Leptondale Elementary Schoolyard Bird Survey 2012

On May 3rd, 7th and 11th I lead a Schoolyard Bird Survey with 5th graders at the Leptondale Elementary School in the Wallkill Central School District .  Here are the results of that Bird Survey.

Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 2:10 PM with Mrs. Dooley’s class, 100% cloud cover, slight breeze from the west, temperature in the high 50’s Fahrenheit

Osprey – 1
Blue Jay – 1
Fish Crow – 4
Chipping Sparrow – 2
Northern Cardinal – 1
House Sparrow – 2
Unidentified Birds – 6

Monday, May 7, 2012 at 2:15 PM with Mrs. Seymour’s class, 100% cloud cover, no wind, temperature in the mid 60’s Fahrenheit

Turkey Vulture – 2
Peregrine Falcon – 1
Fish Crow – 3
Tree Swallow – 2
American Robin – 10
European Starling – 8
Chipping Sparrow – 3
Red-winged Blackbird – 2
Unidentified Birds – 7
Unidentified Ducks – 4

Friday, May 11, 2012 at 2:15 PM with Mrs. Beecher’s class, 20% cloud cover, 15-20 mph gusts from the west, temperature in the low 60’s Fahrenheit

Turkey Vulture – 2
Red-tailed Hawk – 1
Eastern Phoebe – 1
Common Raven – 1
Tree Swallow – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 2
Gray Catbird – 2
Northern Cardinal – 2
Unidentified Birds – 5
Unidentified Warblers – 4

Additional comments – there is a pair of Fish Crows nesting in the woods on the north side the upper playground field. At various times during my visit I observed them carrying nesting material in that direction. Individual crows were often seen flying with nesting material from the north of the school building, stopping in the trees along the south-eastern side of the school. They would sit for a while before flying several tens of yards on toward the upper playground. A few minutes later they would be seen flying back without any nesting material. Why do you think the crows would fly to a spot a good distance from where the nest is and wait before going to the nest and adding the nest material?

The front of the school and the upper playground were the most productive areas for observing and hearing birds. In the future these area should definitely be checked out for bird surveys.

I hope students have more opportunities to observe birds.  Look at other Schoolyard Bird Surveys here in my blog to see what differences there are between different schools and between the same schools from different years.

Owl Pellet Study at Ostrander Elementary School

In early April as part of my Ecologist-In-Residence program at the Ostrander Elementary School in Wallkill, NY, I worked with 2nd graders dissecting owl pellets to see what owls eat.  Here are our findings.

With Mrs. Lupoli’s class we dissected 13 pellets and found 33 mice, 2 shrews, 1 mole and 1 bird.

With Mrs. Busse’s class we dissected 13 pellets and found 34 mice, 2 shrews, 0 moles and 0 birds.

With Mrs. McQuiston’s class we dissected 12 pellets and found 33 mice, 2 shrews, 0 moles and 0 birds.

Our total findings were 38 pellets dissected producing 80 mice, 6 shrews, 1 mole and 1 bird.  I had presented to the students the hypothesis that mice are the most favored food with shrews being second favored and birds and moles tied for third.  Do the findings above support this hypothesis?

In the years that I have been taking apart owl pellets I have noticed that there are variations in the numbers and kinds of animals eaten by Barn Owls (the owls that produce the pellets used in my programs).  Could these be related to the seasons?  As a start to answering this we should see if there are any consistencies with pellets dissected the same time each year.  I have some data that we can look at by looking back at what Ostrander ornithologists have found in the past. Here is what we find:

2011 – 29 pellets produced 61 mice, 11 shrews, 3 moles, 1 bird

2010 – 36 pellets produced 72 mice, 9 shrews, 3 moles, 2 birds

2009 – 27 pellets produced 57 mice, 5 shrews, 0 moles, 0 birds
These numbers do seem consistent each year. I wonder if there would be a difference in numbers if we compared these findings with pellets from a different season than early spring, for example late summer or mid-winter. Check out my blog archives for owl pellet dissections done at other times of the year. Let me know if you find a difference.

Bird Surveys at Plattekill and Ostrander Elementary Schools

At the end of March and in early April I lead 2nd and 3rd grade students in the Wallkill Central School District on a survey of birds in their schoolyards.  Here is what we found.

Plattekill Elementary School, Monday, March 26

Mrs. Bouck’s  Class – 9:15 AM – mostly sunny, strong winds from the North, temperature in the mid-40’s

Canada Goose (CaGo) – 2

Sharp-shinned Hawk (SSHa) – 1

Red- tailed Hawk (RTHa) – 1

American Crow (AmCr) – 2

American Robin (AmRo) – 22

European Starling (EuSt) – 12

Red-winged Blackbird (RWBl) – 2

House Sparrow (HoSp) – 3

Mrs. Moran’s Class – 10:30 AM – mostly sunny, moderate winds from the North, temperatures in the mid to high 40’s

Turkey Vulture (TuVu) – 2

Sharp-shinned Hawk (SSHa) – 1

Red- tailed Hawk (RTHa) – 1

Mourning Dove (MoDo) – 1

American Crow (AmCr) – 13

Black-capped Chickadee (BCCh) – 2

American Robin (AmRo) – 1

European Starling (EuSt) – 12

Northern Cardinal (NoCa) – 1

Red-winged Blackbird (RWBl) – 2

House Sparrow (HoSp) – 2

Mrs. Bailey’s Class – 2:00 PM – no clouds, strong wind from the North, temperature in the high 40’s

Turkey Vulture (TuVu) – 7

Sharp-shinned Hawk (SSHa) – 1

Red- tailed Hawk (RTHa) – 1

Mourning Dove (MoDo) – 3

American Robin (AmRo) – 5

Black-capped Chickadee (BCCh) – 4

At Ostrander Elementary School I did Field Ornithology with 3^rd graders on March 30 and April 11.  Here are those observations.

Mrs. Massale’s Class – on Friday, March 30 at 2:00 PM, no clouds, no wind, temperature in the low 50’s

Turkey Vulture (TuVu) – 4

Mourning Dove (MoDo) – 3

Red-bellied Woodpecker (RBWo) – 1

Pileated Woodpecker (PiWo) – 1

Blue Jay (BlJa) – 1

American Crow (AmCr) – 4

American Robin (AmRo) – 5

Tree Swallow (TrSw) – 1

Red-winged Blackbird (RWBl) – 3

Common Grackle (CoGr) – 9

Brown-headed Cowbird (BHCo) – 2

American Goldfinch (AmGo) – 1

House Sparrow (HoSp) – 9

Mrs. Stokes’ Class – on Wednesday, April 11 at 1:45 PM, complete cloud cover, slight breeze from the North, temperature in the low 50’s

Turkey Vulture (TuVu) – 1

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHa) – 2

Mourning Dove (MoDo) – 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker (RBWo) – 1

Downy Woodpecker (DoWo) – 2

Blue Jay (BlJa) – 4

American Crow (AmCr) – 2

Tree Swallow (TrSw) – 8

American Robin (AmRo) – 15

European Starling (EuSt) – 6

White-throated Sparrow (WTSp) – 2

Dark-eyed Junco (DEJu) – 1

Northern Cardinal (NoCa) – 2

Common Grackle (CoGr) – 10

House Sparrow (HoSp) – 9

There are certain times that might be better for looking for birds.  Looking at what each of the classes found.  Why are there different results?  Is there a better date to look for birds?  What might be the reason or reasons that more birds are found at one time of the day versus another?  Why would ornithologists record weather information when doing a bird survey?  Could there be habitat differences that make finding birds at one school better than the other?  How would you find out about this?

Note that the birds are listed in the order that you will find them in most field guides.  These lists are put together by ornithologist after studying how birds are related to each other and how scientists think that those relationships evolved, with the first birds listed being the more primitive and the last being the more recently evolved.

I have included an ornithologist’s shorthand that can be used with field notes.  This shorthand system uses a 4 letter abbreviation for each kind of bird.  It uses the following rules:  for a bird that has a common name of one word, the first 4 letters of the word are used, for example, the mallard is Mall – I capitalize the first letter, some people use all caps; for a bird that has a two word common name, for example Blue Jay, the 4 letters are made up with the first two letters of each word, in this case BlJa (again I like to capitalize the first letter of each word); for a bird name made up of three words, like Red-wing Blackbird, use the first letter of each of the first two words and the first two letters of the third word, RWBl (again for me, using caps for the first letter of each word) and finally for a bird that has a four word name, like the Great Black-backed Gull, use the first letter of each of the four words, GBBG.  There are a few cases where two birds share the same letters with this system, for example Barred Owl and Barn Owl.  In these instances you have to look up what ornithologists have decided to do for the abbreviations, which in this case would be BdOw and BanO (there is no rhyme or reason, as far as I can see, for the selection of letters in this case).

Here are some interesting notes.  The Canada Geese seen with Mrs. Bouck’s class were flying as a pair.  Keep an eye out for this.  When you see Canada Geese at this time of year they will most often be in pairs.  These are mated pairs, they mate for life, that are getting ready for the nesting season.

After I had finished exploring with the 2^nd grades I saw a hawk fly by giving a call that sounded a lot like a Flicker call.  I was not familiar with this hawk call so I did some research using Stokes’  Field Guide to Bird Songs - Eastern Region, an audio field guide, and found out that it was Cooper’s Hawk.  I am sure you can google Northern Flicker and Cooper’s Hawk and find out what they sound like.

There was one interesting non-bird observation.  With Mrs. Bailey’s class we searched for birds along the edge of the field just beyond the north eastern corner of the building.  We had been standing at this spot for several minutes trying to find birds that might have been hiding in the bushes along the edge of the field when a Cottontail Rabbit burst out from its hiding place in the bushes and hopped across the open yard to bushes in a different area at the edge of the field.  Why did the rabbit leap away from the good hiding place it had?  Why did it take so long for it to decide to change hiding places?

I have done a bird surveys in the past with both Ostrander and Plattekill students, and with students from other schools.  Check my blog archives for those results and compare them with the results reported here.  If you have any questions I would be very happy to try to answer them.  Keep up your scientific work and good luck observing birds throughout the year.

Egg Candling

I have started a 28 day egg incubation project at the Sapphire Elementary School in Monroe, NY. Kindergarten and 1st grade students have been introduced to the life cycle of the chicken and instructed in the care of incubators. Students are monitoring the incubators, checking the temperature and humidity of the incubators and turning the eggs by hand. I prefer to have the students turn the eggs rather than use automatic turners as it provides the children a more hands-on participation in the project.

The second part of my program is to candle the eggs. My purpose in candling the eggs is to show the students the development of the chick embryo and to help them make predictions on how many chicks might hatch in their incubators. Students learn about what characteristics can be seen in the candled egg that shows chick growth. These include the air sac, veins, the eye spot on the embryo and movement. Here is a video of one of the eggs that we candled.




The embryos do not all develop at the same rate. Here is an egg that shows an embryo that is significantly smaller than the one in the first egg. It will be interesting to see if this egg hatches. If it does not, perhaps the slower development of the embryo as seen in the candling may be the cause of the failure.








Some eggs show no development at all. I call these eggs “glowing eggs”. Since there is no embryo or veins inside the egg the candling light passes through unobstructed and the egg appears to glow. I describe it to the children as glowing like an ornament. We compare an egg that glows with an egg that has a developing chick. The students can see the difference and agree that one of the eggs appears to glow much more than the other. Here is a glowing egg.




Most incubation projects call for the removal of eggs showing no chick development. Since I am using the candling observations as a means of gathering data to make a prediction of how many chicks might hatch I leave the “glowing” eggs in the incubator. At the conclusion of hatching students can see how their predictions compare to the hatching results. I have found that leaving the eggs in have not adversely affected the hatching success.

The hatched chicks will remain at the school for about a week so that children can observe their growth. I will pick up the chicks after this period of time and they will live with my flock of chicks, hens and roosters. Next year these chicks will be the hens and roosters that provide me fertile eggs for additional incubation projects.

Owl Pellet Dissection with Nazareth Area Intermediate School 4th Grades

Here is an analysis of the results of the owl pellet dissections done by the 4th grade scientists at Nazareth Area Intermediate School back in January. I am sorry for the delay in getting this on my blog. I hope the NAIS students aren't too disappointed that it has taken this long to post the results here.

Dissection Results

In Malachowski’s Home Room class we found 37 mice, 3 shrews, 0 moles, and 1 bird in 13 pellets.
In Kimble’s Home Room class we found 28 mice, 3 shrews, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 10 pellets.
In Kimble’s Science class we found 37 mice, 0 shrews, 0 moles, and 1 bird in 13 pellets.
In Wasser’s Science class we found 31 mice, 2 shrews, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 11 pellets.
In Malachowski’s Science class we found 37 mice, 5 shrews, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 13 pellets.
In Giemza’s Science class we found 29 mice, 4 shrews, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 12 pellets.
In Genua’s Science class we found 31 mice, 2 shrews, 1 mole, and 1 bird in 13 pellets.
In Genua’s Home Room class we found 30 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 11 pellets.
In Giemza’s Home Room class we found 28 mice, 5 shrews, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 12 pellets.
In Wasser’s Home Room class we found 20 mice, 2 shrews, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 12 pellets.
In Thomas’s Home Room class we found 33 mice, 2 shrews, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 12 pellets.
In Roth’s Home Room class we found 27 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles, and 1 bird in 12 pellets.
In Thomas’s Science class we found 24 mice, 2 shrews, 0 moles, and 1 bird in 11 pellets.
In Roth’s Science class we found 23 mice, 4 shrews, 0 moles, and 0 birds in 12 pellets.

Analysis

In all we took apart 167 pellets and found 415 mice, 36 shrews, 1 mole and 5 birds. Clearly my hypothesis that mice or rodents are the most favored food is confirmed. The same could be safely said about shrews being the second favorite food. What about my hypothesis that moles and birds are tied for third place?

With 5 birds eaten compared to only 1 mole perhaps I need to rethink my hypothesis. Before doing this though, it might be good to look at our results in another way. What if we figured out the percent of the total for each kind of prey eaten? To do this we need find the total number of animals eaten by the owls found in the pellets we dissected. That would be 457 animals. To find the percentage for each type of prey we need to divide the number of that prey by 457, the total number of animals eaten. For mice that would be 415 divided by 457 for 91%. For shrews we must divide 36 by 457 with a result of 8%. The 5 birds eaten divided by 457 gives us 1%. The sole mole divided by 457 gives us a less than a half of 1% result.

Looking at the percentage of birds compared to moles eaten does give a slight advantage to birds but it is very close. It may still be argued that birds and moles are tied as a less favored food. If we take apart even more pellets we might find numbers of moles and birds that close this small gap. You can do this by comparing the findings that I have gotten with other classes at other schools that I've posted here on this blog.

I looked up what we found last year with the fourth grade ornithologists at NAIS (blog entry March 2011). Here is what they found: 168 pellets dissected resulted in finding 335 mice, 45 shrews, 20 moles and 6 birds. Calculating the percentages for these findings we get: mice 83%, shrews 11%, moles 5%, and birds 1%. There is a reversal of food preference between moles and birds. Why? Perhaps it might be a result of a difference in the numbers of birds and moles available due to changes in mole and bird populations from year to year; there might have been more moles or fewer birds around in 2011. Perhaps there were weather conditions that made it easier or harder to find a particular prey. For example a large amount of snow cover would make it harder for the owls to find moles since the moles live underground and would be covered by snow. Can we compare snow cover in the areas of northern California, Oregon and southern Washington (this is where the owl pellets come from) between the winter of 2010-11 and this winter?

How about if we combine the findings of both years? Here is what we get: 863 animals eaten divided up as follows: 750 mice, 81 shrews, 21 moles and 11 birds. In terms of percentages we get: mice 87%, shrews 9%, moles 2% and birds 1% (these percentages, as with the other percentages calculated here, are rounded off to the nearest whole percent). With the combined data we see that the percentage of moles and birds eaten is very close, and are basically tied for a distant third place as far being a favored food for the Barn Owls of the Pacific Northwest.

Take apart more owl pellets (a link to Pellets, Inc can be found to the right) and send your data to me. I’ll post it on my blog and we can see if that data supports my hypothesis or tells us that we need to rethink it. Have fun doing that and studying owls and their food chain.

Still on the Move

Now that we are well into autumn, migration is in full swing. Many creatures headed south weeks ago. Among the first were the tree swallows. Think back to the last days of August and you might recall seeing many dozens of swallows lined up on phone lines as they prepared to leave for points south. Another traveler is the common nighthawk. I remember watching and hearing nighthawks when I was growing up. These would be found in most small cities throughout our area during the summer nesting season. Their numbers have seriously declined over the last several decades. Nowadays I look forward to seeing them at dusk as they migrate southward during the late days of August and the first days of September.

One of the greatest spectacles of migration is the movement of broad-winged hawks from their summer nesting homes in the forests of the northeast to their winter haunts in South America. The broad-wings leave en masse at the end of August through to the end of September, after which very few will be seen until next spring. To conserve energy on their long flight south, they typically soar upward in thermal updrafts or winds deflecting off mountain ridges. As they glide up on the lifting wind they look to the south and when they observe other hawks spiraling upward they glide off to another updraft. In this manner they travel several hundred miles each day with hardly any flapping of their wings thus conserving energy. These groups of hawks form a boiling mass of birds that is given the name “kettle.” The largest kettle I have ever observed was about three hundred hawks. Some kettles have been seen with thousands of hawks. The prime time to see broad-winged hawk kettles is the middle of September. Two organization you can check out to learn more about hawks in migration are the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) at www.hmana.org and NorthEast Hawk Watch at www.battaly.com/nehm/. Look to the right and you will find links to both organizations.

There are two other amazing migrants that we have the chance to observe in our fall skies: the monarch butterfly and the ruby-throated hummingbird. The ruby-throat travels to Central and South America. These small birds waste very little time as they move south. All you see is a glimpse of them as they buzz through just above the tree tops. It is amazing that this small bird can make long distance journeys, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles over oceans with no place to stop for rest or food. I came across a very interesting article online by Bill Hilton, Jr., an ornithologist specializing in hummingbird studies. He describes the work ornithologists have done, including his own, to discover the secrets of hummingbird migration. You can find this article online at http://www.hiltonpond.org/articlehummermigrationmain.html or click on link to the right.

The other well-known migrant is the monarch butterfly. Monarch migration starts at the end of August and lasts until early October. The butterflies that pass us on their way south are ones that hatched and grew up here in the northern latitudes. They never see their parents (not unusual for insects). These insects begin life as an egg on a milkweed leaf. They hatch and grow, undergoing metamorphosis, then travel by themselves on a southward journey to Mexico. All the monarchs in eastern North America travel to the same forests in the Sierra Madre Mountains of south western Mexico. How they know how and where to go on this long journey, no one knows.

To make the story even more interesting, the monarchs we see leaving the Northeast will never return here. Rather, it is their great-great-great grandchildren that will return. Butterflies that grew up here will make their way to Mexico and live there for the winter. In early March they will start the trip northward, but they will never make it back. They will have reached the end of their life, torn and tattered from the long migration and their daily efforts at survival: searching for food and shelter, avoiding predators and surviving dangers like the ravages of wind and rain. But before they die, the females will lay eggs. These eggs will hatch and grow into butterflies that will continue their journey north. But even this next generation will not make it all the way. It will take another two generations of monarchs to make it back here to the Northeast. It will be mid-summer before we see these beautiful butterflies once again.

This marvel of migration is enjoyed and studied by many people. Generally speaking, most of the interest centers on the hawks, though many hawk watchers will record the numbers of monarch butterflies they see flying by. Throughout North America there are hawk migration sites where people gather to watch and count hawks as they soar past. The most famous site is Hawk Mountain along the Kittatinny Ridge in Pennsylvania. There is a hawk watch site outside Albany, NY along the Helderberg Escarpment at Thatcher State Park, and I just learned of a hawk watch on Mount Peter in southern Orange County, NY. This site is purported to be the third oldest hawk watch site in the east and is staffed by volunteer observers. I spent time this past September observing hawks, monarchs and hummingbirds at each of these sites. Here is what I saw.

My observations at Thatcher Park, September 12-14, 2011

Broad-winged Hawk - Sept 12 - 144, Sept 13 - 57, Sept 14 - 28, Total for the three days - 229

Monarch butterfly - Sept 12 - 28, Sept 13 - 46, Sept 14 - 30, Total for the three days - 104

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Sept 12 - 4, Sept 13 - 0, Sept 14 - 1, Total for the three days - 5

Other Raptors

Bald Eagle - Sept 12 - 4, Sept 13 - 1, Sept 14 - 0, Total for the three days - 5

Golden Eagle - Sept 12 - 1, Sept 13 - 0, Sept 14 - 0, Total for the three days - 1

Sharp-shinned Hawk - Sept 12 - 3, Sept 13 - 0, Sept 14 - 2, Total for the three days - 5

Coopers Hawk - Sept 12 - 2, Sept 13 - 1, Sept 14 - 0, Total for the three days - 3

American Kestrel - Sept 12 - 2, Sept 13 - 1, Sept 14 - 1, Total for the three days - 4

Merlin - Sept 12 - 1, Sept 13 - 0, Sept 14 - 0, Total for the three days - 1

Osprey - Sept 12 - 2, Sept 13 - 2, Sept 14 - 0, Total for the three days - 4

Northern Harrier - Sept 12 - 1, Sept 13 - 1, Sept 14 - 0, Total for the three days - 2

Unidentified Accipiter - Sept 12 - 2, Sept 13 - 3, Sept 14 - 1, Total for the three days - 6

Unidentified Buteo - Sept 12 - 0, Sept 13 - 0, Sept 14 - 1, Total for the three days - 1

Unidentified Falcon - Sept 12 - 0, Sept 13 - 1, Sept 14 - 0, Total for the three days - 1

Unidentified Raptor - Sept 12 - 1, Sept 13 - 2, Sept 14 - 0, Total for the three days - 3

My observations at Mt. Peter, Orange County, NY, September 16, 2011

Broad-winged Hawk 661

Monarch butterfly 361

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 0

Other Raptors

Bald Eagle 11

Golden Eagle 0

Sharp-shinned Hawk 35

Coopers Hawk 5

American Kestrel 14

Merlin 0

Osprey 11

Northern Harrier 1

Unidentified Accipiter 5

Unidentified Buteo 2

Unidentified Falcon 2

Unidentified Raptor 1

The most amazing observation at Mt. Peter’s was the movement of monarch Butterflies. I was at the site from 9:00 in the morning until 5:30 in the evening. During the day, from 9 until 4 we had seen 116 with the majority of those in the afternoon hours. Then from 4 until 5:30 245 monarchs flew by. I have never before seen so many monarchs in such a short period of time. It was like a river of butterflies flowing past. I wonder what conditions created such an amazing spectacle.

While at Hawk Mountain on September 17th I observed several thousand broad-winged hawks in migration. Hawk Mountain posts their observations online at www.hawkmountain.org or clink on link to the right.

Monarch Butterflies observed at Sapphire Elementary School, Monroe, NY, September 19-23, 2011

Monday, Sept 19

10:00-11:00 with Mr. Costa’s class – 3

12:00-1:00 with Mrs. Buonamano’s class – 4

1:00-2:00 with Mrs. Rende’s class – 2

Tuesday, Sept 20

Rainy weather no monarchs observed

Wednesday, Sept 21

10:00-11:00 with Mrs. Zuzek’s class – 5

1:00-2:00 with Mrs. Cassese’s class – 2

Thursday, Sept 22

9:00-10:00 with Mrs. Teel’s class – 1

11:00-12:00 with Mrs. Janeczko’s class – 12

12:00-12:30 during my lunch – 1

12:30-1:30 with Mrs. Cahill’s class – 2

1:30-2:30 with Mrs. McNamara’s class – 3

Friday, Sept 23

Rainy weather no monarchs observed

Monarch Butterflies observed at Smith Clove Elementary School, Central Valley, NY, October 11-14, 2011

Tuesday, Oct 11

9:00-10:00 with Mrs. Rojas’s class – 5

10:00-11:00 with Mrs. Quintana’s class – 7

11:00-12:00 with Mrs. Dell-Webster’s class – 7

12:00-1:00 during lunch – 1

1:00-2:00 with Mrs. Apostolico’s class – 3

Wednesday and Thursday, the 12^th and 13^th were rainy days with no observations made

Friday, Oct 14

8:00-9:00 upon arrival as school – 1

10:00-11:00 with Mrs. O’Dowd’s class – 1

I encourage any class that has the chance to observe monarch Butterflies to record their numbers and e-mail them to me. You can take time to observe monarchs during recess or give students a reward for their hard work by going outside to specifically look for monarchs. Record the time at which the observations were made, the weather conditions and wind direction. Encourage students to be careful in their observations, you don’t want to count the same butterfly twice. Watch carefully to see that the monarch has moved on. If you see another monarch 5 or 10 minutes later you can be assured that it is a different butterfly. Once a butterfly has moved on it is not likely to circle back, after all they are on their way to Mexico. I will keep a track of these observations post them periodically and gladly answer any questions you might have about migration and these amazing migrants.

Painted Turtle Laying Eggs

While in Monroe, NY working with the Sapphire Elementary School I observed this Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) laying eggs. It was already well into the act when I found it on the lawn next to a Dunkin Doughnuts parking lot. I observed it digging her nest for about 15 to 20 minutes before she started laying eggs. She laid 7 eggs in about 10 minutes. I watched her burying the eggs for about 20 minutes before I had to leave.

A great reference for Painted Turtles is Thomas Tyning's book, A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles, in the Stokes Nature Guides series.