Who Was Roger Tory Peterson?

Roger Tory Peterson was born on August 28, 1908 in Jamestown, New York.
He not only studied and appreciated birds, he worked hard to protect them and educated others to do the same. Since his first publication in 1934 of A Field Guide To The Birds, Roger Tory Peterson made birding simple enough for every person.

Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we’ll soon be in trouble. –Roger Tory Peterson

He is so right and this quote is the base for our whole idea of conservation and birding, along with a sense of hope for the future. We must have hope that not everything is lost and never develop the attitude of “Why bother?”

Not all is doom and gloom. We are beginning to understand the natural world and are gaining a reverence for life – all life. –RTP

I consider myself to have been the bridge between the shotgun and the binoculars in bird watching. Before I came along, the primary way to observe birds was to shoot them and stuff them. –RTP

If we could pick the holidays, today would be Roger Tory Peterson Day, and all would be able to take the day off and go birding!