Baby BirdsGale Lawrence

Hi, Lawrence!• I am a retired English teacher, freelance writer, and self-

taught/self-teaching naturalist who lives on an old hill farm in a small Vermont town. I’m a native Vermonter, but I didn’t grow up here. I spent most of my childhood in various American suburbs outside the cities where my father worked. It took me thirty years to find my way back to Vermont, but once I got here I knew I was home.

• My first year back — 1975 — I decided I needed to make up for lost time. I began exploring the natural world with all the mid-life energy and enthusiasm that had motivated my return to Vermont. Around the edges of my job at the University of Vermont, where I taught English off and on for 20 years, I began my self-education as a naturalist. I started by volunteering at a local nature center.

• To enforce my learning — and to demonstrate to my University of Vermont students that writing had its uses in the real world — I started writing a weekly natural history column for several Vermont newspapers. These columns led to: Four Books THE BEGINNING NATURALIST Shelburne, VT: New England Press, 1979A FIELD GUIDE TO THE FAMILIAR Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1998A NATURALIST INDOORS Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.com, 2000THE VERMONT LIFE GUIDE TO FALL FOLIAGE Montpelier, VT: Vermont Life, 2001

THE BEGINNING NATURALIST

• This was my first book, and I remain quite fond of it. I wrote it in the late 1970's while I was working as a volunteer trail guide at a local nature center. I was an absolute beginner and felt overwhelmed by how much there was for me to learn. I decided that the best way for an adult beginner to proceed without becoming totally discouraged was to focus on one subject at a time. So I committed to learning about one new subject a week — and to writing a newspaper column about it to be sure I really learned something. The 52 columns I chose for this book begin in the dead of winter because that's when I got serious about my self-designed learning program. It's also when the natural world is slowed down enough to feel almost manageable. The chapters were all written during my first two years of learning, so they are beginner-friendly — guaranteed.

Q??• What if you happen to see a baby bird fal

l from its nest, will you save it or leave it?• How do you plan to take care of him?• Will you send it back to nature when it gr

ows up?• What do you think is the best way to hel

p the wild life?

Let’s find the answers from the passage.

We all have a desire to save the young animals we see in the wild. We can’t bear to see them die, so we usually bring them home and try to keep them at home. But during this period, have you noticed the subtle changes that are happening to the wild life? Maybe you are not doing something as great as you think.

What does the author suggest?• Watching birds in the wild is a much healthier and mo

re realistic activity then fantasizing that a bird will become your special friend because your raised it. Unfortunately, movies,television,and children’s books have created a “Bambi syndrome” in us. The young of most species are precious and adorable,but the desire to fondle and caress and make pets out of wildlings is dangerously romantic. It should not be encouraged. We’d be much wiser if we were content to be observers of wildlife. If we truly care about wild animals, we should be protectors of their wildness, which enables the best of them to survive.

Exploration of new words• Aviary 鸟舍，大鸟笼• Fledgling 刚会飞的幼鸟，缺乏经验的新人• Vulnerable 易受伤害的，易受攻击的• Excrement 排泄物，粪便• Swoop 俯冲，突然袭击，攫取• Bowel 肠，同情心• Disservice 伤害，虐待• Syndrome 并发症，综合症

My ideas…• 1 、 Make sure we know how to help the w

ild life before we save them.• 2 、 Learn some information on how to tak

e care of the wild life.• 3 、 Remember that they belongs to the wi

ld, you don’t keep them as pets selfishly.• 4 、 Being nice to animals is good, but do

care about the appropriate methods you have.

Thank you for attention!!