Judith Toups
Encyclopedia
Judith A. "Judy" Toups was a Mississippi
-based birder and columnist for the Sun Herald of Biloxi for almost 35 years.
Born November 30, 1930 and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Toups met and married sailor Jay Toups, a Mississippi
native, in Gloucester, Massachusetts
. She returned with him to his home state in 1965, the year he mustered out of the Navy. They settled in Gulfport
and raised six children.
Her parents realized, on one of their visits to the Gulf Coast, that a stay-at-home mother of six young children needed a diversion. Thus began Toups' birding career.
In the late 1980s, Judy Toups rescued a sharp-shinned hawk from the front screened porch of a house in Bay St. Louis. The bird had barreled through the screen in pursuit of a squirrel and had been trapped on the porch, disoriented and unable to find the door and freedom. With only a quilt between her and sharp beak and talons, Toups dropped the bed covering over this formidable raptor, and ... carrying the trailing tails of the quilt, she carried the swaddled bird outside and let it go (http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/16799114.htm).
Toups founded the Mississippi Coast Audubon Society and advanced its conservation causes, including the high-profile protection program for terns and black skimmers. She taught Seashore Methodist Assembly elder-hostels and sent fledgling birders out across Coast terrain in search of native and visiting birds.
She developed the Mississippi Coastal Birding Trail map, and wrote two books on birding the Gulf Coast. There is a trail named after her in Jackson County's Ward Bayou, and she was honoured by many birding societies. A portion of U.S. Highway 90 in Gulfport bordering the nesting areas she sought to protect was renamed the Judith Toups Least Tern Highway in early 2008.
Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina
, Toups relocated to Decatur, Alabama
, where she died, aged 76, from undisclosed causes, on February 27, 2007.
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
-based birder and columnist for the Sun Herald of Biloxi for almost 35 years.
Born November 30, 1930 and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Toups met and married sailor Jay Toups, a Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
native, in Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
. She returned with him to his home state in 1965, the year he mustered out of the Navy. They settled in Gulfport
Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after the state capital Jackson. It is the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the...
and raised six children.
Her parents realized, on one of their visits to the Gulf Coast, that a stay-at-home mother of six young children needed a diversion. Thus began Toups' birding career.
In the late 1980s, Judy Toups rescued a sharp-shinned hawk from the front screened porch of a house in Bay St. Louis. The bird had barreled through the screen in pursuit of a squirrel and had been trapped on the porch, disoriented and unable to find the door and freedom. With only a quilt between her and sharp beak and talons, Toups dropped the bed covering over this formidable raptor, and ... carrying the trailing tails of the quilt, she carried the swaddled bird outside and let it go (http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/16799114.htm).
Toups founded the Mississippi Coast Audubon Society and advanced its conservation causes, including the high-profile protection program for terns and black skimmers. She taught Seashore Methodist Assembly elder-hostels and sent fledgling birders out across Coast terrain in search of native and visiting birds.
She developed the Mississippi Coastal Birding Trail map, and wrote two books on birding the Gulf Coast. There is a trail named after her in Jackson County's Ward Bayou, and she was honoured by many birding societies. A portion of U.S. Highway 90 in Gulfport bordering the nesting areas she sought to protect was renamed the Judith Toups Least Tern Highway in early 2008.
Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, Toups relocated to Decatur, Alabama
Decatur, Alabama
Decatur is a city in Limestone and Morgan Counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. The city, affectionately known as "The River City", is located in Northern Alabama on the banks of Wheeler Lake, along the Tennessee River. It is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County...
, where she died, aged 76, from undisclosed causes, on February 27, 2007.
External links
- http://www.birdersworld.com/brd/default.aspx?c=a&id=703
- http://judithtoups.blogspot.com