Well here I am again starting a blog with all pomp and circumstance requisite with another beginning. So here we go. The truth is that I never felt anyone was reading my blogs last year so there did not seem to be any point . This perception came to a halt when I had the opportunity to see the Ruthven Park banding team in action. They have a group of young folk that are integral to the operation of the banding lab. While I was there I saw "The baggers" as they are called clear net lanes do net checks and scribe and band. All this was inspired by a kindred spirit and friend Rick Ludkin who has inspired a generation of young people to connect with nature despite all the distractions and modern day seductions leading to what Richard Louv has coined "Nature deficit disorder" Watching all of this happening has inspired me to resurrect our "bandit program" We attempted years ago to have a program geared to young kids at the marsh we tried to run it as a club but we didn't really have it right. Currently we attract a lot of young kids who get involved on the periphery but seeing what the folks at Ruthven are doing has truly inspired me. It is often difficult to uproot an idea and plant it somewhere else . I feel this is a seed of an idea which if we nurture and care for it may just take hold and become something really worthwhile. Readers will no doubt be thinking I have plenty of manure in me to help out, and well what can I say it is true. This spring look for a return of the marsh bandits. I have high hopes.
The baggers not only inspired me but also influenced me. This has always been the power of young people when they are at their best. I was always lucky when I taught the TERRA program our outdoor education program at tdss. For the most part I was surrounded by positive young people who had dreams and visions of what could be . One of the baggers a young man named Ben came up and asked me if I wrote a blog about the birds we band at the marsh. He even ( the fabulous lad he is) told me he really liked it and suggested I keep in going because he had not seen anything in a long time. So there you have it . The blog is not just a cathartic journal meant to gather dust on a shelf somewhere but it is a living breathing thing in cyber land being read by young people who may even like it. If nothing else this blog will help us chronicle the events unfolding at the marsh and will allow young and old alike at other banding facilities a chance to compare their numbers and species with a northern banding station. It was wonderful to meet some of the faces I had seen on Ricks blog as well. I have to say knowing that someone is actually reading this has totally changed my view of the blog and I feel pretty pumped about carrying on. The timing is perfect as spring is slowly creeping into the north. Temperatures are forecasted to stay under zero for the rest of the week but I am hoping to get to the marsh to do some banding tomorrow so hopefully I will have another update to make then. In signing off I wanted to thank Rick for the invite to meet the baggers and to once again be influenced and inspired by a great guy. If Rick was the proverbial pebble thrown into the quiet pool it is clear to me that his ripples will have touched every shore. For those of you that saw the last slide I used in my talk to be clear I just wrote ripples not nipples!!!!
Bird is the word!!!!!
The views and opinions in this blog are those expressed solely by the author and do not reflect the views or policies of the Hilliardton Marsh Research and Education Center
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