BY

Jonathan Schechter with some friends at his

SUZANNE SHERMAN

Brandon Township home.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

ANGIE BAAN

F

or most, the first sign of
spring is spotting a robin in
the back yard. Not so for
Jonathan Schechter, West Bloomfield's

West Bloomfield naturalist relishes the season:

6 • NIA) . 2005 • JNPLATINUM

naturalist and park ranger.
Try turkey vultures.
That's right, turkey vultures.
"For me, the spring tease is the
flow of maple sap, the return of the
redwings to the marshes and the
wonderful night choruses of spring
peepers," he says. "But my favorite
is the return of the turkey vultures.
When those magnificent birds are
soaring above and riding the ther-
mals, I know it is really spring.
And, of course, the first good thun-
derstorm confirms that spring really
is here to stay."
While he has worked with the
West Bloomfield Parks &
Recreation Department for almost
12 years maintaining the town-
ship's precious 510-acre preserve,
Schechter's favorite part of his job
is sharing his love for all things
wild through the nature programs.
"As a naturalist, I love working
with preschoolers," he says. "They
are so full of contagious excite-
ment, and their ability to grasp
solid science concepts is amazing."
His own love for nature stems
from the short time he spent with
his father, a biologist at a New York
college, who died when Schechter
was 7.
`I spent a good part of my sixth
summer with him at Woods Hole,
Mass., where he was doing work —
I think — on octopus and starfish,"
he recalls. "And that was my first
exciting exposure to hurricanes. I
loved watching sailboats being
hauled up out of the bay before the
storm hit."
Those early experience led him
to earn his bachelor's degree in nat-
ural science, followed by a master's
degree in science in outdoor recre-
ation and interpretation.
Raised in a Jewish home,
Schechter, 53, says too many peo-