[cobirds] Joe Himmel

Joe was an amazing man.  When he retired from teaching he took up birding and was an awesomely fast learner.  With the help of Jerry Cairo (from whom a lot of us learned many things) he quickly became an expert, particularly in birding by ear.  In addition to the first and early records for Fulvous Whilstling-duck,
Eurasian Collard-dove, Common Ground-dove as Dave and Joe mentioned he was among the first to see and identify Glossy Ibis when others discounted the idea they were in Colorado.  He also picked out the songs of White-eyed Vireos at Riverside Reservoir and Crow Valley before most of us had seen that species in Colorado.  He saw the Henslow's Sparrow at Red Lion (2nd Colorado record).  When the Baikal Teal showed up in Evergreen he was asked to research the report that some individuals of that species had escaped from a place near Greeley.  He ultimately reported back that it may have happened but the place in question was owned by a reputed mob figure and Joe felt that too much interest in that person's activities could lead to problems.  An incident I still laugh about occurred when Joe, Jerry Cairo and I were on our way to the Jumbo Reservoir area very early one morning.  We stopped at the Atwood exit off of Interstate 76 at a gas station/coffee shop now closed. Jerry asked for a coffe to go and was given what must have been a 30 or 36 ounce monster cup.  Joe's eyes sort of bugged out and he said "my gosh, don't you have something smaller?"  The waitress said "sure" and gave him a cup the size of what you get samples in at the grocery store, I guess about 3 ounces.  We all stared at that and Jerry burst out laughing and could not stop, he thought it was a joke.  The waitress was perfectly straight-faced however and Jerry finally wheezed 'Don't worry Joe you can have some of mine, I've got plenty."  Joe was always a fun guy to be with.  Bill Prather, Longmont

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