Jim Fitzpatrick, pictured in 2005, is one of a handful of people who claim a sighting of the rare ivory-billed woodpecker. (Pioneer Press file)
Jim Fitzpatrick's two loves -- bird watching and the St. Croix River -- are clearly visible at his office at the Carpenter-St. Croix Valley Nature Center in Denmark Township.
The windows look out over the river. The bookshelves and walls are filled with birds -- stuffed, mounted, framed -- and photos of the late legendary bird bander Jane Olyphant.
It was Olyphant, a longtime family friend, who sparked Fitzpatrick's interest in bird banding as a young boy. Olyphant would often come to the Fitzpatrick house in North Oaks to band birds; she fastened tiny aluminum bracelets on 84,000 birds during her lifetime.
"We did mostly robins and blue jays and chickadees," Fitzpatrick said. "She got excited when she caught purple martins and tree swallows. Then one day, when she was taking the nets down, a woodcock flew into the net -- and I think she was in heaven."
Fitzpatrick, 64, who lives in Denmark Township and has served on the town board, is retiring Jan. 4. He has been the nature center's executive director since 1981, when he persuaded the Thomas & Edna Carpenter Foundation to transform a 300-acre private estate and apple orchard into a nature center.
"They wanted someone to be a part-time manager for an apple orchard and do programs on the side, and I said, 'Let's turn it around,' " said Fitzpatrick, who at the time was a naturalist at the Dodge Nature Center in West St. Paul. "I basically copied Dodge's program and brought it out here. We tweaked a few
things and went to the school districts, and they loved it."Carpenter now boasts 725 acres on campuses in Minnesota and Wisconsin and serves more than 100 schools and 10,000 students annually, in addition to offering interpretive public programs and seasonal special events. Many of the programs have to do with bird banding; 195 species of birds have been spotted at Carpenter.
Birds are markers for environmental problems, Fitzpatrick says. "They're important because they are, literally, the canary in the coal mine," he said. "They are telling us that we are doing something wrong."
AN EYE FOR BIRDS
Fitzpatrick, a wildlife biologist, knows his birds. He is one of a handful of people who have reported seeing an ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird thought extinct until Fitzpatrick and others reported sightings in Arkansas in 2004. His younger brother, John, is director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in New York and has been the leading figure in the search for ivory-billed woodpeckers.
In March 2004, at his brother's invitation, Jim Fitzpatrick was a volunteer helping with the search effort in the White River and Cache River national wildlife refuges in Arkansas. An expert canoeist, Jim had traveled to Arkansas with two canoes to help ferry cameramen and other researchers to remote areas of the river bottoms.
One day, he dropped off a cameraman and struck off on his own for three hours, exploring a tributary of the White River. That's when he spotted the bird while reaching for his lunch.
"I had three cameras in my day pack and a sandwich in my hand," he said.
Although there have been no recent sightings and one of the nation's best-known birders, David Sibley, disputed the identification, Fitzpatrick said he knows what he saw.
"They can have their opinion, and I have mine," he said. "It's very, very hard to misidentify that bird."
Fitzpatrick said he was able to make a positive identification because of the bird's unique white patterns on its wings, its massive size and distinctive flight pattern.
"The white stood out. It was like a billboard," he said. "An ivory-bill (woodpecker) is 20 percent larger and 40 percent heavier than a pileated (woodpecker). With a body like that, the wings can't flap like a woodpecker does. They flap like a loon or a wood duck. There's no up and down. He doesn't have enough versatility to do that. He has to fly."
NATIONAL EXPERT
Fitzpatrick is considered a leading authority on wildlife rehabilitation and the use of captive wildlife in interpretive programming. Earlier this year, he was named Master Interpretive Manager for 2012 by the National Association for Interpretation.
"Jim's influence goes well beyond Carpenter and actually goes out to the whole natural resources and interpretive world," said Randy Thoreson, an outdoor recreation planner for the National Park Service. "He's known throughout the St. Croix River Valley, the Midwest, even nationally."
During his tenure at Carpenter, Fitzpatrick oversaw fundraising campaigns for a new visitors center, orchard building and pavilion. He also served on the town board and the boards of the St. Croix River Association, the Minnesota Conservation Corps, the Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission and the Minnesota Naturalist Association.
"He's been a dynamic and endearing leader who's connected people all across the community to nature," said Jennifer Vieth, Carpenter's director of development and interim executive director. "Anyone who has interacted with Jim has a huge soft spot for him. He makes people feel comfortable about asking questions about nature -- whether it's a group of young people or a group of senior banders. He's got incredible patience for teaching the different intricacies of bird identification and bird banding."
Although he's retiring, Fitzpatrick said he plans to continue to help Carpenter develop the 300 acres of riverfront land it owns in Troy Township, Wis.
He also plans to stay involved in St. Croix River issues. His family owns a place on the river just north of William O'Brien State Park, and he's been a self-proclaimed "river rat" since he was a toddler.
"I think the people who live here don't really grasp the meaning of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act," he said. "The St. Croix river is one of those unique treasures that the country holds. We need to do all we can to protect it."
Mary Divine can be reached at 651-228-5443. Follow her at twitter.com/MaryEDivine.
IF YOU GO
A retirement open house for Jim Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Carpenter-St. Croix Valley Nature Center, will be from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4, at the nature center in Denmark Township. For information, call 651-437-4359.
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