[mou] Re: [mnbird] Sax Zim thought

[Laura Erickson]

Shaun's comments about wearing binoculars into restaurants and gas 
stations, and also trying to boost the local economy in the Sax-Zim area 
are very important.  And there's more than one reason to let locals know 
you're a birder.  Not only can we give people a good impression of us, and 
let them know that it's in their own self-interest to maintain bird 
habitat, but also we can get good tips about where birds are.  Once when I 
was in the grocery store in Meadowlands, and mentioned to the cashier that 
I was there birding, she told me about a Great Gray Owl that had been 
frequenting her property, and gave me precise directions.  And several 
times when I've been in the gas/station-coffee shop, people sitting around 
have started asking questions and telling their own owl stories.  It's a 
great way to build bridges that will help us all in the long run.  And it's 
good for the birds as well.

Laura Erickson
Duluth, MN

NOTE address change: bluejay@lauraerickson.com

Producer, "For the Birds" radio program
<http://www.lauraerickson.com/>

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of 
birds.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of 
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

                                 --Rachel Carson