Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Charles John PENNOCK
Meet Charlie Pennock, one of our region's earliest, most mysterious bird watcher By JIM COX
The lure of nature strikes all of us at one time or another. But rarely does nature strike with the same intensity as it once did Charlie Pennock, one of our region's earliest and most mysterious bird watchers. Pennock lived near Philadelphia in the early 1900s and by all outward appearances was an enterprising businessman enjoying the profits of the nation's industrial growth. He certainly did not fit the bird-watching stereotype held by most people. His commercial ventures included real estate, investment counseling, and the sale of lumber, coal and grain. Pennock also served as a justice of the peace and city commissioner, and by age 55 in 1913, he had married twice, raised three children, and was usually seen sporting a dark suit with gray stripes and a stand-up collar. But Pennock had an obsession with birds that made him very restless. He spent countless hours wandering about the Philadelphia area and neighboring Delaware hoping to glimpse some colorful rare bird. And when he wasn't watching birds, he labored over his field notes, carefully arranging them for publication in national bird journals. He also spent much of his free time at the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences where he helped to maintain the large bird and egg collections on site.
On an early spring evening in 1913, this passion for birds overwhelmed Pennock and he quite literally disappeared for six years.
A bird-club meeting then gone for six years Pennock was last seen attending a bird-club meeting in early May. He left the meeting early complaining of illness, but instead of heading home, he bought a train ticket for Baltimore, the first step of what proved to be a very roundabout way hom
He boarded the train with less than $100 and apparently no clothes except for what he wore. He stayed in Baltimore briefly and then wandered aimlessly about the Southeastern United States for the next few months, studying nature, watching birds and earning money from various odd job
In the fall of 1913, he landed in St. Marks and decided to call the small hamlet home for the next few years. He also quickly began to distance himself from his former life. He changed his name to John Williams and began an extended study of the birds of Wakulla County. An eight-page article published in 1915 described the dire conditions of young egrets and herons at a breeding rookery at the mouth of the Wakulla River As Pennock/Williams noted, heron rookeries are not a place for the faint-hearted. Young herons and egrets sometimes kill their nest mates with vicious blows of their sharp bills or by pushing their siblings from the nest.
Pennock's articles provide a unique look at the bird life of our area at the turn of the century. The articles are also joyfully infused with the mix of elegant prose and keen biological insight that are such a rarity in today's technical literature. Consider the following observations on fish crows:
At times while passing high overhead, a flock will
perform evolutions seemingly in dispute as to a course
to be pursued, and a general circling and counter
circling will continue for two or three minutes, when
perhaps a direct flight will ensue for a few minutes, and
again more confusion and circling, the whole
performance enlivened by most emphatic demands and
protests by apparently every member of the flock.
Pennock also assisted the local purple martins by building scores of nest boxes and setting them up all around town (though none of the boxes has likely survived). He also seems to have taken great enjoyment from watching turkey vultures soaring around the St. Marks Lighthouse (now in the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge).
He served as a substitute lighthouse keeper on occasion, and while observing vultures from his lighthouse perch in 1917, he wrote "the birds were so graceful in the air that one might almost be willing to be a buzzard to fly like that."
In 1919, some handwritten notes from John Williams were sent to Wilmer Stone for review. Much like today, the birding community was a rather tight-knit society, and Stone recognized the handwriting as that of his "deceased" friend, Charlie Pennock. Stone contacted Pennock's son-in-law and suggested he pay a visit to John Williams in St. Marks. When his son-in-law arrived in St. Marks, Pennock is said to have acted as if he'd been expecting the visit for some time. The two left St. Marks within a matter of days.
After returning to Philadelphia, Pennock quickly resumed activities with the local bird club and some of his former business interests. Most importantly, he continued to watch birds in his spare time and write articles for bird journals, using both his original name and that of his alter ego for a brief period.
But in 1920 Pennock published his last article as John Williams. It was a summary of his observations in Wakulla County, and it provides a benchmark against which we can view the changes that have occurred over the decades. Williams found white-breasted nuthatches here and there throughout the county, but nuthatches have lost ground and are now seen only occasionally around Wakulla Springs State Park. The Bewick's wren that Williams saw near St. Marks in the winter of 1918 has now been largely wiped out from Florida.
However, one thing that has not changed is the sight of turkey vultures soaring above the St. Marks lighthouse. The birds drift along on silent wings, tipping side to side in an unsteady manner, just as Pennock described them more than 70 years ago. And in their carefree flight you can perhaps sense the freedom that Pennock experienced during his "mystery years" in Florida.
Jim Cox is a biologist with the Florida Fresh Water Fish and Game
Commission and also teaches courses on bird-watching.
This column was published Aug. 26, 1996 in the Tallahassee Democrat.
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