Uffe Gjøl Sørensen (1954-2021)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uffe grew up in Himmerland, south of the city of Aalborg, Denmark. From childhood he had a great interest in birds, and he soon became active in the local ornithological circles. As a teenager, he began mapping rook colonies in north-eastern Himmerland, which became one of his long-term studies, continuing into the latest years.

 

 

A couple of years later, he moved to Copenhagen to study biology, and in the following years I often visited him there. He lived in a complex of small appartments in a side street, where other bird watchers also lived, including Ib Krag Petersen, Lene Smith, David Boertmann, Thomas Læssøe, Bent Otto Poulsen (called Bop), Erling Krabbe, Steen Christensen, Klaus Malling Olsen, Mikkel Lausten, Hans Meltofte, and Hanne Rode.

In his epistle Blues for Møllegade (‘Mill Street Blues’), Klaus Malling Olsen gives a vivid description of the environment: “Mill Street lay dreary and grey, so typical for this part of Copenhagen, as you can imagine from the 1980s. Old workers’ apartments opposite the Mosaic cemetery, with a view towards graves and tall trees from the apartments. Small and humid, without bath and with a very small kitchen and toilet, and no other heating than a wood stove. Places for artists or scientists. Only few people were aware that in these humble surroundings some of the most important ornithological works were conceived, written, and discussed. At the same time, the street outside was a mess of dog shit, and a colourful assemblage of more or less alcoholic types gathered outside the grocery store on the corner, as taken out of a novel from the workers’ environment from the same part of Copenhagen.”

Many of the ornithologists were members of a food club, taking turns in preparing a weekly meal for the entire gang, and they were often friendly enough to invite me, too. I shall never forget one incident, when I was visiting Uffe. It was his turn to make a meal for the club members. However, he had been delayed at some meeting and phoned me to say that he would be late, and could I please prepare the meal, otherwise the hungry members of the food club would be shouting very loud, mocking him. Of course I agreed to cook, and while I was still busy preparing the meal, the other members began swarming in.

“Where is Uffe?” they all asked. When they learned that he was delayed, there was a lot of shouting, despite my cooking, and when Uffe arrived a couple of hours later he became the target of much mocking.

“It doesn’t count to make a friend cook!” they said, “You owe us one more meal!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The material from Sinai was processed by Uffe, and in 1991 he graduated on the subject Large scale autumn migration of water birds along the North Coast of Sinai, Egypt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In late December 1994, Solveig Schjørring and I met with Uffe and his friend Jørgen Bech in Arusha, northern Tanzania, where we hired a Landcruiser for a month’s safari in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. One of the highlights of this trip was a hike in Bwindi, where we, after some time, managed to find a family group of the fantastic mountain gorillas. They are so much like us, just much more peaceful!

Uffe repeated the success in 1998, when he visited the gorillas together with the well-known Danish actress Ghita Nørby, and Poul Thomsen, who was the host of a nature program on Danish TV. The aim of this trip was to create awareness around the conservation of gorillas and other apes, and to raise money for the project. Uffe and Ghita wrote a small book about the issue: Operation Oskar – med Ghita Nørby på besøg hos bjerggorillaerne (‘Operation Oskar – visiting mountain gorillas with Ghita Nørby’).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main aim of the project was to persuade the local people to exploit the natural recources at a sustainable level, so that the animal populations were kept stable. A number of local councils, called Community Development Units, were founded, and during CDU meetings between WWF staff and villagers, local issues were discussed. Several women’s groups were also formed, teaching women about healthy food, hygiene, care of infants, knitting, sewing, and baking, and about women’s rights in Zambia.

Part of the project also involved publishing material for Danish school children to create awareness of conservation problems in Africa. When Uffe learned that I was planning to go to South Africa, buy a car, and drive around in southern Africa, he persuaded me to go to the Bangweulu Swamps to document the ways of the local tribes, Unga and Bena Kabende, through pictures, and also to photograph as many animals as possible. The pictures would be of great usage in the school material, and elsewhere. As it turned out, I also ended up writing the text for a booklet, aimed at the school children.

The project was running smoothly for some years, but then Uffe heard rumours about corruption. As it turned out, the local leader of the project, a German named Rolf, had transferred money from the project to his own account. In 1996, Uffe had to go to Zambia for six months to try to save the project, but in vain. Donors were unwilling to continue donating money under the present circumstances.

In November 1996, I flew to Lusaka and continued to the WWF headquarters in the small town of Samfya, where I met with Uffe. Later, Jørgen Bech and Erling Krabbe arrived, so now the members of the ‘Gang of Four’ from our trip to Ethiopia 1996 were once again gathered. We spent a month touring Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week later, we went by bus to Koshi Barrage, a huge swamp area with a rich birdlife, and then on to Sauraha, on the shore of the Rapti River, close to Chitwan National Park. We went on two hikes in the park to look for rhinos and birds. We were lucky to spot a leopard. Then on to Meghauli, in the western part of Chitwan, where we managed to see the rare Bengal florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis).

Late February, we made a week-long hike in Langtang National Park, north of Kathmandu, together with Navaraj and a porter, Lakpa. It was still winter here, so we stayed in the lower parts of the park, around the village of Shyabru.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uffe retired in 2019, and from then on he focused on extensive studies of a pair of white-tailed eagles, which was nesting near the summer house, and on counting breeding birds in the old moats surrounding Christiania in Copenhagen.