Local birder seeks museum home for 600 bird species film collection

Some people spend many years of their life searching for their passion. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines passion as a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. For one Skagit Valley resident, passion was first found via a piece of chalk on a blackboard.

Bob Hamblin, now 82, was only six years old when he saw his teacher draw an American goldfinch on the classroom blackboard. Hamblin was instantly fascinated with the drawing and wanted to learn more about birds. In 1982 he began his lifelong journey filming over 600 species of North American birds. He paired his $25,000 video camera with a 26 square foot trailer he towed behind his truck across the country. Over time he went to almost every state in the county, scheduling his trips around his fulltime work as a landscaper in the Skagit Valley.

His dual degrees in biology and commercial art from Western Washington University gave him the skillset he needed to film and identify birds.

Hamblin spent close to a million dollars on equipment and travelling. He asked professional videographers which cameras were the best on the market and purchased one of the first portable color video cameras in 1982. It weighed almost 95 pounds and was worn as a backpack. Even so, it was considered an immense upgrade to previous cameras which required a three-man crew to operate. At times, he traveled thousands of miles by plane and boat to film new species of birds.

“It was an addiction,” Hamblin wrote in a letter to the Smithsonian Museum in September offering to donate his collection.

Using the AOU checklist, an official source for the taxonomy of North and Middle American birds developed by the American Ornithological Society, he created a one-of-a-kind film collection. He spent hundreds of hours editing his film onto discs at his at-home studio. He sold the discs to select retailers, including the American Birding Association. The footage was unique at the time, he explained, because his close-ups were unusually clear and crisp. His shots were always of birds in their natural habitat, never in captivity. Hamblin thinks this is why in his videos stood out in comparison to other sources of birding material.

“I was 10 years ahead of the market,” he notes.

Hamblin has spent the last decade attempting to donate his 34 years’ worth of hard work to anyone that will take it. His cameras and tapes now sit idle in a warehouse. He has reached out to multiple museums and six universities across the country but, to his dismay, no one has accepted his offer. His letter to the Smithsonian Museum had no response. Even so, Hamblin has not given up on his goal to donate his valuable collection of tapes.

Still his concern, he says, is that “it will go to the dump if I don’t find someone that will take it.”

Even though he stopped his videography in 2016, observing North American birds is still a big part of his life. He regularly frequents the Wiley Slough Wildlife Area on Fir Island to stretch his limbs and bird watch. He confidently approaches photographers on the trail to offer his own knowledge on their observations. Additionally, Hamblin participates in the annual La Conner Birding Showcase.