Long time Linnaean Society of New York member Jean Blair died this past January in her native England. She resided in Manhattan and worked for the United Nations for many years until her retirement in 1988, whereupon she returned to her family home in Uckfield. I first met Jean back in 1977 and we struck up a friendship that lasted for decades. I found her to be a charming person, with a sense of humor about what was going on in our lives. I will never forget her delight when a roosting nightjar sitting low on a branch in the Central Park Ramble turned out to be her life Eastern Whip-poor-will, and not, as first thought, a Chuck-will’s-widow, a species she had previously seen. She literally grabbed me in her excitement.
I paid her a visit when we visited England back in the fall of 1996. I will never forget her kindness in showing us her quaint cottage, where her mother had taught private students. The weather had turned chilly, and Jean had her gardener cover her flowers so that they would not wither overnight in the low temperatures. She took us to a lovely, old-fashioned shop for tea and scones; for lunch we dined at a 16th-century inn that specialized in bangers and mash—but the bangers were made fresh across the road! She also showed me my life Marsh Tit.
Every year Jean would make a February/early March visit to New York City, and every year we would have dinner on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a block or two from where she was staying. We would laugh and talk about the old LSNY days. We only birded once in all those years, and that was a quick day trip to Central Park to look for the Varied Thrush (which we unfortunately did not find).
I was in England in April 2019 and rang her up to ask if I could take the train down to see her once more, as she hadn’t been able to fly to New York for her annual visit for a couple of years. She was not up to it, so I had to be content with talking on the phone.
The last time I spoke with Jean was in early September of 2020. She had had some physical problems necessitating a rather long hospitalization in the spring of 2020. However, when she picked up the phone in September, she told me that I “couldn’t have picked a better time to call her.” When I rang off I had no idea it would be the last time I heard her voice.
One species that had always eluded Jean and which she often talked about was the American Bittern. She never did see it.
Well, my dear Jean, I regret that I never was able to show you that American Bittern. I will miss you.
—Richard ZainEldeen