Text and photos by Kim Breckenridge, a Litzsinger Teacher Partner and Science Specialist and Rohan Woods School.
Did you know that the Great Backyard Bird Count was February 17–20, 2017?
The Fourth Grade teacher at Rohan Woods School is an avid bird watcher. With his support, and the knowledge that the Great Backyard Bird Count was happening, students in Junior Kindergarten (age 4) through Middle School got outside and into nature to do some bird watching!
Our expert, Mr. Rowe, compiled a list of the 16 birds we would be most likely to see at Rohan Woods in February. Here is a link to the “field guide” that I created based on his recommendations.
Each class came to the science lab and talked about the kinds of birds we might see. We discussed what they would look like and even listened to some of their calls so we could identify them and their location by their call. For this, we used the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s website, All About Birds. We also used this great website to look up information about birds.
Armed with our data sheet, field guide and binoculars, we headed outside to explore the birds of our campus. The kids LOVED it. Each science class during the week of February 13–17 headed outside for at least 15 minutes to bird watch. Even our youngest participants were able to successfully identify birds.
Each class was encouraged to find as many birds as possible and were told that the class that found the most birds would possibly get a prize. There is nothing like a little friendly competition to get your bird watching kicked into high gear! Much to the chagrin of our older students, it ended up that our Senior Kindergarten class found the most birds: over 235! While they were out one day, a kindergartner looked up and noticed a “constellation”. When she brought it to my attention, I looked up to see not a constellation (no surprise since it was noon!), but a flock of over 200 snow geese migrating high over head. The kindergartners were over the moon about their find! As a collective group, we were able to find over 600 birds and 21 different species.
Although we set out to only find birds, we found a lot more. We learned who shares our ecosystem, playground, gardens, and soccer field with us. We learned that there is a lot more going on around us than we ever imagined! We learned that even our young students could be successful at bird watching. We learned that with patience and confidence it’s easy to bird watch. It was a fabulous experience for everyone involved! I highly recommend getting out into nature and getting to know your flying neighbors!