I’m a third of the way through my 10th season as a Hawkwatcher for the Golden Gate Raptor Bird Observatory and the migration season has started to ramp up in earnest. Still, it was slower than we hoped last Monday. As I scoured the increasingly familiar landscape for signs of raptors, I thought again about what it is to know a place, how like just about everything — be it individual people, birds, disciplines, crafts — the longer you practice, the more you realize everything contains multitudes. Expertise and mastery have ever-changing goalposts. There is always something more to learn or be revealed.
When the Hawkwatch team schedules went out earlier in the summer, I was happy to see that I'd be counting with some people I knew. Last year, I considered George, an excellent photographer, longtime GGRO volunteer, and dedicated raptor conservationist who was on both of the Monday teams I co-led, the “spiritual leader of the team.” He was out in the field somewhere most days, monitoring Golden Eagles in Sonoma and beyond, and up on Hawk Hill many more days than his official count team assignment. He was easy to lean on when I was stymied about an ID, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t always learning, too. He often shared the subtler and surprising details he noticed while reviewing the many photos he took and applied them on the Hill. He was also the kind of person you felt you knew, and who knew you, even if he didn’t talk much. His was a quiet presence, but he was really present.
I saw George a couple of times during the winter off-season, on a pelagic trip out of Half Moon Bay, and on another extra-curricular birding trip to Ano Nuevo organized by another of our GGRO teammates. The last time I saw George, I was surprised at how happy I was to see him: I hadn't realized until then the less conspicuous bonds that happen when you watch birds with someone every week for several months a year.
At the beginning of August, a couple of days after we got home from our summer travels, there was an email from the GGRO director Allen Fish about season prep with an updated team roster. I was scanning the email, thinking I'd answer in the morning, when I saw George’s name in the last paragraph. Just two days earlier, George had been on another pelagic birding trip in the Farallon Islands with some GGRO folks and suffered a heart attack. He couldn't be revived.
I was stunned. It was a big loss for a lot of people, most of all George’s family. Not George!!! 😭 I texted Allen. I was surprised, again, at how affected I was.
On the first day of the season, Allen and the Monday team started a temporary hilltop altar in tribute to George in north quadrant of the hill. Mary, another GGRO volunteer and good friend of George’s, dropped off a lavender wreath in the shape of a heart and photo of George take the day before his last pelagic trip. As we affixed the photo and lavender to the fence line, we talked about George’s life and death, taking a some comfort in the fact that he had passed while he was doing what he loved in one of the wilder places on the planet, surrounded by birds and sea creatures amid some of the most ancient bits of land around, still looking and learning.
The conversation we had while putting up a temporary memorial on Hawk Hill moved me that much more. I went home wrote a song just to write it. It turned out well enough that I felt comfortable sharing it with Mary and Allen. A couple of weeks ago, the same day Kwame and I were up playing on Mt Tam, GGRO held a memorial for George downslope from Hawk Hill. I was sorry again I wasn’t able to attend, but pleased to hear they’d played the song to start the event.
This past Monday, as the team came down the hill after completing the count for the day, I paused and looked out over the Pacific toward the Farallones. The next day, I flew the same direction on our way to Honolulu (K’s work brings him to Oahu often and I’m fortunate to come along when I can). As the plane rose above the clouds, we had a great view of the Farallones, and I thought again of George, how many lives a single person can touch and influence, and how kind, considerate, present and dedicated people like him hold so very much together! 🙏🏼✨