One favorite patron was a person you might describe as a “naive offender”. He was a regular library visitor, and he shared an interest in the natural world with us. He was illiterate, but he was frequently bringing to the library things he had found outside on his walks. Birds eggs that had fallen to the ground intact, even a nest that he had taken from a broken bird house. We always displayed his finds. During the last few years he was with us he participated in reporting bird sightings for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. (We collected tally sheets from a few patients and staff who observed the birds around the hospital grounds, compiled them and reported the results online). He was always keen on seeing the map that showed all the places reporting, and that little red dot for Medical Lake that he contributed to. He frequently would come back from his walks, come into the library, and describe in detail a bird he had seen, and want to know what kind of bird it was. So we would go through the Audubon and Stokes field guides together to find his bird and we usually did. His descriptions were always impressive.

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