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One of the birding community’s shining stars has died. Judith Toups, who until recently lived in Gulfport, MS, and has been called the “mother of birdwatching in Mississippi,” passed away on Tuesday (Feb. 27), in Decatur, AL. She was 77.
Toups was the authority on birds along the Mississippi Gulf Coast for decades. She founded the Mississippi Coast Audubon Society, wrote a weekly bird column for the Biloxi Sun Herald, advocated for the protection of Least Terns and other coastal birds, co-authored two books on the region (Guide to Birding Coastal Mississippi and Adjacent Counties and Birds and Birding on the Mississippi Coast), and wrote often for our magazine.
Birder’s World Founding Editor Eldon Greij recalled her fondly. She was a very talented writer, he told me, with a unique way of putting words together. What’s more, he said, anyone who knew her would tell you about her kindheartedness, especially with beginning birders. Her generous spirit carried over to her friends at the magazine, as well. Judy once drove from Mississippi to Michigan to pay Eldon and his colleagues a visit. When she arrived, she wasn’t empty-handed; she brought along a pot of delicious gumbo to share.
Greij also recalled her excellent birding skills. During the World Series of Birding in New Jersey one year, she and he were birding along a dune, and the wind was howling. “All of a sudden, Judy called out ‘Prairie Warbler,’" Greij said, "and sure enough, a few seconds later a small yellow bird flew into a nearby shrub. It was a male Prairie Warbler. She picked out its call above the wind.”
The first time I spoke with Toups was shortly after Hurricane Katrina had struck Mississippi and Louisiana. She had ridden out the storm in her house but didn’t want to focus on her own story. She was more concerned with the birds in her yard, or lack thereof. Chickadees, titmice, and woodpeckers were scarce, and she was worried about them.
A few months later, I asked her to write a story on Katrina’s effects on birds, which we published in our August 2006 issue. Much had been lost, she wrote, and the future for the region’s birds looked bleak. “What I loved about this area is a thing of the past,” she told me in an email. --M.M.
(Photo of Judith Toups at Gulf Islands National Seashore in August 2004 by GARY HOLLAND/SUN HERALD.)
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