It's funny you say naturalist , when I was a kid we use to laugh at people who would go bird watching , I couldn't fathom how anyone could do this. How things changed , last week I picked up lunch at Red Robin in Patriot Place and I was driving over the over-pass and sure as shit flying right on the side of me was a peregrine falcon with a dead pigeon in his talons , I scrambled to get my phone out in time but he ducked up the gard-rail and flew away. I couldn't get over how fucking cool it was seeing that and I was telling everyone through the rest of day and the only one who was impressed was my 8 year old son.
I had The Birds of North America, The Wildlife of North America, a Enclyopedia of Animal life that was thicker than most Webster dictionaries---and was meant for people way older than me , serious dinosaur books that were well way ahead of my age group....I knew who Robert Horner was well before he helped with Jurassic Park...Snake books...I wanted to be a Zoologist or a Paleontogist...by 7th grade, I had to drop the "Encylopedia Brown" schtick, because it "wasn't cool"...
But, still to this day, my folks ask what type of bird or insect this and that is.
Trying to get back into playing Cello...