Date: 3/2/26 12:06 am From: Ryan Winkleman via groups.io <rswinkleman...> Subject: Re: [OrangeCountyBirding] Jim Pike, an Orange County original, passed away February 2026
Jim Pike's passing is an enormous blow to birding and conservation both in
Orange County and California. The number of rarities he casually found each
year was astounding, and he had a meticulous attention to detail regarding
bird plumages that he demonstrated time and again through photo analysis of
birds both he and others found. I relied on his expert eye many times when
I was our NAB compiler to help tell birds apart or, contrarily, tell when
the same birds were moving around to different locations.
Jim and I emailed each other a lot over the years, but we only actually met
in person twice since Jim, like me, liked to keep to himself when out
birding in his later years. Back in 2017 I asked Jim if he'd be willing to
help me learn more about Least Bell's Vireo nesting habits and he very
graciously met me out at the Prado Wetlands and took me around for half a
day visiting vireo territories and giving me a behind the scenes tour. He
was especially excited to show me where he had found through his seasonal
work that the exact same vireo nest had been built upon and reused three
years in a row. The following year he sent me a cryptic email asking if I
wanted to see a rare bird he had just found earlier that day, which he then
showed me the next day. This was of course the Tropical Parula that Jim
amazingly found while wandering around in an apartment complex in
Huntington Beach. Doug Willick used to say that Jim's pishing was
deafeningly loud and that his ability to pull in birds from across parks
due to his loud pishing was legendary.
Jim and I found another thing we had in common, and that was our taste in
music. I once complimented him on a T-shirt he was wearing in a CBRC photo
<https://californiabirds.org/CBRCmembers2014.htmla> that had the cover of
the 1980s band The Replacements' album "Let It Be," which then resulted in
many musical exchanges between us. In a rebuttal of "Clapton is God," Jim
once told me that he wasn't sure if God was actually Paul Westerberg (The
Replacements), Thom Yorke (Radiohead), or Pete Townshend (The Who).
Orange County birding, and California birding in general, won't be the same
without Jim's regular contributions to its records, nor his consciousness
about and passion for protecting its birds and their habitats. Thank you,
Jim, for everything you taught me in the time we knew each other, and in
the words of Mr. Westerberg:
If I don't see you
In a long, long while
I'll try to find you
Left of the Dial
On Sun, Mar 1, 2026, 5:51 PM Thomas Wurster via groups.io <wurster=
<earthlink.net...> wrote:
> Orange County birders and beyond,
>
>
>
> It is with great sadness and heartbreak that I share that Jim Pike passed
> away on February 17, following his diagnosis less than a month before with
> an aggressive cancer. Though Jim was a respected member of the Orange
> County birding community for over 40 years, many will know him only through
> his posts to the OC Birding list serve, where he reported a steady stream
> of rarities, and regularly urged community action to save our park and
> neighborhood trees and plant cover from excessive pruning and removal. Jim,
> with his life partner Kim, moved to Huntington Beach from Wisconsin in
> 1983. Soon after Jim began his OC birding career. His impact was immediate
> with locals asking, “Who is the “new kid on a bike” who keeps reporting
> rare birds?” Shortly thereafter Jim was fully integrated with the area’s
> avid birders.
>
>
>
> Jim was very keen in the field and has a string of “County Firsts” to his
> credit. An incomplete list includes Mississippi Kite and Black-billed
> Cuckoo in 1989, Sedge Wren in 1991, Streak-backed Oriole in 1996, plus a
> Tropical Parula in 2018, the latter being the first state record for
> California. Jim found all these birds in Huntington Beach by concentrating
> his efforts within a limited geographic area and exploring it in depth. In
> the 1990s and early 2000s Jim joined with a small contingent of California
> birders who were exploring the Baja California Peninsula. He and I traveled
> there together in October 1986 where we stumbled upon an Olive-backed Pipit
> - a First Record for Mexico - in Catavina, a small palm oasis and rancho
> in the mid-peninsula portion of Baja. We spotted it independently, but only
> Jim knew instantly what it was. In time, Jim’s skill in bird finding and
> identification were acknowledged statewide, leading to his election to
> multiple terms as a member of the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC).
>
>
>
> The late, great Loren Hays was instrumental in recognizing Jim’s skills
> and talent as a naturalist and encouraged Jim to turn his avocation into a
> career. Starting as a seasonal biologist, and later as an independent
> consultant, Jim worked for 36 seasons with various agencies including the
> Orange County Water District, studying the Prado Basin population of
> endangered Least Bell’s Vireos. While the number of vireos nesting there
> varied from year to year, their increase likely made the Prado population a
> major source of fledglings that colonized rehabilitated riparian habitat
> throughout Southern California in subsequent years. Jim’s success there,
> both in monitoring and implementing recovery strategies certainly stands
> as one of his most significant achievements.
>
>
>
> Jim’s work with the vireos was seasonal, and he and Kim took full
> advantage of the offseason. They traveled widely throughout the western
> states, often camping in offroad areas that gave them access to remote
> desert and mountain areas. At home Jim and Kim nurtured multiple
> “fur-children”, a dog and multiple indoor cats, as well as some feathered
> ones.
>
>
>
> As a friend and fellow birder, thank you, Jim Pike, for all you
> accomplished in conservation and for all you shared with the community
> birding. You are greatly missed.
>
>
>
> Tom Wurster
>
> Garden Grove
>
>
