Great Member Story
The following story is from True North AmeriCorps Member, Erin Zoelick, serving at Hartley Nature Center in Duluth, MN.
"They excitedly stood around him as he held a tiny bird in his hands. Pete, our director at Hartley Nature Center, had spent the past hour showing them how to safely net migrating birds and put tracking bands around their legs. Then he took all 30 students outside to carefully release these chickadees and warblers back on their merry migrating way. They shoved a bit and leaned in as Pete revealed this particular chickadee in his palms and quietly asked a nearby student if he would like to be the one to hold the bird and release it. The student gleefully stepped forward, gently took the bird in his hand, and calmly opened his grip as the chickadee fluttered away. They all silently stood watching the bird until it was no longer visible, and then looked at each other laughing a little and talking about how cool it was to see the bird that close.
By the way, these students are all teenage males who have gotten into some sort of trouble with the law. They are tough-looking students with drooping pants and completely improper footwear for the steep hike they are about to take.
I have 12 of them in my hiking group as the others split off with other educators. Most of them are full-grown and pretty intimidating, and I hate to say it but I feel hesitant that any significant learning will happen on this bird hike. But they seemed pretty interested in the live birds that Pete showed, so I take a deep breath, pass out field guides and binoculars, and prepare them for what they are about to do and see on this hike. Birding is my thing, so I hope that my excitement and interest will transfer to them over the next hour.
We take off up the trail, winding through towering pines and over through a patch of huge ferns. I tell them the hike will be hard on the way up, but we are about to visit the "box seats" of Hartley Park. They are doing great, asking questions, actively bird watching and bird listening. We approach an area I have selected for a “silent sit”, and I explain that they should spread out and silently sit to watch bird activity for five minutes. When the five minutes have passed, they emerge excitedly talking about what they saw, and with perfect timing, two bird species we hadn’t seen yet appear right in front of us. We continue up the steep path and reach two overlooks from which we see a gorgeous view of Lake Superior. They laugh when I joke that there is a vending machine at the next overlook, and we continue back down the trails until we reach the pines again.
As the group turns their books and binoculars back in to me, their teacher approaches me and says, “It’s unheard of that these guys would willingly follow you up a 120-foot incline and be totally engaged. We’ve been doing these bird hikes here for years and yours is the best we’ve been on. These guys are leaving here really knowing about birds.” The students all thanked me and told me how much they enjoyed the hike, and I went back to the office knowing that, at least for some of them, birding is now their thing too. That same teacher contacted me a few days later and asked that I get involved in a service learning project with their school!"
