Jon McCracken
Ontario Program
Manager

Telephone Ext. 205

As an "air force brat" growing up on an air force base on the Prairies, I began watching (even "listing") airplanes at a very early age. A fascination for flight was a built-in part of my childhood. The first time I ever really noticed birds was when I was about 4 years old, lying on my back, watching a summer thunderstorm develop overhead, and noticing how a flock of swallows cruised up higher and higher in the calm before the storm. I spent the better part of my youth outside, chasing birds.
Sooner or later, I wound up at Long Point Bird Observatory as a long-term volunteer in the migration and breeding bird census program. In three months, I learned more than I had ever learned on my own or in any classroom. I was hooked by my experience at LPBO. That was 1975. While in university, I kept on coming back to Long Point to work. After graduating from the University of Western Ontario, I worked for many years as a biological consultant, learning more and more, not just about birds, but also about muskoxen and caribou, pollution abatement, wildlife hazards to aircraft (a return to my childhood!), plants, habitats, you name it. By 1989, I finally felt that I had learned enough to return to LPBO as its Migration Program Manager — a huge job. I did that for several years and eventually settled into the even more demanding job of Program Manager.
And so now I live in a big old house in Port Rowan, ON, happily married to my kat Sam, who never goes outside. Someday, me and Sam are gonna pick up and move to Tahiti for a year, where the two of us will collaborate on writing a book.