My Ornithology Students

These two have been ornithology students of mine for their entire lives. They are dedicated to the science and interpretation of ornithology,  and spend most, or much of their waking time studying the subject.

"Red Cat", or "Fat Cat", or "Paws", to the left and "Rosie" to the right. the cat perch is local bird expert, Professor Jay

By "waking time" I mean about two hours each day, when they are not sleeping. This is especially the routine, now, in the winter.  However, I am reliably assured  that when these students are engaging in their "sleep time" they are often dreaming of the that  days study.

Our class room discussions are often informal, and the students can be quite creative and expressive

Like any good students they are curious about many disciplines. They have crossed over into intense interest in certain small mammals, and a sometimes comical investment in "studying" the insect world.

   

I have seen them frolicking with butterflies, chasing bee’s and mercilessly attacked (at least the red cat) by enormous night-borne moths that invade the summer house.  We shall not mention the unfortunate incident with last summers preying mantis that almost cost the red cat an ear.  Let us just say that Professor Jay was on the scene to mediate any, well, disagreements between the unhappy (both) parties.

All parties survived the episode. this preying mantis really gave it its all and is in somewhat of a state of dishabille. With my gentle but cautious intervention, eventually all of its parts came back to perfect working order.

Neither student was particularly enthusiastic about marsh study. They got the amphibians all right, or so they thought until a particularly egregious encounter involving a leaking toad, and the fish fascinated them. They made good friends, we all think, with a turtle.

Didn't say much but didn't run away either.  Students studied this Eastern Painted for hours one afternoon.

This non-matriculating but occasional student sometimes visits our outdoor lectures, workshops, and walks.  Usually staying in the background, listening intently.  This day we were really engrossed with the marsh study and didn't noitce our friend right away.

At one point our friend decided that it was lunch time. We thought  it wanted to share lunch with us but we were not THAT hungry.

I am not sure if it was a lack of understanding, or a misunderstanding, or what exactly happened but after what seemed like an eternity of  attention grabbing aquatic acrobats the students leapt into the water near these "dancing" frogs.
Although the water was not that deep, the students immersed and then exited not so quietly. They reached the shore and beat me back to the home classroom.

 The students decided that they absolutely hated the marsh studies.  For some reason it just didn't motivate them.

After the Marsh class while discussing the days diving in the marsh, this student didnt have a lot to say but listened intently to Professor Jay

We all had a light meal after a short review of frog biology.

Red Cat is a very erudite botanist.  Here he is tending to his patch of catnip. If he looks wet it is because it is raining hard. Talk about dedicated, he just refused to stop working. Check out that glaze in his eye!

Sharing a moment with adjunct professor of day to day planning, Jamie R, after a long day in the catnip garden!

Red Cat is dreaming about the sun!

Rosie pulled a student prank when she (and this is a true story) sat on the copy machine in the office and photcopied her ass. Found 25 copies of this on the floor the next morning.  She is a prankster!

Traveling Professor of Foreign Bird Studies Jajean discusses copy machine incident with  unaplogetic Rosie

He truly prefers the live workshops in the window room. he does a great deal of independent study here, and sometimes actually sleeps at his station!

A bird a squirrel and a stone! who comes up with this winter madness?

Rosie is such an exemplary student. Here she is watching a tape of a Red-breasted nuthatch in our garden. Not only does she like to study the birds, but Rosie is very focused on the technical aspects of producing video. She helps me shoot and edit and is very opinionated about the proper way to tell a story. She is great! She insists that visual action paired with authentic sounds is the most profound platform for her kind of video. It works for me. Professor becomes student!