Friday, September 18, 2009

Sunny Days

Most days I really enjoy my job as a professor at Lasell College but some days I really love it. Today is one of those days. In about an hour I get to take a group of students in my Diversity of Living Organisms (BIO102) class into the field to go birding. We will wander around the wetland and woods capturing images of the diversity the bird world has to offer while enjoying the 75 degree fall weather. Lovely!

Birding? Birding is not really my thing. I'm not very good at it so the challenge makes it even more enjoyable. We are heading to Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge in Concord. Birding is typically not an activity young college students engage in and I often get doubting looks when I tell students we are going birding. But once they get past their initial skepticism students usually buy into the experience and appreciate the activity. I ask students to write reflections about their birding experience and I frequently read comments about how they have a new appreciation for bird diversity.

Off I go to view the killdeers, snowy egrets, great blue herons, downy woodpeckers, yellow-rumbed warblers, red-tailed hawks, red-eyed vireos, dark-eyed juncos, and many other interesting species the Refuge has to offer. I hope my colleagues enjoy their day working in their stuffy offices and classrooms!

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