Harold Williams's Essays
Harold Williams was the long suffering driver for Frances Williams, the pioneer ornithologist for West Texas. An oilfield paleontologist who examined foraminifera, he was instrumental in helping to create the Stratigraphy of the Permian Basin Geology. He loved to go with his wife along the back roads of West Texas. He kept an eye out on the geology, but his favorite sight along the road were big range bulls bellering in ranch pastures. During his childhood, his father ran cattle on the Seminole Indian reservation in Oklahoma and in Alberta province in Canada, so his heart and soul was filled with ranch memories.
Index to Stories
He sometimes wrote stories for the Midland Naturalist's newsletter The Phalarope, always signing them as "the birdwatcher's spouse."
- Evolution of a birdwatcher's spouse
- Birdwatchers as seen by their spouses
- Bored? Try this – Breeding bird surveys
- Why Birders prefer pollution
- Breeding bird surveys, redux
- Going for the 500th species – will it ever end?
- The bird watcher finds her 500th species
- Due to taxonomic changes, the birdwatcher goes after her 500th species again
- The bird watcher's spouse has a friend
- The birdwatcher's spouse has a vacation
Harold Williams was a contrarian, and would sometimes write a curmudgeonly essay.
Despite his curmudgeonly ways, Harold was actually someone that truly enjoyed the out of doors, and often wrote thoughtful essays that showed how he really felt.
- Work stopping birds
- In defense of the shrike
- Playas of the Llano Estacado
- Morning on a Glasscock County ranch
- Prairie or lawn?
- Scarlet tanagers
- Snowy owls
- Green Heron
- The Llano Estacado
- The Mustelidae
- Foxes of Midland County
- Looking for Rails
- Through a country window
- Turkey
- Predatory birds
- Why Christmas counts?
- Listen