Blue Mountain Audubon - Priscilla Dauble
Priscilla Dauble has birding in her bones. From carefree summers as a child, living with her family in a cabin along the Walla Walla River, to travels around the world in search of a vanishing bird species, she's absorbed the natural wonders she's seen and heard.Today she continues looking and listening, fearlessly eager for the next adventure. Small and alert, Priscilla radiates bird-like qualities. One wonders if she's always been that way, or if over the years a transformation has occurred to form her into this bright, sharp-eyed, quick and fluttery person. This winter we were fortunate to catch Priscilla perched quietly at home in Walla Walla. As we talked, we roamed the earth with her memories of bird watching locally and in far places, her bird-watching friends and her nature-loving family.
BMA: How did you get involved in BMAS?
Priscilla: In about 1974, a couple years after BMAS was founded,
my daughter gave me a subscription to Audubon for my birthday in April.
Sometime in the fall I got a phone call asking if I could come to a meeting, so I went.
I think it was in a school somewhere; I remember sitting in desks. Anyway, I was hooked.
I began to help Shirley with the Magpiper newsletter.
We printed it on an old mimeograph machine that was just awful.
I noticed the same concerns, environmental issues, would come up and repeat over and over again in the newsletter.
Some would be successful and others, years later, you would still be working on.
The forests, logging in the Blues, is one of those issues.
We've been lucky in this area because I'd say the local foresters are less industry oriented
and so the clear cutting of the '80s was not so bad here.
BMA: What else sparked your early interest in birding? Priscilla: I taught elementary school at a time when teachers had to continue getting an education, and I got to a place where I said, "No more education courses!" So I did other things. I went to Malheur four different times and took 3-week classes from professional naturalists. Those classes at Malheur were wonderful! Two of them were taught by C. D. Littlefield, the guru of cranes in the US. We had good teachers and the classes were a blast.
BMA: So you went down there for three weeks and ate that food for three weeks? Priscilla: Oh, worse! But it was wonderful. We went out Monday morning early and didn't come back to the station until late Sat. night. The teachers made the food. I remember one week we went out and made camp, and they discovered they'd left the box with all the utensils and plates back at the station. They did have the food and one frying pan, so they made pancakes and we used pancakes for plates. The first one I went on, after a couple days I felt like going home, but I stayed and was glad I did. I was always the only older person taking the classes; the others were from 16 - 24. Since then I've gone to Malheur on my own a couple times a year. It's different at different times of the year. October's a great time.
BMA:Are there any other places locally that you feel drawn to and keep returning to?
Priscilla: Well, I've always liked the Walla Walla River. My parents had a cabin up the river just before Harris Park.
I spent every summer there because my father didn’t think the town was a good place for children in the summer.
And when my 5 children were growing up I took them for hikes in that area.
We'd drive up and picnic and swim in the river and hike around.
I still remember opening up the glove compartment when we came home and a snake came out at me.
My youngest had put it in there to get it home. He's actually still very interested in the outdoors.
BMA: We know you have other interests than birds. You know a lot about plants. Did your education and interest in the environment--plants, birds--all develop together? Priscilla: I've always liked the out-of-doors and always had a garden. The years we lived in Weston, the soil was wonderful…. My mother was a gardener, so I've just always done that. And of course if you're outside you watch the birds, and you get involved in the politics of birding.
BMA: What do you mean by the "politics of birding?" Priscilla: Well, you become aware of what's going on in the environment, and when you go back to a place in the mountains where you had blueberries and you find it's been clear cut, you become political. Somebody needs to be political for the birds! Back in the '80s the forests were really clear cut. Streams were not protected. They left nothing.
BMA: Did you ever do anything radical?
Priscilla: You mean chain myself to a tree?! No, but I sure wrote a lot of letters over the years.
Audubon took quite an interest in the forests about 12 years ago, and actually hired people to explore
what was being done and what could be done.
I helped Judith Johnson, who was hired by Audubon to develop maps of what had been cut to compare with maps
of what was being cut and what was proposed to be cut. The final map would show what was left on the ground.
I used to go with her a lot. The logging proposals got to the point where they were planning to cut or not cut
areas that had already been cut--but they didn't know it.
They were saying, "We won't cut this," when they'd already cut it.
BMA: How did you develop your knowledge of bird calls?
Priscilla: I got into that because about 22 years ago I started doing a breeding bird survey.
My route goes from Asotin almost all the way to Fields Spring State Park.
For the last 6 years Judy and I have done our routes back to back. Her route goes from Troy into the Blue Mountains.
We'd go up and camp sometimes. I had a pickup you could sleep in. To do a breeding bird survey you stop on the road
every 1/2 mile and record every bird you see or hear on your route.
In the beginning I could hear about 40 different birds and now it's only about 30.
The variety has gone down because of development--ranchettes.
BMA: What about your interest in birds outside this region. Haven't you traveled a lot?
Priscilla: I have traveled a lot. I started traveling early in the '80s.
I went twice with Cory and Shirley Muse to Alaska for 6 weeks.
Then a friend of mine from Portland wanted me to go to South America in '83.
It was a four-week trip to Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, and Galapagos.
I was never so tired in all my life as when I got home from that trip, because we were at it for 14 - 15 hours a day.
But it was a wonderful trip. Since then I've traveled 13 times with this same naturalist on these tours.
Mark's a young Dr. Rempel. Ken, my husband, has gone with me a couple times.
We've been to Australia, New Zealand, and Patagonia and Jamaica, and many other places.
I'd go back to all of these places if somebody else would pay for it.
I've said that the first ten years I taught my check went for a college somewhere,
because all our children have their graduate degrees, but the next ten years I salted it away,
and that's what I've been traveling on.
BMA: Do you have any travel plans now?
Priscilla: Yes, I'm going to North Carolina in May.
The last part of the tour is a pelagic trip and I'm hoping to see some of the same birds I saw in Alaska.
There are about 19 birds I could possibly pick up, which would be neat.
BMA: Well, in your years of birding and travels have you ever been particularly surprised or delighted by anything that's happened? Priscilla: I've always been surprised by how people really can't believe you're going birding. I was on a plane once going to Michigan to see the Kirtland's Warbler and the man I sat next to asked me why I was going there and when I told him, he said, "To see a bird?" And another time I was with a group in Madagascar, and a man passing by reported he'd heard a bird, a Short Legged Ground Roller. This Ground Roller is very hard to find. Our leader realized how rare this bird is, so everyone wanted to go find it. We started to go where the sound was and it took us close to an hour. The sound kept coming and we went up one ridge and down and up again--we're talking real jungle--very steep, no trail except on the ridges. The fourth time we came up and walked along the ridge we saw a little group of people down at the bottom, and I slid down after the others, and a photographer with about 100 lbs. of equipment followed. And there was the bird. Bing Wong, the photographer, got a picture and gave one to me later. Well, then of course we had to get out of there. We had slid down into that ravine. Anyway, I was the last one to get out. And it was hot. Whew, it was hot that day, and of course by that time we were out of water. I finally got up to the trail, and I'll never forget how our guide said, "you come all this way to see this bird?!"
BMA: How can you explain that? How can you explain why you went all that way to see the bird?
You spent a lot of money, and you have, over your whole life, endured dangers and privations.
Priscilla: It's adventure. I've always liked new experiences, and I've never been particularly fearful.
And now I've gotten to the point where if it's my time to go, it's my time to go.
Also, I thoroughly enjoy the people I meet who have similar interests. I must confess it's enriched my life a great deal.
Melissa Webster, 2004