A Love Affair with Birds

The father of Minnesota ornithology, whose life story opens a window on a lost world of nature and conservation in the states early days Imagine a Minneapolis so small that, on calm days, the roar of St. Anthony Falls could be heard in town, a time when passenger pigeons roosted in neighborhood oak trees. Now picture a dapper professor conducting his ornithology class (the universitys first) by streetcar to Lake Harriet for a morning of bird-watching. The students were mostly young womenin sunhats, sailor tops, and long skirts, with binoculars strung around their necks. The professor was Thomas Sadler Roberts (18581946), a doctor for three decades, a bird lover virtually from birth, the father of Minnesota ornithology, and the man who, perhaps more than any other, promoted the study of the states natural history. A Love Affair with Birds is the first full biography of this key figure in Minnesotas past. Roberts came to Minnesota as a boy and began keeping detailed accounts of Minneapoliss birds. These journals, which became the basis for his landmark work The Birds of Minnesota, also inform this book, affording a view of the states rich avian life in its early daysand of a young man whose passion for birds and practice of medicine in a young Minneapolis eventually dovetailed in his launching of the beloved Bell Museum of Natural History. Bird enthusiast, doctor, author, curator, educator, conservationist: every chapter in Robertss life is also a chapter in the states history, and in his story acclaimed author Sue Leafan avid bird enthusiast and nature lover herselfcaptures a true Minnesota character and his time.