We live in a truly marvelous world. A really, really interesting, diverse, marvelous place to have visited for a short time. Some get more out of it than others. Some of us try to get to get more out of it than others.
      I think you should make a conscientious effort to try. To be nosy. To look and to marvel. And not only to look but to see. Not only listen but hear on all different levels. It is indeed a marvelous world. Part of what makes it marvelous is our own kind. Part of what makes it incredibly marvelous to me are other than our own kind. I think it is important biologically to have them, but it’s also important for my quality of life. I would not want to live in a world that had only people in it. I like snakes and frogs and creepy, crawly things and marvelous birds that can fly two hundred miles an hour and free my spirit...
       - Len Soucy, Birdman of the Great Swamp, from Issue 1 of  Heron Dance (1995)

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The first issue of Heron Dance, published in 1995, contained an interview of Len Soucy, co-founder of The Raptor Trust with his wife Diane, a bird rehabilitation center located in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. Each year they treated thousands of injured or orphaned birds and chicks. Although they treated all kinds of birds, they had a special interest in raptors including bringing owls and eagles into schools in the New York City area as part of an effort to increase awareness of the unique beauty and importance of these magnificent birds. The interview excerpt above came when I asked Len what he thought about at night as he fed the birds.