On a quiet June morning, before the Environmental Nature Center opened to visitors, three experienced birders gathered at the gate. Their task was to conduct a breeding bird survey — documenting the species present on the property, noting evidence of nesting activity, and creating a baseline record of the birds that call the ENC home. For one member of the survey team, however, the morning represented something more than data collection. Nearly fifty years earlier, Brian Bleecker had stood on this same property as a Newport Harbor High School student. Brian attended Newport Harbor High School from 1974 to 1976 and was a student in Robert House’s biology class during the early years of the Environmental Nature Center. Like many students of that era, he…