Stephanie

I grew up in Massachusetts with my father being employed by MassWildlife for 40 years.  I’ve always been interested in the natural world and always curious about birds, but never really had the time to explore them more deeply until now.  I have been doing birding with Massachusetts Audubon and joined Project Feeder Watch last winter.  I have been amazed and fascinated at how much I have learned already by doing those two simple things and by taking this course. I plant to utilize e bird going forward.  Admittedly, I was a little intimidated by it at first, but watching the segment in this course has made me realize how simple or involved it can really be.  Nest Watch also interests me, as we have blue bird boxes that are variously occupied by blue birds, tree swallows and house sparrows at different times. Happily, I have observed blue bird populations increase in my local area over my life time.  As have northern cardinals.  When I was a child in the 1970’s, they were a rarity.  This past winter I counted 12 at a time at my feeder on many occasions!  And thanks to the efforts of my father and his coworkers during the early 70’s, wild turkeys have gone from extremely rare here, to commonplace! Of the 7 Actions I could do to protect birds, I currently do most of them, but did not realize coffee growing methods were an issue and will try to do better there!  And as above, I plan to increase my citizen scientist participation.  I hope to learn enough about birding to begin volunteering to lead bird and other nature walks myself at my local Audubon sanctuary in future.