As the first guest speakers of the Bird Education Network Gathering at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel on Jekyll Island, Georgia, Kenn and Kim Kaufman held the assembly’s complete and undivided attention for their presentation “Working Toward a Bird Literate Society.” No matter how many times I hear Kenn, Kim, or the two together deliver an address to an assembled audience, I never cease to be amazed at how much I find myself being both educated and inspired by what they have to say.
True to the spirit of their work throughout the year, the Kaufmans exhorted those assembled to break through the barriers and boundries that can sometimes surround and constrict public interest in bird study and recreational bird watching. They outlined the basic impediments to attracting non-bird watchers to bird watching, and charged the audience to approach bird education efforts to the general public not from a perspective of gloom and dire warnings at the prospect of a declining bird population, but from a spirit of joy and enthusiasm for all bird watching has to offer.
