It would not be a stretch for any child of mine to be a nature lover. My environmental credentials go back a long way, and taking every opportunity presented to give a lesson on the importance of the natural world usually has me expounding on some aspect of ecology or another many times in any given week.

These days, it's Sam that gets the brunt of my green-ness, and because conversations about biology, botany, geology and marine science ... amongst others ... have been happening with and around him since infancy, he's already well educated and deeply appreciative of the world around him.

He's a great spotter of wildlife, and has proven that not only in many a tide pool with discoveries of illusive brittle starfish and sea hares, it was Sam, only three at the time, who pointed out a good deal of the game during our African adventure last year.

He not only truly sees the nature around him, he intensely cares about it.

Our friend Gay has taught him the value of remembering to take garbage bags along on trips to the beach, and to him picking up after others just seems the right thing to do. Never in a million years would he even contemplate littering, and he's not shy about informing others of the inherent evils in the casual tossing of rubbish.

At almost five, he has strong anthropomorphic tendencies, and unless a science that chews those up and spits them out is in his future, I'm hoping some linger. I've long thought that people with a strong negative reaction to the idea that animals have feelings and thoughts are nothing more than species snobs bent on keeping all the emotions for the humans and chalking any examples of caring concern, or even anger and hatred, outside the realm of Homo sapiens up to instinct or mimicry.

Sam has no such prejudices and gladly, and probably accurately, interprets the actions of dogs, cats, dolphins, and even Helmut, our Giant Aldabra Tortoise, and lets us all know exactly what it is they're trying to tell us.

In these photos taken on Bird Island a couple of weekends back, he has decided that some of the sea birds may be tired, so he's standing quite still holding a perch option for them. He kept this up for a much longer time than I would have, apparently pretty determined to provide respite. One tern appeared to actually give a thought to alighting for a moment.

He hasn't decided yet if he want's to be a Marine Biologist like our friend Jan, a veterinarian who sets up safe habitats for wild gorillas like our friend Liz, a biologist specializing in birds like our friend David, or a farmer raising lots of baby pigs, but he sure likes the idea of spending his life working with animals.

In the meantime, even at his young age he's making a difference for the positive, and I couldn't be prouder.