Hugh Jennings: In Memoriam

10/2/1926 - 7/18/2024

Eastside Audubon lost a great member this summer. Hugh Jennings died in July following a stroke. Hugh and his wife Bev Jennings joined our chapter following Hugh’s retirement from the Boeing Company. Church, birding, and fly fishing became a three-point focus of his life.

Hugh and his wife, Bev, met Jim Rettig, another new member at the time and together became volunteers with Eastside Audubon’s adopt-a-road program and later joined the work parties at Marymoor Park. They joined birding field trips and they were learning more about birds and in the early 1990s he began leading his own field trips, including the monthly Hotspots bird walk. Later Hugh began writing the popular Bird of the Month column for The Corvid Crier, the chapter’s newsletter. Between September 1995 through March 2008, he wrote over 100 articles before turning the column over to a new writer. Hugh became a mentor for many of the field trip leaders developed by the chapter during the 1990s and 2000s.

In the mid-1980s Hugh and chapter member Len Steiner created a new Christmas Bird Count circle centered in Sammamish and Hugh volunteered to serve as compiler, a position he held for about 30 years. He also began the annual week-long field trip to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in SE Oregon, an event that was sold-out each year for 12 years.

Hugh and Bev also staffed the chapter office every Monday morning for many years. Eastside Audubon recognized Hugh’s volunteer contributions by presenting him with the Environmentalist of the Year Award in 1995. This award is given following a recommendation from the Eastside Audubon Conservation Committee. The chapter, in cooperation with the National Audubon Society, recognized Hugh and Bev for their long-term volunteer work with the Great Egret Award in 2020.

As an angler, Hugh spent many hours in rivers and streams. Among other water birds he enjoyed the American Dipper, a black thrush commonly known as the water ouzel. Hugh’s Subaru with his “Ouzel” license plate was a common sight in many Northwest fishing and birding hotspots. Another of Hugh’s long-term volunteer efforts was monitoring Kelsey Creek as a member of Bellevue’s Stream Team.

Hugh birded wherever he went: Canada, Alaska, the West Indies including the Virgin Islands and Trinidad, and East and South Africa where his son Todd is working. He was fortunate to view the rare Shoebill on a trip in Zambia.

Hugh remained enthusiastic about birds even after ending his volunteer activities with Eastside Audubon. He continued birding his favorite patch with son Alan along the Lake Hills Greenbelt between Phantom and Larsen lakes into June of this year. In January 2005 he had the good fortune to see a Tufted Duck on Phantom Lake. This is a rare sighting in Washington state and at the time it was only the sixth on record in the state, and second King County record accepted by the Washington Bird Records Committee.

We will miss Hugh. The chapter is grateful for the years of time and accumulated bird knowledge Hugh shared with our members and will remember him as an important contributor to the growth of our chapter.