An Eye for Attractiveness: Remembering Tom Johnson


two pink-tinged gulls stand on snow
Maximum birders dream of seeing one Ross’s Gull at a time. Tom Johnson’s adventurous spirit and impeccable digicam abilities captured this pretty photograph from Alaska’s North Slope. Photograph by way of Tom Johnson / Macaulay Library.

From the Iciness 2024 factor of Dwelling Hen mag. Subscribe now.

In July 2023, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology neighborhood misplaced an expensive pal and colleague when Tom Johnson kicked the bucket abruptly on the age of 35.

Tom’s atypical abilities in images, chicken identity, and as a birding excursion information had been pushed by way of how a lot he cherished being out in nature. Johnson generously contributed greater than 10,000 pictures, audio, and video recordings to the Cornell Lab over 20 years, from his highschool years via his 2010 commencement from Cornell College and past.

“Past his ambitious abilities and provoking pastime for birding, Tom was once an much more remarkable individual,” wrote Ian Owens, the chief director of the Cornell Lab. “His heat, thoughtfulness, humility, and generosity of spirit made him an exemplary ambassador for birds and the flora and fauna and an expensive pal to many.”

An Eye for Attractiveness

“Tom had a very easy, heat method about him, in an instant making somebody he was once with really feel at ease,” says Brian Sullivan, a Cornell Lab virtual publications challenge chief and shut pal of Johnson’s. “He had the type of aura that made others really feel considered and heard. He would need us to stay seeing all of the good looks round us—the heart beat of the planet that he cherished such a lot, the sweetness that by no means escaped his eyes.” 

All pictures are by way of Tom Johnson. Faucet/click on hyperlinks to view higher pictures by means of their Macaulay Library archive web page.

A small green hummingbird against a leafy background.
Coppery-headed Emerald, Costa Rica.
A yellow-and-black songbird with a white throat.
Silver-throated Tanager, Costa Rica.
A bright orange and black warbler on a perch.
Blackburnian Warbler by way of Tom Johnson, courtesy Melissa Roach.
A brown and black streaked sparrow tilts its head back to sing.
Henslow’s Sparrow by way of Tom Johnson, courtesy Melissa Roach.
Closeup of a cluster of steely blue and gray birds huddled together.
Pink Martins huddled after migrating around the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph by way of Tom Johnson, courtesy Melissa Roach.
A brown, yellow, and red woodpecker photographed in flight with its wings spread.
Northern Flicker by way of Tom Johnson, courtesy Melissa Roach.

Warblers in Flight

From an early age, Tom gave the impression to possess a herbal present for taking chicken pictures. By the point he was once an undergraduate at Cornell, within the past due 2000s, he was once already taking pictures split-second flight photographs of tiny birds at the transfer in opposition to a countless sky. None had been extra spectacular than his warbler pictures, lots of them taken at crack of dawn from the commentary platform at Higbee Seashore in his liked Cape Might, New Jersey. For many folks, getting a well-lit, well-focused flight shot of any sort is motive for party; through the years Tom captured good flight photographs of nicely over 20 warbler species, together with seldom-seen treasures like Cerulean, Connecticut, and Golden-winged Warblers.

A small blue-olive warbler in mid-flight.
Northern Parula, New Jersey.
A brown streaky warbler in mid-flight.
Louisiana Waterthrush, New Jersey.
A black and white warbler in mid-flight.
Black-and-white Warbler, New Jersey.
A warbler with an orange face in mid-flight.
Blackburnian Warbler, New Jersey.
A warbler with a gray head and yellow belly in mid-flight.
Connecticut Warbler, New Jersey.
A brownish warbler with a yellow rump and white tail spots in mid-flight.
Yellow-rumped Warbler, New Jersey.
A black and white warbler with a yellow throat in mid-flight.
Yellow-throated Warbler, New Jersey.
A bluish warbler in mid-flight.
Cerulean Warbler, New Jersey.
A mostly yellow warbler with a white-and-black tail in mid-flight.
Magnolia Warbler, New Jersey.
A gray warbler with yellow wingbars in mid-flight.
Golden-winged Warbler, New Jersey.
A mostly yellow bird in flight against a black sky.
Prothonotary Warbler, Atlantic Ocean.

Possibly the only best possible representation of Tom’s persona, skill, and willpower is a photograph of a Prothonotary Warbler he discovered in the midst of the night time on a boat south of Nantucket, Massachusetts. As famous on an eBird tick list from the day, Tom heard the chicken’s chip be aware in his sleep and aroused from sleep at 2:30 a.m. Taking his digicam alongside to analyze, he ended up taking pictures this dramatic flight shot, in near-complete darkness, miles from land.

A Connection With Seabirds

For a number of years after Tom’s commencement he served as a seabird observer on NOAA analysis ships—a possibility to sharpen his ambitious observational abilities with one of the crucial chicken international’s maximum infamous identity demanding situations. Tom was once nicknamed “Albatross” by way of his Box Guides colleagues, and his affinity for those wide-ranging, stressed, and ineffably swish creatures is apparent from the photographs he introduced house. A chicken like a Southern Royal Albatross might appear massive, however in opposition to the unending sweep of a grey ocean even this huge seabird is a problem to seize in a digicam body.

An albatross glides low over waves.
Southern Royal Albatross, Argentina.
A brown and white seabird against a fuzzy gray background.
Trindade Petrel, New York.
Two black and white seabirds with wings spread wide fly over the sea.
Bermuda Petrels, Bermuda.
a completely white seabird with black eye and small black bill flies in falling snow.
Snow Petrel by way of Tom Johnson, courtesy Melissa Roach.
A large black seabird with a long forked tail dives after a falling fish.
Magnificent Frigatebird, Trinidad and Tobago.

Frontiers of Id

Birding is ready noticing main points—it’s what brings a way of discovery and chance to each and every commute out of doors. Tom’s eye for element was once unheard of, and his talent to key in on just about invisible variations or irregularities supposed he regularly spotted uncommon birds that others would possibly have handed by way of. Consider looking at a swooping swallow and understanding it was once no longer a Cliff Swallow, nor the equivalent Cave Swallow, however a hybrid of the 2? Or status on a seashore in Nome, Alaska, and selecting via 100 White-winged Scoters to search out 5 just about equivalent Stejneger’s Scoters. Tom’s eBird tick list illustrates that finely tuned eye, noting the Stejneger’s other head form, eye blaze, and flank colour. (Whilst additionally noting, with function enthusiasm, that the sighting was once “extremely superior.”)

A blackish and chestnut heron with yellow legs stands on a rock.
Inexperienced x Striated Heron hybrid, Trinidad and Tobago.
A swallow with a reddish face and throat flies against blue sky.
Cliff x Cave Swallow hybrid, Florida.
A brown and white grouse with yellow eyebrows displays in a grassland.
Lesser x Higher Prairie-Hen hybrid, Kansas.
A blackish-brown duck with a white crescent behind the eye and a white wing patch flies over water.
Stejneger’s Scoter, Alaska.

A Global of Talent

Tom spent just about 10 years guiding birding excursions for Box Guides, touring to no less than 15 international locations on some 120 journeys (learn a remembrance from Box Guides). In his 35 years, he gathered an amazing retailer of data and revel in that he shared with somebody in his heat and inspiring method.

“The fields of ornithology and birding blended have suffered an enormous loss,” says Sullivan, “as Tom was once one of the vital uncommon individuals who had the combination of abilities had to damage down the limits between those two worlds—he deftly communicated the magic of birds and the ability of science to somebody in his trail.” Tom had a breadth of data and exuberance that spanned from the tropics to the poles.

A blackish songbird with brilliant flecks of sky-blue perches on a twig.
Spangle-cheeked Tanager, Costa Rica.
Closeup of a penguin's black, orange, and gray head.
King Penguin, South Georgia.

Probably the most true privileges of operating on the Cornell Lab is the chance to spend time with such a lot of gifted younger birders and ornithologists who come right here to check. Tom was once one of the vital very brightest, and all of us assumed that we’d be finding out from him for many years to come back. We’re thankful for the time we had with Tom, and we sign up for together with his circle of relatives, buddies, and the broader birding neighborhood in remembering his lifestyles.

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