Owl Pellet Dissecting at Altamont Elementary School

On Monday, May 24, I visited the Altamont Elementary School. I met with two 4th grade classes to learn about owls. Here are the results of the owl pellet dissection that we did.

Miss Flanagan’s class dissected 11 pellets and found 28 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles and 0 birds
Mrs. Vogel’s class dissected 11 pellets and found 36 mice, 0 shrews, 1 mole and 0 birds

The average number of animals found per pellet for the two classes was 3. This is a little higher than usual. Check the other owl pellet dissections here on the blog and you’ll find that the average number of animals per pellet is about two and half. This larger than average number is probably the result of dissecting pellets that came from owls that had feasted on a family of mice. These pellets had 5 or 6 skulls that were very small. These small skulls were probably from young mice. The owl would have heard the squeaking sounds made by the young mice in a nest. It would have swooped down on the nest and eaten all the mice there at one time.

By combining these number with the numbers found in other owl pellet dissections you can see if mice are indeed the most favored food, with shrews being a second choice and moles and bird not often eaten.

Landis Arboretum Early Morning Bird Walk, Saturday, May 22

We had gorgeous weather for our annual Arboretum Spring Bird Walk. The weather was great for us and for the gnats. There were clouds of gnats that followed our small group of 10 bird watchers (including Kate, a crackerjack bird watcher at the age of 10). We identified 44 species of birds. We had a great look at a Scarlet Tanager that was sitting on top of a dead snag in clear view for all. A couple of Cedar Waxwings in a shadbush showed off their gorgeous “wax-tipped” wings and tails. Bluebirds abounded every where, including the area around the greenhouse and barn where we saw them gobbling up caterpillars.

There were several birds that we often get on our spring bird walk but missed this day. They include Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Black-throated Green Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Veery and a bunch of the woodpeckers – Downy, Hairy, Pileated and Northern Flicker.

Along with all the birds we discovered two small red efts along the woodland trail, heard many green frogs in the wet areas, heard many chipmunks in and around the woodlands and spotted a painted turtle in the pond down slope from the great oak.

Here are the birds we got.

Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Rock Pigeon
Mourning dove
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Cedar Waxwing
Blue-winged Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Ovenbird
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Baltimore Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Gold Finch
House Finch

Leptondale Ornithologists Study Owl Pellets

I send my apologies to the 4th grade ornithologists that I worked with last week at the Leptondale Elementary School in Wallkill. I had told them that I would post this data over the weekend, but I got caught up in a whole bunch of house and yard work (actually trying to repair my garage roof that was damaged by one of the late winter snow storms) and have now just gotten to looking over the data and writing this report.

I visited with Mrs. Psilopoulos’s and Mrs. Dannemann’s classes on Thursday, May 13th and Mr. Zupan’s class on Friday, May 14th. Here are the results of the owl pellet dissections.

Mrs. P’s class – 10 pellets dissected, 33 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles and 0 birds found
Mrs. D’s class – 13 pellets dissected, 28 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles and 0 birds found
Mr. Z’s class – 13 pellets dissected, 33 mice, 2 shrew, 0 moles and 1 bird found

There was an unusually high number of mice (the average number of mice per pellet is between 2 to 3) in some of the pellets. In these pellets most of the mice skulls were very small. This is likely the result of the owls finding a mouse nest, and eating all of the baby mice in the nest (actually these are voles, a kind of mouse-like rodent that live in the grass/meadow fields, especially staying in the grass thatch layer close to the ground). The nests would be a hollowed out ball of grass material. The owl upon hearing the baby mouse sounds in the nest would swoop down upon the nest, tear it apart and gobble up all the mice in the nest, eating the babies and perhaps the mom if she was present and did not escape. These pellets had 5 to 7 mice in the pellet with most if not all of them being small skulls from baby mice. A few pellets had 4 or 5 small mouse skulls and 1 large skull. This might have been a situation where the owl ate the mom and all the babies.

Compare these numbers to some of the other owl pellet dissection reported here in my blog.

Second Day of Ornithology Field Trips at Brinton Brook Sanctuary

We had another good day for ornithology field trips to the Brinton Brook Sanctuary. The temperature for the day pretty much stayed in the the low to mid 50’s. The day started sunny with high altitude light haze. By afternoon it had become completely overcast. A slight breeze held up all day.

Mrs. Liss’s class was the first group starting at 9 and ending the field trip at 10: 30. Mrs. Dillon’s class did the afternoon getting into the field around 12:15 PM and going to 1:15.

Here are the species that were found.

Mrs. Liss’s class

Black Vulture
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Wood Thrush (by call)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
American Redstart (by song)
Scarlet Tanager
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Mrs. Dillon’s class

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch (by call)
Wood Thrush (by song)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Yellow Warbler (by song)
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler (by song)
Ovenbird (by song)
Scarlet Tanager
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow (by song)
Northern Cardinal (by song)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Baltimore Oriole
Common Grackle

The most interesting observations for both sessions was a red-bellied woodpecker nest. I had discovered the nest earlier in the morning before Mrs. Liss’s class arrived. The nest was in an old dead snag, about 50 feet in the air. We were able to observe both the male and the female coming and going to the nest. Since both birds were coming and going we speculated that their might be young already hatched in the nest.

The indigo bunting was easily observed by both groups. A male in pre-breeding plumage was singing vigorously from several easily observed posts was seen by both groups. Black vulture, eastern phoebe, chipping sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch and blackburnian warbler were birds identified that were missed the day before. Turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, pileated woodpecker, northern parula and gold finch were birds identified the first day but missed this day.

As in the first day I was able to identify birds before and after the class visits to the Sanctuary. These included mourning dove, American crow, northern flicker, veery, red-eyed vireo, gold finch, red-tailed hawk, brown-headed cowbird and magnolia warbler.

In the two days of doing field trips 43 species of birds were identified. I am sure there were other warblers that were missed because I could not identify them by song. The warblers are often so high in the trees that the only way to identify them is by their song.

May 10 Ornithology Field Trips to Brinton Brook Sanctuary

The weather cooperated today for our ornithology field trip to the Brinton Brook Sanctuary. The weather started in the low 50’s and worked it way up into the upper 50’s. There was a strong fairly steady breeze from the Northwest and it was mostly clear sky.

There were two field groups, Mrs. Zabbia’s class that was in the field from 9 to 10: 30 in the morning and Mrs. Barkan’s class that was afield from 12:15 PM to about 1.

Here are the species that were found.

Mrs. Zabbia’s class

Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-bellied Woodpecker (by call)
Pileated Woodpecker (by call)
Blue Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Wood Thrush (by call)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Yellow Warbler (by song)
Black-throated Green Warbler (by song)
Black-and-White Warbler
American Redstart (by song)
Ovenbird (by song)
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Mrs. Barkan’s class

Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-bellied Woodpecker (by call)
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay (by call)
Tufted Titmouse
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Parula (by song)
Yellow Warbler (by song)
Black-and-White Warbler (by song)
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow (by song)
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (by song)
Indigo Bunting
Baltimore Oriole
Gold Finch (by song and call)

Because of time constraints Mrs. Barkan’s class did not get as far as Mrs. Zabbia’s class and missed out on the pond habitat. There were several species found only at the pond. These included the two kinds of swallows, the red-winged blackbird and the common grackle. It was rather unusual to have such a number of barn swallows coursing about the pond hunting for insects. It is more common to see tree swallows doing that and we did not see a single tree swallow. The morning group had a good look at a couple of black-and-white warblers, but the afternoon group only heard them. The afternoon group had some great views of Baltimore orioles and indigo buntings, both birds completely missed in the morning.

I was able to use a new device that I had just purchased from Wild Birds Unlimited in Saratoga, an I Flyer bird song player. This hand held “wand” scans a bar code for species found in the I Flyer BarCode ScanBook and then plays a good quality reproduction of that species’ call or song. This is a handy tool in teaching bird songs. Since many of the birds were identified just by the calls or songs that we heard knowledge of bird songs is important. Check the links below to both Wild Birds Unlimited and I Flyer.

After the second class finished and left I spent a little more time along the trail from the road to the pond. I picked up a few other species that were not seen or heard by either group. These included and eastern phoebe by it’s song, a Carolina wren along the roadway near the houses and two mallard ducks at the pond. In addition I was able to observe both the northern parula and the American redstart.

It will be interesting to see what the Tuesday classes will find.

Second Bird Survey at Kings Elementary

The second bird survey at Kings Elementary in Warwick was on Tuesday, May 4th with Ms. Davis’s 5th Grade class. As with my previous ornithology visit with Mrs. Shook's class we started our walk with a short discussion of what an ornithologist might do to conduct a bird survey, how they would identify birds by sight and sound and how they would take field notes. Each student was given a pair of binoculars and instructions on how to use them.

The walk started at about 2:15 PM. The weather was good with the temperature in the upper 60’s. There were strong gusts of wind from the west. The sky was about 75% cloudy with a few intermittent rain drops.

These were the birds identified:

Turkey Vulture – 3
Common Flicker – 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 1
Downy Woodpecker – 2
Eastern Phoebe – 1
American Crow – 2
Tree Swallow – 5
Tufted Titmouse – 1
Eastern Bluebird – 2
American Robin – 10
Northern Mockingbird – 1
European Starling – 1
Chipping Sparrow – 2
Northern Cardinal – 1
Rose-breasted Grossbeak – 1
Baltimore Oriole – 1
Red-winged Blackbird – 3
Brown-headed Cowbird – 3
American Goldfinch – 7
House Sparrow – 1

The Rose-breasted Grossbeak that we saw was the female. We looked for the strikingly colored male but couldn’t find one. The Northern Mockingbird was identified by its song, actually songs, since it is a mimic, singing the songs of many different kinds of birds. It is quite unusual to have only one European Starling and one House Sparrow, as these birds are often found in groups. It is also likely that there were many more Red-winged Blackbirds in the wetland area behind the school and we just didn’t see them.

Compare these findings with Mrs. Shook’s class that went out on April 30th. In just a few days time there has been a return of several migrant birds. This will continue through the middle of May and the ornithology classes on June 10th should have even more species as by then all of the returning migrants will be back.

Brinton Brook Sanctuary Preview Trip

My ornithology and terrestrial ecology field trips for 5th graders at Pierre Van Cortlandt Middle school was postponed today. Instead I met with classes and talked about careers in ecology, how 5th graders might prepare for those careers and how they might someday then be involved in situations like the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

After my time at school I went to the Brinton Brook Sanctuary (a Saw Mill River Audubon site) to check out the trails for P V C classes that I will be taking there. It was windy, but the rain had stopped. There was still a slight overcast.

These are the birds that I saw or heard:

Wood Duck
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker (ID’ed by sound)
Blue Jay
American Crow (ID’ed by sound)
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Black-throated Green Warbler (ID’ed by sound)
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole

Our field trips are scheduled for next week. I am hoping that we have good weather and since it will be the height of migration I hope that there will be more species to see and hear.

Bird Survey at King Elementary

On Friday, April 30 I conducted a bird survey around the King Elementary School in Warwick with Mrs. Shook’s 5th Grade class. We started our walk with a short discussion of what an ornithologist might do to conduct a bird survey, how they would identify birds by sight and sound and how they would take field notes. Each student was given a pair of binoculars and instructions on how to use them.

Our walk started at about 2:15 PM. The weather was good with the temperature in the upper 60’s to low 70’s. There was slight breeze from the west, with mostly clear skies.

These were the birds identified:

Turkey Vulture – 6
Black Vulture – 5
Osprey – 1
Red-tailed Hawk – 1
Blue Jay – 2
American Crow – 2
Tree Swallow – 2
Eastern Bluebird – 1
American Robin – 1
Northern Mockingbird – 1
Chipping Sparrow – 3
Red-winged Blackbird – 1
Brown-headed Cowbird – 3

Owl Pellet Dissection with Mrs. Sirico’s 3rd Graders

On Friday, April 30 I worked with Mrs. Sirico’s 3rd Grade students as ornithologists studying the predator-prey relationship of owls. We dissected 11 Barn Owl pellets and found 31 mice, 1 shrew, 2 moles and no birds. The average of 3.1 prey per pellet is a bit higher than usual, as is the 2 moles being eaten and only 1 shrew. Compare these numbers to other owl pellet dissections in my blog. If we add this data to the data collected with other classes we see that mice are still the preferred food, with shrews a second choice and mole and birds a third.