Month: March 2016

Florence F. Winslow, 95, of Tucson, AZ passed away peacefully on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016.

While growing up on Long Island in New York, she worked at a local library and graduated from  Adelphi College along with her sister, Gladys in 1941. This is a credit to her parents, Florence G. Hennig and William C. Hennig who made great financial sacrifices to send their two daughters to college during the Great Depression.

In September of 1941, she married Roger C. Winslow.  After dedicating many years to raising their three children, Florence went back to school and earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Southern Connecticut State University.

As the librarian for the Connecticut Institute for the Blind, Florence Winslow set up and organized a special school library for blind and otherwise handicapped children.  She also created a special multi-ply library for workers in the field.

In retirement Florence and Roger sponsored a family from Laos and assisted in bringing them to this country.  They helped the family find jobs and housing and to integrate into every aspect of life in the United States. At the same time, she was very involved with the Avon, Connecticut town Historical Society and was one of three women who organized from scratch a town museum in a renovated schoolhouse.

During retirement, she and her husband traveled the world after first checking out all corners of the United States and Canada. They then focused on enjoying much of the year in the Adirondack Mountains of New York –hiking, mountain climbing, fishing, canoeing, and swimming. Prior to retirement, the Winslow Family spent nearly every summer vacation on a lake outside of Tupper Lake, NY.

Florence also liked to garden wherever she lived – planting flowers and raising vegetables for eating.

Music also played an important role. For most of her life she loved singing in church choirs and choral societies.

She is survived by her three children, Phyllis, Tucson, AZ ; Robert, Durango, CO and Barbara, granddaughter, Amanda, and great-grandson, Evan Dias all living in Sand Springs, OK.

Florence Winslow was listed in Who’s Who in Connecticut and Who’s Who of American Women for 1974 -75.

There’s been a bit of excitement in the local birding community this past week. An Eurasian Wigeon (Anas penelope) was spotted at Pastorius Lake. There has been only one other reported sighting of the bird in this area in 2007. The image of the range map from my Sibley Birds app shows how rare it is to be seen in SW Colorado (white area).

 

On Friday, a request went out to the local birding community for photos to better document the bird. Apparently a rather large portion of birds present in the US hybridize with American Wigeons and photographic evidence was needed to help document that it was a pure Eurasian Wigeon and not a hybirid.

 

My photos are the best ones taken so far of the bird and will be used to help confirm the sighting to the Colorado Bird Records Committee.

 

Equipment used: Canon EOS 70D camera (1.6x crop factor), Canon 500mm/f-4 lens, Canon 1.4x III extender, Gitzo Mountaineer tripod, Arca Swiss ball head, 4^th Generation gimbal mount.