[obol] FW: ODFW Retirees - Wes Batterson News Article

Fri Feb 1 00:40:30 PST 2008

One benefit for a birder of not having been born recently is having had
opportunities to meet some of Oregon's "historic" birders.  One of my early
memories is of a "long" drive from Yamhill Co. to Portland in about 1953 to
attend a special Wesley Batterson presentation of some of his ornithological
experiences.  My father was a friend of Mr. Batterson, and also of Alex
Walker, and I remember being in the back rooms of the Pioneer Museum in
Tillamook where Alex was skinning and mounting a bird (a duck, as I recall)
for display in one of his beautiful dioramas.  I strongly encourage any
birder who has not been up to the second floor of the Pioneer Museum to
visit that hallowed place (in my memory, at least) at your first
opportunity.

My father, like Mr. Batterson and Mr. Walker, had permits to collect eggs
back in those days, and occasionally exchanged duplicate sets with them.  I
have photos of a Western Flycatcher egg set in my dad's collection that came
from Wesley Batterson.  A photo of the catalog card that Mr. Batterson
prepared, and another of the eggs themselves, can be seen at <
http://empids.blogspot.com/ >.

Floyd Schrock
McMinnville, OR

On Jan 31, 2008 11:00 PM, DAVID IRONS <llsdirons at msn.com> wrote:

>  Greetings All,
>
> My mom forwarded this note to me today.  Wes Batterson is a name that will
> only be familiar to a few on this list.  He will always be remembered by
> those of us who often visited the Pioneer Museum in Tillamook.  In their
> bird collection were two mounted LEAST TERNS that had been collected at the
> mouth of the Columbia R. in 1964.  The collector, one Wes Batterson, brought
> the specimens to Alex Walker the longtime curator of the museum.  Walker was
> an eminent ornithologist and collector in his own right and he
> single-handedly built a incredible collection for this modest local museum.
> I have not been into the museum in many years, so I don't know if that
> collection remains intact.
>
> I had no idea that Wes Batterson was still alive, and unknowingly I drove
> by his home many times.  In my youth, I birded Nehalem Bay from the end of
> Bayside Gardens Rd. dozens of times. Based on the anecdotes in this
> obituary, I wish I would have stopped by and made his acquaintance.  Pasted
> below are the details of the accepted record of these birds as it appears on
> the OBRC website.
>
> 074-64-04 Fort Stevens, mouth of the Columbia River, Clatsop Co., 2 males
> collected on 21 May 1964. Specimens in Tillamook Co. Pioneer Museum, In:
> *Murrelet * 53: 52, 1972. First verified Oregon record.
>
> Dave Irons
> Eugene, OR
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> From: judie310hansen at comcast.net
> Subject: Fwd: ODFW Retirees - Wes Batterson News Article
> Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:09:54 -0800
> To: llsdirons at msn.com
>
> Did you know him?  I remember Jim Olson talking about him.  Love, Mom
>
>
>
> We thought the following article in this weeks Tillamook Headlight Herald
> regarding Wes Batterson would be of interest to the group:
> **
> - Kay
> *
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *
> *Wildlife conservation pioneer dies
>
> By Elizabeth A. Phillips*
> Headlight-Herald Staff
>
> NEHALEM - Wayne Smith remembers going to neighbor Wesley Batterson's home
> on Bayside Gardens Road as a child to see Batterson's collection of geese,
> ducks and other birds.
>
> "He was just a heck of a good guy," Smith said, recalling camping and
> hunting trips with his longtime neighbor.
>
> Batterson died Jan. 24 at his home on Bayside Gardens Road. He was 98.
>
> Fay Reid, Batterson's daughter, remembered families from all over north
> Tillamook County coming to her family home to see her father's birds.
>
> "Everybody growing up here got to do that," she said.
>
> Batterson was born at his family's farm near Mohler in 1909. The farm,
> later sold to Southern Pacific Railroad, is now known as Batterson Station,
> or simply Batterson.
>
> "His family has a history here," said Carol Povey, a longtime Nehalem
> resident.
>
> And Wesley Batterson, the only one of five children in his family to live
> almost his entire life in Tillamook County, was well known in the area. He
> began working for the Oregon State Game Commission, which later became the
> Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, in the early 1940s. While he had no
> formal education in wildlife biology, he quickly became one of the most
> influential wildlife biologists in the state.
>
> "He did a lot of pioneering work with breeding of game birds," said Herman
> Biederbeck, district wildlife biologist with the department. "He was a true
> pioneer in Oregon wildlife conservation."
>
> The Tillamook Pioneer Museum is filled with Batterson's taxidermy,
> wildlife photographs and hand-carved decoys, and Oregon State University
> also has a collection of his work.
>
> Batterson bred several varieties of game birds, including Black Brant
> geese, many species of pheasants and ducks. He also traveled to Hawaii in
> 1960 to lead a breeding program for the endangered Nene goose. Batterson
> wrote several articles and books about his work.
>
> He won countless awards for his work in conservation, including Oregon
> State Employee of the Year in 1974 and the Kiwanis Award in Conservation in
> 1965.
>
> What his family remembers most about Batterson, though, was not his work
> in wildlife conservation, but his vibrancy and dedication to his family.
>
> "Until my girlfriend told me how famous my father was, I didn't know it,"
> Reid said. "He was just my dad."
>
> Batterson and his wife, Wanda, had three children, Gene, Leroy and Fay.
> Wanda and Leroy Batterson died.
>
> The family lived on Bayside Gardens Road near Nehalem for all but a few
> years of Fay's life, she said. Gene and Fay remember their father making up
> songs and singing while playing his ukulele, guitar or accordion. Gene
> remembered going on hunting and fishing trips with his father.
>
> "I had a fun time growing up," Gene said. "We never had pet dogs or cats.
> But we had pet owls, pet hawks."
>
> Batterson, almost everybody agreed, was always busy.
>
> He rehabilitated injured birds, stuffed wildlife he found in the woods
> that could not be saved, and was an avid hunter and fisherman.
>
> Wil Reid, Batterson's grandson, said he also remembered hunting and
> fishing trips with his grandfather.
>
> "He knew exactly where to fish and exactly what lure to put on," Wil Reid
> said. "It was intuitive to him."
>
> And he remembered how vibrant his grandfather was.
>
> "He was always on the go," Wil Reid said.
>
> Indeed, a framed photograph in Fay Reid's home, which she shared with her
> father for the last year of his life, showed him on top of Neah-Kah-Nie
> Mountain when he was 90 years old. It was one of three times he climbed the
> mountain that year, she said.
>
> Marcy Russo, owner of the Big Wave Café in Manzanita, remembered Wesley
> Batterson as a longtime regular at her restaurant.
>
> "He was incredibly generous," she said, remembering that she told
> Batterson how she wished she had a garden but simply did not have time.
> Batterson told her she could have it at his house, but she told him she
> didn't have time to tend it. So he planted the garden, tended it and brought
> her the vegetables.
>
> "He was a sweet man," Russo said with tears in her eyes.
>
> Wesley Batterson, son, father, friend and conservationist, will be missed,
> everybody agreed.
>
> "He was outstanding," Povey said. "We were lucky to have him in this
> community."
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
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-- 
Floyd Schrock
McMinnville, Oregon  USA
http:\\empids.blogspot.com
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