BirdNote®

Lester Franklin - Maryland Coastal Steward

From an Interview by Dominic Black

This is BirdNote.

Lester Franklin is a student in coastal Maryland. He's also a writer and a coastal steward, working to encourage people of color to become involved with birds, conservation, and the environment.

"The challenges are that they don't see a lot of people that looks like their uncle or their aunts…They don't see anybody maybe coming from their own area or maybe know anything in their own life that they can relate to."

And becoming more aware of nature is a step-by-step process, Lester says.

"At first it was for me just a peaceful walking thing, because I always loved just going on trails…I had my binoculars with me…and then when they would spot out the birds to me, after a while I started thinking I could do it. Noticing the difference between different types of egret for example."

But when he saw an Osprey - that's when he was smitten. The idea of a bird, fish in talons, almost parading its catch around…

"And I thought that was awesome, I mean, what bird does that? You never heard of a bird just flying around, just showing off like “Yeah I caught this, this is mine.” It was just … to me … I thought it was hilarious. I never thought of birds having a personality so it made it more…a different impression on me."

Lester Franklin is a coastal steward working with communities of color in Maryland.

For BirdNote, I'm Mary McCann. Funding for this show comes from the Bobolink Foundation.

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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Ambience from Northern Bobwhite [105255] recorded by G A Keller.

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Dominic Black

© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org May 2015 Narrator: Mary McCann

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