Ostrander Elementary Bird Walk

I just finished a bird walk with Ms. Missale’s and Mrs. Wager’s 3rd grade classes at Ostrander Elementary School in Wallkill. We did a survey of the birds at the school. Here is our data.

Our walk started at about 2:00 PM. The weather was good with no clouds and a slight breeze from the East. We were able to identify the following birds as we walked around the school.

American Robin – 3
Rock Pigeon – 2
American Crow – 15
House Sparrow – 6
Ring-billed Gull – 4
Mourning Dove – 3
Tufted Titmouse – 1
Blue Jay – 1
Brown Creeper – 2
Downy Woodpecker – 1
White-breasted Nuthatch – 1
Red-tailed Hawk – 3

We also observed four gulls that may have been Ring-billed Gulls but they were too far away to be sure.

We can compare our findings with the bird survey that was done with Mrs. Stokes class on Tuesday, March 9th. What do we find? Why might there be these similarities or differences? Unfortunately we didn’t record the weather conditions that day. That may have affected what birds we observed and how many there were. Of course our observations today are a week later. As spring approaches there will be more birds arriving from their winter habitats, but the birds observed today and last week are all birds that have been here all winter.

We will be doing one last bird survey with Mrs. McQuiston’s class on Monday, March 22. What might those finding be? How might they compare with the previous two bird surveys.