By Dan Zoimek
When you are young, every bird you see is a life bird (one you’ve never seen before). Learning bird songs is like learning a foreign language, but hearing them repeatedly allows you to remember them for the rest of your life.
By David Spector
The wilds of western Massachusetts are not very dangerous. Many threats — mosquitoes and ticks, poison ivy and nettles — are relatively familiar to most people who walk the woods. Poisonous snakes are rare here, and an attack by a large mammal would be extremely unusual. There are birds, such as any member of the heron family, that I would be very careful about handling but that pose no threat in the wild. One local bird species, though, makes me nervous.
By David Spector
When I see a bald eagle, however, my own experiences resonate more deeply with me than all its history and symbolism. My memories of the bird go back to even before I first saw one. When I started recording bird sightings, this species was high on my wish list of birds to see, and, to increase my chances, I read about its shoreline habitat and distribution.
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
at Hampshire College
845 West Street | Amherst MA 01002 | 413.256.6006 | 413.253.2809 fax