Bird Man | General Studies
By Julie Butters When it comes to high-risk activities, bird-watching doesn’t usually make it to the top of the list. But Professor Emeritus William “Ted” E. Davis, Jr., has faced peril more than once while observing birds for research or pleasure. In 1965, Davis (GRS’66), who was 29, and his father were stalking grassland birds in Tanzania when their vehicle was charged by a black rhinoceros. (“We had a very good driver and he raced away from it,” he says.) But the scariest confrontation happened in Australia in 1990. He was a visiting research fellow at University of New England...