The Woodcock Takes Flight: A Conversation with Walter Marcisz
COS American Woodcock Logo by Walter Marcisz.
words by Lauren Kostas
photos by Walter Marcisz
Walter Marcisz is a renowned Chicago birder who has earned a reputation for his storytelling, his eclectic library of birding resources, and his service to the community of local birders. As he is also the artist behind the current Chicago Ornithological Society (COS) logo, which will be retired later this month, I wanted to check in with Walter to hear stories about his history with Chicago birding, COS, and the transformation of the woodcock logo during his tenure as the organization’s president.
Question: What were some of your earliest birding experiences?
Walter Marcisz: My dad had a bunch of books about nature wildlife and birds, including T. Gilbert Pearson’s Birds of America, with its beautiful paintings by Louis Agassiz-Fuertes. I just loved it and read it over and over. I was so knocked out by Agassiz-Fuertes’ paintings. The images look alive. Any my mother would take me to the Field Museum to see the animals and buy me books. That got me going.
I started seriously birding in 1967. When I was starting out, I just longed for the day when I would see a Wood Duck or a Great Blue Heron, and I finally did, and that hooked me. Now, we say, “Oh, it’s just another Wood Duck, I want to see something rarer.”
When Pearson’s book was published in the 1930s, Wood Ducks were actually quite rare. I think they were hunted for their feathers, for fishing lures. The book mentioned a program under the Wood Duck entry, where you could write to the National Association of Audubon Societies to raise the ducks at your home to help restock the population. They actually sent you eggs.
I wrote to association—I must have been 12 years old. I didn’t recognize that this book had been written many decades before and the program was long over. But they sent me a very nice letter back saying Wood Ducks had recovered their numbers. It was so cool.
Bald Eagles. Calumet River, January 17, 2022.
Q: When you began birding you didn’t have the online resources and guides we do today. What were your tools?
WM: There was no Internet; there was no digital camera, no digital anything. I had my field notes and sketch book. I also had a 1958 edition of Chicagoland Birds by Dr. William J. Beecher, who was a director of the Chicago Academy Sciences at the time, and later COS President. This book really opened my eyes—it’s basically graphs and records of the abundance of various species, just like we have in eBird now. I had no idea that such a wealth of birds could be found in Chicago. It laid out the timing of year and day and places on where to look for different birds.
Graph from Chicagoland Birds: Where and When to Find Them.
Q: Was sketching always part of your birding practice?
WM: Definitely! The visual aspect was so important. My earliest field books include sketches of ducks and gulls. I didn't really understand how important bird song was until I joined COS, and I started birding with other people. They opened a whole new door for me.
Greater White-fronted Goose. Calumet Park, January 13, 2022.
Q: What drew you to COS?
WM: The field trips and community were a big part of it. When I joined in 1976 or so there was Doug Anderson, and he led all these trips. I believe when you interact with other like-minded people, you learn from one another. Technology may change but there is no substitute for interacting with other people to expand your horizons. Your knowledge is going to rise too. There’s so much to learn with birding, and there's no end to it.
Red-tailed Hawk. Stony Island Landfills, January 3, 2022.
Q: When you became president of COS in the late 1980s what was the organization focused on?
WM: Our first challenge was recruitment. We were becoming a small organization. So, we got going. The board members and I looked at every opportunity to grow membership. When we hosted a field trip, we promoted the society. We put ads in the classified pages. We worked with partners in other birding clubs and organizations in the suburbs. We were able to attract a whole new membership. And I remember Doug Anderson came into a meeting a few years after that and he said, “I just realized I walked the room, and I didn't know one person in the room.”
Savannah Sparrow. Harborside Golf Course, July 17, 2021.
Q: Was the launch of The Chicago Birder and a new logo part of the outreach?
WM: Yes, we needed to “stir the pot” and put a new foot forward. This was around 1989. We launched The Chicago Birder in April 1989 with Allen Welby as editor, and included field trip reports, interviews with members, and lots of detail. And a brand-new Woodcock logo was on the top of the first issue.
American Woodcock. Big Marsh, June 15, 2018.
Q: Was the discussion or process to create a new logo?
WM: William Beecher was a fantastic artist and renaissance man. I thought, “What was I thinking to try to replace his logo?” But the original image had degraded and blurred over time. We knew we needed something new for The Chicago Birder. We certainly discussed whether we wanted to keep the woodcock image. They are secretive birds, but pretty common in the Chicago area, and so we decided to stick with it.
One evening I stayed up late and drew the new image with India ink on poster board. I was inspired by two existing images, one from a photograph in the Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds (1980) and the other from a painting by Agassiz-Fuertes. We put the logo on the newsletter and made T-shirts. We got a lot of use out of it.
But I do think it is time for a new logo in 2023.
Q: Do you have a favorite spot to see Woodcocks?
WM: At the right time of year, if you go at sunset at place with an open area, you know, it could be up open woods. It could be a savanna. It could be a grassland. It could be just an old field with some shrubs. I mean it’s sometimes even a parking lot. You'll hear them. You know, they're everywhere.
To hear more stories from Walter, check out this Birds & Bytes interview.
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