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.