When Allan Strong, Interim Dean of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, walks into a room for a meeting, those who know him well ask him to sit with his back to the window. The issue? Allan is easily distracted by things with wings. In fact, knowing his own short attention span, Allan has consistently asked for his office to be located in the few windowless offices in the Aiken Center so that he doesn’t wile away his days looking out the window for birds.

This summer, when Allan stepped into the Interim Dean role, he also stepped into the Dean’s Office. An office with a beautiful, but distracting, window facing central campus. Although his desk was situated with his back to the window, it was hard to resist a peek out the window every now and again. As a result, we now have a whole other kind of Dean’s List, and you need to have feathers to make it.

Since August, Allan has tallied 12 species out the window of 220K Aiken: Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Common Raven, Black-capped Chickadee, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Blue Jay, Chimney Swift, Osprey, Cedar Waxwing, and American Goldfinch.

The Black Vulture, a relatively recent addition to the Vermont avifauna was too exciting not to share. Office staff Danny Bouwens and Chelsea Davidson both got great looks as the Black Vulture drifted by with a small group of Turkey Vultures.

“Birds can be distracting but staring out the window for a few minutes each day can be a welcome break from the computer screen,” says Allan. “If you are in the Aiken Center – stop by the Dean’s Office and “let’s see if we can add to the Dean’s List together!”