Maurice Broun and Earle Poole: A Friendly Rivalry

FREE Autumn Lecture

From 1929 through 1933, Earl L. Poole - ornithologist, artist and assistant director of the Reading Public Museum - made over 18 visits to the "Eckville Gap," now known as Hawk Mountain, to document the fall migration of raptors along the Blue Mountain during the height of the hawk shooting. His research culminated in an article in the January 1934 issue of The Auk, the journal of the American Ornithologists' Union, entitled "The Hawk Migration Along the Kittatinny Ridge in Pennsylvania." This was the first comprehensive treatment of the newly discovered migratory phenomenon.

Maurice and Irma Broun arrived at Hawk Mountain later that year in September to stop the hawk shooting and create a sanctuary for birds of prey.

Broun and Poole first met later in October when Broun visited the Reading Public Museum after devoting weeks of daily observation at the North Lookout that revealed remarkable occurrences of Golden Eagles and a Common Raven, two species that had gone unrecorded in Berks, including during the times Poole previously observed the migration. Their relationship got off to a shaky start when Poole was skeptical of those records by the brash, young New Englander.

Through examinations of Poole and Broun's personal journals and published articles along with revelations from the post-World War II birding journals of Baird Ornithological Club member Charlie Schaich, Bill Uhrich explores the rivalry and the lasting friendship between Berks County's first alpha birders.

Bill Uhrich wrote a nature column for the Reading Eagle for over 25 years and with the Baird Ornithological Club edited A Century of Bird Life in Berks County, Pennsylvania, published by the Reading Public Museum in 1997. This work updated Poole's 1947 A Half Century of Bird Life in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

This program is part of our 2026 Autumn Lecture Series.