Earlier this month I was informed of the passing of one of Ottawa’s original dragon-hunters, Christina Lewis. She was not only a mentor to me and Chris Traynor in all things odonate, she was a dear friend and a lovely person – humble, self-effacing, with a quiet sense of humor and deep love of nature.
Chris and her late partner Bob Bracken developed an interest in odes in the 1990s and were tutored by Raymond Hutchinson, Benoit Menard, Paul Catling, Colin Jones and Michael Runtz. They pored over EM Walker’s old publications, corresponded with Colin Jones, and spent time in the field with Raymond Hutchinson and Benoit Menard on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, Paul Catling on the Ontario side, and Michael Runtz in Renfrew County where he lived at the time. These men were the most instrumental in helping Chris and Bob learn how to look at odes, where to go to find them, and encouraging them to document their records. In 1998 she and Bob produced the official checklist of odonates in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, which has been updated several times since then. They wrote many articles for the Ottawa Field Naturalists (and not just about odonates), but their joy came from visiting a variety of habitats just to see what was around, sometimes looking for specific species, often submitting their observations to Ontario Odonata.
Continue reading “In Memoriam – Christina Lewis”
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