Mabel
S. Edgerton, Barnesville, Ohio, died December 19, 2003, at the
age of 91 due to complications from Parkinson's disease. She
held a life membership in OBBA because of her intense interest
in and dedication to her avocation of bird watching, which had
led to her bird banding activities. Her vocation was teaching
which she did for 44 years until her retirement in 1979. She
graduated from Earlham College, Indiana, and held a graduate
degree from Columbia University in the field of education and
journalism.
During her teaching career, she was also caring for her
invalid mother, and, for her entertainment, set up a window
bird feeder. This quickly led to an engrossing hobby and was
the start of her absorbing avocation. With her abilities as a
teacher and a writer and speaker, she started writing a
popular bird column which was published in two papers for more
than 35 years. She also became sought after by varied groups
for her interesting talks, teaching an awareness and
appreciation for the birds and related life in her own
backyard.
When she added photography to her interests and skills, her
talks became well-organized slide shows. She even left her own
backyard for some tours to Kenya, South America, Hudson Bay,
the Maritimes and some National Parks taking well-documented
slides which she incorporated into her talks.
When White-crowned Sparrows showed up unexpectedly one
winter in 1956, she promptly fell in love. She was filled with
curiosity about where they came from, would they be back, how
would she know? The only way to satisfy that curiosity would
be by becoming a bird bander, something no one in her area or
acquaintance had any experience with.
She diligently pursued her dream and finally was granted a
license in 1963 with the special project of banding and
documenting White-crowned Sparrows. This resulted in many
interesting statistics and observations. All her family and
acquaintances were caught up in the thrill of verifying that
so many White-crowns returning from their nesting areas in
far-off northeastern Quebec would unerringly drop down to
spend the winter on her little .7 acre in Belmont County,
Ohio. She also determined that the life span of a
White-crowned Sparrow was longer than had been assumed, since
she verified one of her frequent returns to be 9 1/2 years
old.
Mabel, however, in spite of the significance of her
observations, always felt humbled by the paucity of her
banding numbers in comparison to most Ohio Bird Banders
Association members. Perhaps one of her special
achievements was acquainting so many people to a new facet of
"bird watching". One of her nephews spent hours with
her learning the requirements and thrill of such close
association with special birds. He made a well-researched and
illustrated science project complete with his own invention of
an electromagnetic selective trap!
This same nephew at her funeral expressed his appreciation
of remembering the wonder and awe he felt then a tiny mite of
breathing fluff lay trance-like on its back on hie open palm
and then roused and flew joyfully home. Mabel showed many a
child and grown-up through experience, slides and talks that
bird-banding is not only an exacting and scientific process
but also opens the door to an increased reverence for and
understanding of these very amazing special bits of creation.
It seems to us that her spirit has flown joyfully home.
