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.