Hi Elizabeth,
Tracy OK'd my forwarding of this message to me, which I thought you would really appreciate. I suspect that her experience is replicated many times, in many places...she converted folks who had not been to your talk, to look at pigeons in a different way.
Bravo!
---Karen
if we can't manage an aviary on the premises, maybe we find a way to be connected to one in a meaningful way. (could serve as a local lab, maybe have a webcam, maybe field trips or excursions to is, maybe its walking distance from the pier??etc.)
but the lessons are endless. when i returned to my office, Chris and Michael couldn't understand why I chose to attend that session (of all sessions).They were making bad jokes about it, and Chris was saying how he "hated pigeons", partly because they made a mess at his house and that they were a nuisance, etc.
I told him to just cover or somehow block the area and they'll go elsewhere. That they don't nest in trees, but are more cave dwellers, and are always looking for nooks and crannies on buildings. I went on to explain about how there came to be so many living among us, (we bred them for food for years) and that as we are a culture that leaves food everywhere...so of course they continue to stay around.
I gave them a cliff notes version of what I learned and they were both sorry they hadn't come. They both were rethinking their previous misconceptions and were interested in learning more.
So it works!
And think of how, once you get someone to rethink their misconception about pigeons...it opens a window to rethink other types of misconceptions...global warming, the idea that garbage "goes away", etc., etc....
Not to mention just understanding more about how they behave and their innate abilities, and on and on.
I think there's a lot of value here.
(chris & michael both have a similar hatred of sea gulls. they can't imagine any redeeming qualities. so i think our work is cut out for us here...)
I don't hate sea guls, i find them amusing...but I admit I don't know very much about them.
t.