Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

The next round of the Babe Ruth of Ornithology begins now! As the updated brackets show below, Alexander Wilson faces off against Charles Lucien Bonaparte this week followed by Peter Scott vs. Lulow Griscom, Margaret Morse Nice vs. Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey, and Konrad Lorenz vs. Charles Darwin. As I explained last week, the goal of the second round is to determine whose argument involving birds was more persuasive and had a larger impact upon the bird world. So without further adieu, let the games commence! Perhaps the most well known aspect of both Wilson's and Bonaparte's careers was the compilation, editing, and final publication of one of the early crowning achievements of American ornithology. The work known as "American Ornithology" started as the brainchild of Alexander Wilson who was inspired by other naturalists at the time to create a reference guide for the bird species to be found in the relatively new and unexplored world that was North Americ...

Round three of the Babe Ruth of Ornithology starts off this week with Alexander Wilson vs. Edward Howe Forbush. I hesitate to guess who'll win this round (but not really) Lets do this!! More birds named after him than Audubon could shake a boom stick at! Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) can easily be called the father of American Ornithology. After moving to America with his nephew in 1794, legend has it that the first bird he saw when he was in the New World was a Red-headed Woodpecker ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus ). While he always had a touch of intrigue towards the natural world, it was a famous naturalist named William Bartram, that gave him a passion for ornithology. It is Wilson that, more so than Audubon himself, has had more associated with him with regards to birds than any other American ornithological figure. As the aforementioned father of ornithology in America, his name is remembered with such species as Wilson's Storm-Petrel ( Oceanites oceanicus ), Wilson...