While attending California State University, Long Beach, in 1990, I had a course in marine biology.
One of the labs for this class involved a field trip to Upper Newport Bay and Bolsa Chica to study coastal flora and fauna of southern California. It brought back many of my memories as a child in the 1970s, when my father and I ran around the state looking for birds. I recollect phoning my Dad and suggested that we spend a day birding, just like we had done in the “old days.” From that day forward, he was hooked all over again, and obsessed with an enthusiasm and passion that never waned for the next 21 years of his life. He was an unstoppable presence in the birding community of California and the West until his untimely death on 14 July 2010. Not only did I lose my father, I lost my best friend in the world.