s skin collection. While still on active duty in the ‘40’s Dave found himself stationed for a time in Alameda, California. To make the best of this, he birded there with shorebird expert Eunice Kelly and Robert Storer (Museum Curator) while attending meetings of the Cooper Ornithological Society. Dave’s best find during that stint in California was that state’s first Sharptailed Sparrow. Another extralimital highlight that Dave recalls was his finding - -in Lincoln, Nebraska - - an immature Long-tailed Jaeger in the 1960’s. Dave found it sitting on an island while he was swimming at a local lake with his family. Others collected it the following day. It was a first state record.
One of the mysteries of DVOC history got straightened out for me that March night in Cutler’s living room: the establishment of the “Miller Bird Club”. The Miller Bird Club, I learned, was a splinter group formed before World War II by young DVOCers who thought DVOC was too narrow, social, and clique-ish. They also felt the Club was too slow to encourage and take in young birders. The 35 members of this club - - which only lasted a few years due to military service obligations - - met in members’ houses and ran their own field trips. (See photo). Dave claims one had to recite about 100 Latin bird names to join (talk about narrow). The leading “hotshots” in this group were Dick Miller, Bill Jay, Dr. Ed Reimann, Millard Lindauer, John Higgins, Billy Carr, both Cutlers, Bill Yoder, Quint Kramer, and Bob Newman of LSU. Later, these Miller Bird Club troops nominated a slate in opposition to the DVOC’s Nominating Committee’s slate of new officers. The Miller slate called for Joe Cadbury and Ernie Choate to be officers (they each became DVOC Presidents years later). After the war most of the “Miller guys” gravitated back into DVOC activities. Dave related to me another piece of Club lore - - the early debate on admission of women. This debate came to a head in 1951. Quintin Kramer’s wife Evie was an obvious candidate. After devoting a full meeting to the subject in November 1951, women were not admitted. “The Club was split”, Dave recalls, but the “powers-that-be” were against the change. Of course women were ultimately admitted in 1983.
In his early days Dave birded often with current member Dr. Joel Abramson (now residing in Florida). Dave recalls Joel starting his birding tour business, Bird Bonanzas. In fact Dave and Joel together ran the first preliminary camp out trip to Africa for Bird Bonanzas. Another of Dave’s frequent early companion in the field, Bill Jay, was an egg collector who amassed a huge collection. Jay birded virtually every day, and seemed to know where all the nests were in the Wissahickon Valley. Cassinia records a number of the early finds made by Dave in the Delaware Valley. These include finding nesting Great Blue Herons at Centennial Lake in Fairmount Park in 1944, an Audubon’s Shearwater off Asbury Park, NJ on July 29, 1951, and the second North American record of Pink-footed Goose on November 1, 1953 at Bombay Hook. Another major Delaware find was Dave’s getting the second state record of Brewer’s Blackbird.
In terms of formal Club functions, Dave served twice on DVOC’s Council, once starting in 1954 and again starting in 1959. He succeeded his brother Herb as the Club’s Field Trip Chairman in 1952, and he also served on the Club’s Nominating Committee with George Reynard. For many years, the Club’s leading figure was Julian Potter. Potter served as Mid-Atlantic Regional Editor for American Birds, and its predecessor Bird Lore. One job of the Regional Editor was the thankless one of deciding which “hot reports” were too unreliable to be placed into American Birds. Starting in 1958, Dave was asked to perform this function for local reports given at DVOC meetings. To do this job, believe it or not, DVOC created an “Accounting Committee.” Its job was to screen the “local notes” given at Club meetings, to ensure that only reliable “local notes” would later appear in Cassinia. In the early 1960’s, Potter fell into ill health and American Birds turned to Dave Cutler to serve as Potter’s 4th successor as Regional Editor. Dave agreed and continued in that capacity for more than 40 years. Before Potter became ill, however, Dave recalls how the Club held a special dinner in Potter’s honor at a local restaurant. Few if any other DVOCers have ever been so honored. The dinner was kept completely secret from Potter, and proved a big surprise to him. After Potter’s death in 1963, the Club created the Julian Potter Award, that we are familiar with today. The Club has awarded it nearly every year since 1964 for excellence in field birding.
Despite all his other birding accomplishments, Dave is perhaps most renowned for organizing and running his famous Delaware “May Runs.” He has done this every year for the last fifty-five years. The Cutler brothers began doing these Big Days back in 1948, starting sometimes in Pennsylvania but normally spending most of the day in Delaware. The core regulars have been Harry Armistead, Carl Perry, Howard Brokaw, and Dave Cutler. But it has been the policy of this group to add an outside guest, or monitor, on many of the runs. Previous participants include illustrious birding names: Will Russell of Wings, Kenn Kaufman, Ted Parker, Arnold Small of California, Bob Pyle, John Miller, Davis Finch of Wings, Joe Cadbury, Andy Ednie, John Janowski, Herb and Betty Cutler ( originators ), Dick Miller, Charlie Wonderly, Bob Sehl, Alan Brady, Jim Merritt, and many other DVOCers. Dave says the participants have been as interesting as the birds, and the laughs have been many.
Harry Goldstein, Herb Cutler, Quintin Kramer, Evie Kramer, Sid Margolis 1940
This Cutler team holds the Delaware state single-day record of 201 species (205 prior to the A.B.A.’s current rules). Hot competition continues. In 2003, the Cutler-Perry team had 193, Andy Ednie’s team 191, Mary Gustafsen’s 191, and Jim Lenhard’s gang had 189, each team afield on different days. Along the way on the runs, there were a few shockers. Like the one year when the first bird identified – at 12:10 a.m. – was a staked-out Cerulean Warbler! It was on nest with tail seen extended in the beam of the flashlight mounted to a telescope, and taped to a tree the prior evening. Team Cutler is of course famous for “inspiring” night birds to “speak,” so they can be identified. Why wait till dawn? And after all, there are years when the Black Rails will just not respond or speak on cue. More than once when this happened Cutler would announce: “OK, we’re not going to waste any more time. This is it,” and pull out a gun. BLAM! BLAM! The blanks would echo across the fog-covered and moonlit swamp, instantly awakening something – at least a Woodcock.
Time Magazine said this about the famous Cutler Team in its June 2, 1967 issue: “In Delaware, Dave Cutler, who can identify more than 200 birds by song alone, led his five-man team over 500 miles of wind-swept back roads. Armed with a supply of cherry bombs (to startle sleeping birds into song) and a portable tape player programmed with 42 different calls, the team identified 187 species.” But the stories and laughs do not end. There was the time when German U-Boats in 1940 were sinking ships off the Jersey Coast, casting oiled seabirds inland, many to their deaths. Right on the spot appeared the “Dead Birding Clan”: Dave and a gang of others (the Kramers, Harry Goldstein, and Herb Cutler). They picked up dozens of dead alcids in several weekends of systematic beach surveys (see picture of the gang, with this article, with dead alcids, Dave as photographer). Herb Cutler found the first dead Ivory Gull ever for New Jersey on one of these weekends.
Today, Dave remains a force in the field, as Keith Russell can attest. On Keith’s Philadelphia Mid-Winter Censuses, Dave often makes good finds. Just this year he brought back reports of 15 Redpolls, plus an Iceland Gull. Looking back on a lifetime of adventures with birds and birders, however, there is little doubt what has attracted Dave the most: the people and the laughs. At the DVOC Annual Meeting this year, the Club made Dave Cutler an Honorary Member, a recognition long overdue.