Wings For Seniors is the name of one of our program offerings.
We often take this program to retirement and nursing homes. I wish we did more of them. However, sometimes the Seniors come to us as part of a tour, or they often attend our special events.
A tour group watching the skies for the wild Turkey Vultures that come to WBS to visit their captive relatives
I love interacting with Seniors. These elder statesmen and women have lots of life experiences to share. I particularly llike their bird stories--stories of birds they have in their yards, or memories of birds they saw at their previous residence. People's eyes light up when they begin talking about the birds they saw in their yard or birds they saw on vacations. Seniors are never in a rush, and they can tell great stories. Love it!
I also love it when they are trying to figure out a bird species that they recently observed. It is fun questioning them to get some clues for the possible identification--jogging their memory, having them relive the sighting. It brings us both pleasure. Sometimes we seem to figure out what bird they saw; sometimes we don't. But that’s OK. The time spent talking about the bird is the real treasure.
A senior guest, at a Fete du Feather special event, sharing stories with one of our naturalists
If we do a Wings For Seniors event for you, here is what to expect. We will bring 4 birds to your event or venue. The guests will get close up looks at the four feathered friends, and we will share a few of the most fun and interesting facts about the birds. Inevitably one of the guests will share a story about one of our birds and their life experience with that bird species. We all will be richer for hearing their story. I will have added to my base of knowledge, and the senior will have had the pleasure of reliving a memorable life experience. So we all gain from our time shared with the live birds.
Nice blog! I know exactly what you mean about the bird stories, hearing countless ones from my grandma & grandpa. I love listening to stories about their old "hobby" of raising cockatiels, canaries, and finches; and how Walter would give talks at the bird club meetings they used to attend. There is one story in particular they like telling that leaves me puzzled: they used to live on a farm on Kerth Road (in Missouri) and one day in 1950, they claim, a pair of whooping cranes landed in one of the farm-fields. I always ask them if they're sure that they didn't see a sandhill crane or an egret instead since in 1950 there were only like 30 individual whooping cranes! It's so cute, though, how they stick to their story and deny that the two birds could have been anything other than whooping cranes.
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