This “Map of Natural and Cultural History of the Chautauqua Lake Basin” by Mark Baldwin is the cover art of Bob Sundell’s Birds of Chautauqua County, New York and Nearby Areas. Co-editor and retired Roger Tory Peterson Institute President Jim Berry presents the book at Audubon Community Nature Center’s May 3 First Friday.

Jim Berry, retired rresident/CEO of Jamestown’s Roger Tory Peterson Institute, is the guest speaker at Audubon Community Nature Center’s First Friday, May 3, at 11 a.m.

As co-editor of Bob Sundell’s Birds of Chautauqua County, New York and Nearby Areas, Berry will describe the birder and author and all those who secured his legacy in his completed book.

The program will talk about the hundreds of birders whose observations over more than 30 years made the book possible and relate the details of the publishing project. Photos, videos, and stories will make the story come alive.

Sundell passed away in 2017 before he finished readying his manuscript for publishing. His close friend Dr. Bill Seleen asked Dr. John Rappole to review the manuscript and take on its posthumous publication. With Sundell’s wife, Pat Sundell, and brother Roger Sundell approving of his plans to edit and publish the work, Rappole invited Berry to join him to co-edit the book. The two worked together on the project until its 2023 publication.

Goodreads and Amazon describe Birds of Chautauqua County as representing the author’s “life’s work in the truest sense of that phrase, including information on the birds of the Chautauqua area of western New York based on his own vast experience from more than a half-century of observation, as well as material gathered from hundreds of others over that time period…[representing a] crowd-source document for the 344 species of birds recorded for the region, providing an extraordinary dataset for this period of remarkable change.”

Bob Sundell taught at Jamestown Community College. Known for his expertise in ornithology, he was a founding member of Jamestown Audubon Society, Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy and the Ornithological Club of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute and served for many years as chairman of the Jamestown Parks, Recreation and Conservation Commission and as a member of Chautauqua County Environment Management Council.

Now retired, Berry is a Master Bird Bander actively studying the birdlife at the Sunnyside Marsh Preserve in Greenhurst. The preserve is managed by the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy.

Prior to his 17 years at RTPI, Berry was the executive director of the Cincinnati Nature Center for 10 years and before that spent 14 years with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). During his ODNR tenure he held various positions: Park Ranger at Mohican State Park, Park Naturalist at Hueston Woods State Park, and Park Manager at Malabar Farm State Park. He holds a B.S. degree in Natural History Interpretation from The Ohio State University.

Those attending are welcome to bring a bagged lunch and join Berry after the program for lunch and conversation.