Two students in Prof. Staples's reflected on their experience.
Natalie Psyhogeos:
"It all began with the common yellowthroat. These majestic creatures have a mossy green hood with a canary belly. I was startled by the extreme distance they travel, all the way down to Central America. The next character on the scene was the ovenbird, given this wacky name from their crafting of nests that resemble Dutch ovens. A light weightless flutter was the only sound it produced as it launched from a student’s hand back into its aerial realm. Then, it was my turn to release a banded bird back into the uncanny wilderness. Feeling the anxious bird squirm as I wrapped it like a baseball was temporary. Once my constant heart rhythm soothed it to an eased posture, I felt linked to the being. It transported me into a Kumin poem, noticing a correlation between our lives and the lives of those soaring above us. When I released my grip, the bitsy chickadee stayed on my palm for another few moments, giving me pleasure in knowing I made a friend at the farm."
Marcus Rose:
"Northern Parula, a hatch-year missing its red necklace. It must not have grown in yet. This was the bird I had the joy of handling. Described as “very chill,” it immediately rested its full weight in the palm of my hand even before I had a firm grasp across its shoulders. As I prepared to let the creature go, it made itself comfortable and sat down into my hand. Amazed at the level of kinship I felt with so small yet sturdy a bird, I gently stroked its head and back with one light touch of a finger, and it pushed back giving ever the slightest amount of force to my skin to let me know it was there, and it was alright. As soon as the handlers approached us to convince the Parula that it was time to head out, it darted from my hand as though it had never been there to begin with. All that remained was the ever so faint warmth that its insulating feathers had cast through a single spot at the base of my ring finger, but that too quickly dissipated, like the memory of a kiss blown goodbye from a close friend whom you won’t see for another few years."
