Tom Edell

by Mike Stiles

Every so often I use this space to highlight our county birders. One can hardly mention San Luis Obispo County without Tom Edell's name coming to mind, and not only locally, but throughout California. Tom is a highly regarded birder. His identification skills, his grasp of the status and distribution of county birds, and his tireless devotion to our local birding scene for many years borders on the legendary.

Tom moved to the central coast from the Los Angeles area in 1975 to attend Cal Poly State University as a Natural Resource Management major. He had been interested in birds before moving here, but several classes, including an ornithology class further spurred that interest.

He attributes a monthly Morro Coast Audubon newsletter article, Eureka, a compilation of rare and unusual birds seen in our area, written by Jim Royer, as setting the hook in his quest to fully understand our county's birds. That article (this will be a familiar theme here) is now written by Tom, and has been for many years.

An early mentor for Tom was John MacDonald, a long-time birder in the county, who introduced Tom to the Morro Bay Christmas Bird Count and to the board of the local Audubon chapter. He held several positions on the board, including hospitality and field trip chairperson, and jumped in with both feet into the Christmas Bird Count.

Tom has participated in the Morro Bay CBC since 1976, and has compiled the count for the last 20 years. As the compiler, Tom coordinates (with the help of several sector leaders) every participant, assigning them areas to count, emcees the bird count compilation dinner, and gathers the data (species seen, numbers of birds, hours birded, etc.) from every participant to submit to the National Audubon Society. He is also in charge of verifying rarities and asking for descriptions to send with the other data. Tom is determined to make the Morro Bay data as good as it can be.

He coordinated the local Breeding Bird Atlas Project, is the county compiler for the Southern California section for the publication North American Birds, a journal of the American Birding Association, leads field trips for the Audubon Society and the Winter Bird Festival, wrote The Birds of San Luis Obispo County California, a checklist and status of our local birds, and is in the process of writing a book on the status and distribution of the birds of San Luis Obispo County. I've seen the proofs and it will be an invaluable tool for local birders someday.

Lest I give the impression that Tom is the indoor type, always at his computer, writing and gathering data, nothing could be further from the truth. Tom's county bird list is the second highest in our county at 420 birds, not counting introduced species. He has found the first county Eastern Yellow Wagtail, King Eider, and Arctic Loon, and has found many other rarities that we all have chased. By the way, Tom is also an avid backpacker, and because of his attention to record keeping, told me he is approaching the 1000 mile mark.

Tom has mentored many of our county birders, including me. I first met him after I found a Lucy's Warbler at Montana de Oro State Park in 1989. At the time it was the 3rd record of that bird in the county, and Tom wanted me to show it to him, not because he didn't believe me, but because of his determination to maintain an unquestionable county archive. I met him in the campground and when he gave his (famous) tremolo Screech Owl whistle and many birds popped into view to check out the assumed predator (including the Lucy's Warbler), I thought it was pure magic. I've birded with Tom ever since, and still learn from him to this day.

Maggie Smith credits Tom for helping her immensely when she first started, and considers him a great example for our entire birding community. Brad Schram—the only birder with a higher county list than Tom—says of him "he may be one of the most dependably constant people I've known.  No pretensions, just unfailingly good-natured and soft-spoken." I can't imagine anyone not agreeing with that.

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Photo of Tom Edell by Roger Zachary
Burrowing Owl on banner by Cleve Nash.