Wayne R. Petersen
Anyone who has been birding in Massachusetts for many years either knows Seth Kellogg personally, or certainly knows his reputation. A long-time resident of Southwick in the lower Connecticut River Valley, Seth's influence in the raptor migration-watching community is epic. For many years he was not only an avid hawk counter in the Connecticut Valley, but he also long served as the compiler of regional migration summaries for the journal of the Hawk Migration Association of North America. In addition, Seth has been an active and supporting member of Springfield's Allen Bird Club for much of his adult birding life. A compiler of the Cobble Mountain CBC since its inception, Seth also regularly conducted breeding bird surveys in his beloved "birding patch" in Hampden County, and eventually he took an active role in both the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 1 and 2.
Seth's long-time interest in bird record-keeping of migrating raptors, as well as birds in general in western Massachusetts, eventually led him to take an early role on the roster of the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee, where his even-handed approach to record-keeping made valuable contributions to that group's formative years. When Bird Observer first began publishing western Massachusetts bird records in 1999, Seth Kellogg's name soon graced the magazine's masthead as an associate staff member responsible for systematically collating and supplying western Massachusetts bird records for the journal's bi-monthly bird record archives. His knowledge and extensive experience with bird populations in central and western Massachusetts also made him a valuable member of the Important Bird Area (IBA) Program's Technical Committee during that program's seminal years in 2000–2002.
Sad to say, Seth Kellogg is stepping down from his illustrious and valued service to Bird Observer, but all of us on the staff want to wish him well, acknowledge his past efforts, and thank him for his valued service not just to Bird Observer but to the Massachusetts birding community as a whole. Nicely done, Seth!
Wayne R. Petersen