Shown above is Dr. Lawrence H. ‘Larry’ Walkinshaw (1904-1993) when searching the Kirtland’s Warbler nesting grounds associated with the Mack Lake burn of 1980, Crawford County, Michigan. Nonetheless, neither the exact location of the amateur Michigan birder when this portrait was taken nor its phototographer are known with certainty. During this interval Walkinshaw was asked to contribute to a research project funded by the USFWS and administered by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources to help salvage another endangered species. The author was told by Kirtland’s Warbler experts that he was the only one who could find their nests with any regularity.

Phyllis Yochem concluded her review On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story saying the book exposed “one of the heros of American ornithology”. Certainly she was correct but if Larry Walkinshaw had heard or read such laudable praise he would downplay it in the extreme. Walkinshaw was a very reserve and unpretentious individual… perhaps even to a fault.

So much so that his modesty even became a motivating factor in the origins of his biography. Everyone in the Walkinshaw family knew how hard he worked, how he loved birding, traveling to study them in the wilds of nature and the long hours devoted to recording field notes, and writing. What we did not know was the eventual impact of it all. Did his sacrificing actually make a difference? That’s why Wendy, my wife - Walkinshaw’s daughter - asked that his biography be compiled.

Discovering for the first time the full reality of his species conservation successes places his family in Yochem’s camp…he really was one of the heros of American ornithology. Better than that however, the cranes and warblers he worked to save offer living testiment well beyond any other acclaim.