Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.

The other creatures with which we share this world have their rights too, but not speaking our language, they have no voice, no vote; it is our moral duty to take care of them.

Birds are an ecological litmus paper.

Vultures are homely, but they clean up all the garbage and that's good. And they're elegant in the sky.

I consider myself to have been the bridge between the shotgun and the binoculars in bird watching. Before I came along, the primary way to observe birds was to shoot them and stuff them.

Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.

Not all is doom and gloom. We are beginning to understand the natural world and are gaining a reverence for life - all life.