Ok, enough gabbing. Let’s get on with the tour.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wildlife-center-faciing-south-0394-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"wildlife-center-faciing-south-0394-ron-dudley\\"")
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This is your view on your approach to the center from the parking lot. Both large buildings were designed to have minimal visual\u00a0environmental impact\u00a0by sloping their roofs to the north and then having matching sloped earth to the ground with the actual roofs\u00a0left natural and growing with greenery.<\/p>\n
The building still under construction to the far left will be office and utility space for refuge manager Jason Jones and his staff. Jason told me he can hardly wait to get in there. The wholly\u00a0inadequate building they use now is truly a hell-hole.<\/p>\n
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Here we see the broad, sloped approach to the front of the Center between the two buildings with our first view of the natural playa beyond.<\/p>\n
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- Playa – an area of flat, dried-up land, especially a desert basin from which water evaporates quickly.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/goose-egg-hill-0466-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"goose-egg-hill-0466-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nA few more steps and the splendor of the playa is in full view. Now that construction is almost over I’ve heard rumors of plans to flood the playa periodically. In the background is the famous Goose Egg Island (or hill) on the refuge. Many wonderful photos have been taken of raptors in those trees we see on the hill (I have a few of my own). If you look carefully just to the left of the hill you’ll see\u00a0part of a huge\u00a0pond – that’s Unit 1 on the refuge.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0grand opening has created quite\u00a0a buzz around here so many local media outlets attended the celebration yesterday. Here we see someone from DWR being interviewed and filmed\u00a0by a reporter. Many folks, including me, have been waiting for this opening\u00a0for a very\u00a0long time.<\/p>\n
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Addendum: I’m adding\u00a0the following\u00a0photo many hours after publishing the original post. I’d forgotten I’d taken it and I thought it fit nicely here.<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wildlife-education-center-from-goose-egg-island-0391-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis is a\u00a0photo of the education center taken earlier in the morning with my long lens\u00a0from Goose Egg Island (before the sun came out of the clouds). This is the only way I could include a view of the entire center from this angle.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/viewing-scopes-0476-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"viewing-scopes-0476-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nViewing scopes so visitors can look for birds on the playa and just enjoy the details of the\u00a0scenery.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/welcoming-room-0540-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"welcoming-room-0540-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAs you walk down the entry ramp this is the interior of the building on the right. Visitors will first enter here on the right behind the display case with the eagle where questions can be asked of an attendant behind the “Welcome” desk. Then when they turn around…<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/welcoming-room-0528-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"welcoming-room-0528-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nthey’ll see a grand view of part of the playa through huge windows. There’s a wonderful display in front of them where they can see graphics of birds that can be seen on the playa and elsewhere on the refuge. Binoculars hang down for those who’d like to use them.<\/p>\n
I wish the lighting for this photo was better because it really is a spectacular room and view but with those very large windows and the morning light I couldn’t do any better.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wildlife-center-auditorium-0411-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"wildlife-center-auditorium-0411-ron-dudley.\\"")
<\/p>\nThe auditorium, the building on the left as you come down the entry ramp, is large, impressive and functional – here we see\u00a0about half of it.\u00a0Its walls are\u00a0lined with large prints of bird photos taken by\u00a0my\u00a0friends Joe Ford,\u00a0John Blumenkamp and myself. From this spot I simply rotated to my right and took three more photos.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wildlife-center-auditorium-0415-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"wildlife-center-auditorium-0415-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nIn the second one we see the far wall and the very large video display on the far right.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wildlife-center-auditorium-0418-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"wildlife-center-auditorium-0418-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd this is the wall on the right. There’s room in here for large gatherings of various kinds. I wish something like this facility\u00a0had been available when Mia and I taught bird photography classes at the original Nature Center and at HawkWatch International.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/joe-ford-0691-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"joe-ford-0691-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nMy old friend Joe Ford was there (some will remember that it was Joe who pulled me out of the snow bank at Farmington 10 years ago). Joe is standing next to a print of his Barn Owl in flight. \u00a0Some local viewers may not recognize Joe without his beard.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/me-and-my-kingfisher-0507-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"me-and-my-kingfisher-0507-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI’m embarrassed to include this one because I look so\u00a0goofy (I can think of other descriptors…) but I wanted viewers to see how large some of these prints are.\u00a0Joe cut off\u00a0the top of the print of my\u00a0Belted Kingfisher\u00a0when he took the photo but\u00a0I’ll give him credit – he didn’t clip the bird. Joe knows better than to do that…<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/print-tame-plate-0437-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"print-tame-plate-0437-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThey even made some nice embossed metal tags to go with each print.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/classroom-0497-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"classroom-0497-ron-dudley.jpg\\"")
<\/p>\nNow we get to the really important part – the classroom (here we see only one small corner of it). One of the primary missions of the center is education, particularly the environmental education of schoolchildren. The center will have busloads of school kids coming to learn about the environment including birds, mammals,\u00a0invertebrates, plants and the role humans play in affecting their interaction with each other. For such things to be taught effectively appropriate and available lab space is almost essential and the classroom provides it.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/classroom-preparation-room-0491-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"classroom-preparation-room-0491-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThere’s even a “wet” preparation room adjacent to the\u00a0classroom. This old biology teacher was delighted to see that.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hawkwatch-birds-and-handlers-0524-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"hawkwatch-birds-and-handlers-0524-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI should mention that for the festivities yesterday several environmental education groups brought in various raptors to inspire visitors. Here we see two of my friends from HawkWatch International with their education birds standing in front of a diorama-like mural. Regular visitors to the refuge will likely recognize the pond in the mural.<\/p>\n
Our old friend Galileo (the Short-eared Owl Mia and I rescued off of barbed wire) could have been one of\u00a0the birds HawkWatch brought to the festivities\u00a0but he’s preparing for a two-week trip to the American Northwest to visit several of their Hawkwatch sites in the field. Their Outreach and Education Director Nikki Wayment told me that Galileo is doing extremely well in his role as an education bird and you can imagine how happy I was to hear that.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/billy-fenimore-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"billy-fenimore-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd this is my\u00a0friend Billy Fenimore, the center’s new director. Billy is knowledgeable, enthusiastic\u00a0and highly\u00a0qualified for the position. I’m confident that he’ll be a major player in the smashing success of the center.<\/p>\n
The new Wildlife Education Center is for everyone to enjoy\u00a0and it’s free. I hope local readers and visitors from out-of-town will support it at every opportunity. The wetlands at Farmington are severely\u00a0threatened by human encroachment so the more public support they get the easier those jewels in a sea of urban and suburban development\u00a0will be to protect.<\/p>\n
I wish them every success!<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n
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- The new Wildlife Education Center is open Tuesday-Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Closed Sundays, Mondays and holidays. There’s a stunning one mile walking trail on site which will be open during daylight hours.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Immediately after publishing this post I received a request from blog follower Muffy S. Gately to “identify\u00a0the birds in the posters” in the auditorium. Eight of those prints are of my photos and both the actual photos (rather than photos of prints) and the species names of those birds can be\u00a0found at this link<\/a>.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The grand opening of the new Eccles Wildlife Education Center was yesterday morning and I was invited. I went early (very early) so I could take some photos before dignitaries and crowds arrived. This is one very special place.<\/p>\n
- Immediately after publishing this post I received a request from blog follower Muffy S. Gately to “identify\u00a0the birds in the posters” in the auditorium. Eight of those prints are of my photos and both the actual photos (rather than photos of prints) and the species names of those birds can be\u00a0found at this link<\/a>.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- The new Wildlife Education Center is open Tuesday-Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Closed Sundays, Mondays and holidays. There’s a stunning one mile walking trail on site which will be open during daylight hours.<\/em><\/li>\n