Today I gave a talk to people at one of the gardens for the Vashon Allied
Arts Garden Tour on how to attract birds and plant for better habitat in the
garden and yards. Probably the biggest hit came from the specimens of birds
on a stick that I brought with me thanks to the Slater Museum of Natural
History at UPS. Whenever these are brought out people with look, talk and
ask questions for an incredible amount of time. Gary Shugart from the
museum happens to live on Vashon, which has been a great asset. He keeps a
cooler outside his garage door and we've been publicizing to people to bring
their dead birds that they find and drop them off to Gary. They're then
used by the museum for research but some are also set aside for education
and Vashon Audubon then takes these into the classroom at all levels from
pre-school to high school for talks to great interest from all ages.
They're used a little more extensively for the 4th grade bird program that
all Vashon students go through combined with several field trips, hours of
class time and art and journal work. These specimens really seem to reach
out and interest everyone and really pay off for the conservation community.
I wanted to say thanks publicly for this availability. Besides the Slater
Museum at UPS, the Burke Museum at UW also takes birds, though I don't know
to what extent they're used beyond research. Either way, they're a great
asset. I wouldn't be surprised if over a hundred species have come in over
the last several years and it's helped document some of the rarer birds for
Vashon.



Ed Swan

Nature writer and guide

www.theswancompany.com <http://www.theswancompany.com>

edswan at centurytel.net <mailto:edswan at centurytel.net>

206.463.7976