One of my more interesting posts came about a dozen years ago when Gerry Cooperman posted a query on the MASSBIRD list serve in which he asked:

“take a moment to step back and look at why you do what you do. What was the spark that got you started?”

I was intrigued by Gerry’s questions and wrote to him asking to use his posting on my Vermont Birder blog.  I figured that I’d use a few of the responses he might get as guest posts. Bloggers are always looking for interesting content.

I had no idea. Gerry didn’t either. The next few weeks of postings would be full of individual stories from all over Massachusetts. There were also stories from other parts of the Northeast.  Once I got started, I decided to keep plugging away and have ended up with over fifty “sparks.”

I have put the links to each group.

Part 1  (Paul, Kathleen, David, Steve)

Part 2  (Catherine, Tom, Gerry, Jessica)

Part 3   (Doug, Stuart, Walt)

Part 4 (Dana, Dick H, Jim, Leslie, Fred)

Part 5   (Carolyn, Darin, Tom, Dee)

Part 6  (David, Sarah, Gian, Glenn)

Part 7  (Jean, Ann, John, Henry, David)

Part 8  (Jo-Anna, Kevin, Mike, Jim)

Part 9  (Lori, Jo-Dee, Amy, Greg, Mark)

Part 10  (Suzanne, Warren, Marjorie, Bruce)

Part 11  (Margie, Tim, CJ, Paul, Josh)

Part 12  (Denise, Myer, Jim, Linda)

Part 13  (Jeff, Michael, Dave)

Part 14  (Matt, Scott, Gerry)

This turned out to be a much bigger project than I expected. Like many MASSBIRD readers, I got hooked by the interesting diversity of people and stories. There are many themes — some being “starting early,” “mentoring,” rekindling the spark … I invite you to re-read these and see what you find.

This has got me thinking about my spark bird and after more review, I’ll let you know.