Backyard Birding and Butterfly Gardening

A birder since she spotted her first kingfisher in Girl Scout day camp, Randi Minetor has traveled the country to rack up a North American life list of nearly 500 species from Florida to Alaska. In her home state of New York, she participates in birding science endeavors including the 2000-2004 State Breeding Bird Atlas project, the Nature Conservancy's lakeshore songbird migration study in the 1990s, and the annual Christmas Bird County for nearly twenty years. She has contributed to Bird Watcher's Digest, and has served on the board of the Rochester Birding Association. In addition, she is the communications chair of the Genesee Land Trust board of directors, giving her considerable access to information about native species, habitat restoration and creation, and the greenest practices for maintenance of open spaces. Nic Minetor has provided photography for more than a dozen books published by Globe Pequot Press on America's national parks and historic cities. He is a full-time lighting designer/director for theatre, film and TV, currently serving as resident lighting designer for Eastman Opera Theatre and Mercury Opera in Rochester, NY, as well as for productions at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. He is also the lighting director for the PBS television series "Second Opinion."