Service Award recipient 1997
From her home in Tuxedo Jean Bancroft hikes to Assiniboine Park almost daily to look for birds. Always interested in sharing her experiences, Jean is a prolific writer, contributing notes and articles to several publications, including the MNS Bulletin, Zoolog, MWRO’s Wing Beat, the Blue Jay and Nature Society News. Jean has more than 120 publications (from 1965-1997) under her name and she’s still working on several new projects.
Jean and her late husband Fred kept a cottage at Whytewold for more than 30 years and it was there that she studied the nesting habits of so many different kinds of birds. Jean has contributed more than 900 nesting records to the Prairie Nest Records Scheme, thus making valuable information available to ornithological students and researchers. Her interest in birds was sparked by her mother and grandmother and as a child she spent many years birding at Elmwood Cemetery.
Mrs. Bancroft has given talks on birds at elementary schools and has been interviewed on television. Bump into her at Assiniboine Park some morning and, ever anxious to share her knowledge and love of birds, you’ll be the recipient of her years of experience and endless enthusiasm.
We are inspired by Jean Bancroft’s energy, spirit and her love of birds. In giving her this Service Award, we are offering a small token of our respect, admiration, and appreciation.