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.

Landis Arboretum Hawk Watch

What a beautiful day at the Landis Arboretum in Esperance, Schoharie Co. It was a great day, although did not get the number of hawks that I was hoping for.

Here is what we saw as far as raptors -

Bald Eagle - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Northern Harrier - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 3*
Turkey Vulture - 5*
Unidentified Raptor - 6
Unidentified Buteo - 3

*the most seen at one time

Most interesting raptor not seen was Osprey, as I have seen that raptor on most of my spring hawk watches at the Arboretum when the weather was cooperative.

In addition to these raptors the follow birds were identified during the day -

Mallard
Rock Pigeon
Northern Flicker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Eastern Phoebe
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay
Common Raven
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Thrasher
American Robin
Eastern Bluebird
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Northern Cardinal
Purple Finch
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Eastern Towhee
Dark-eyed Junco
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow

Plattekill Bird Survey

On Friday, April 9th, I did two bird walks with students at the Plattekill Elementary School in Wallkill, NY. Here is the Bird Survey Report for the walk with 2nd grade ornithologists in Mrs. Bailey's, Mrs. Moran's and Mrs. Bouk's classes.

Mrs. Bailey’s and Bouck’s classes
9:15 AM, 100% cloudy, slight breeze, seasonably cool

Canada Goose – 2
Turkey Vulture – 1
Killdeer – 1
Mourning Dove – 1
Blue Jay – 3
Fish Crow – 1
American Robin – 4
European Starling – 5
Common Grackle – 3
Chipping Sparrow – 1
House Sparrow – 4

Mrs. Moran’s and Bouck’s classes
10:15 AM, 100% cloudy, slight breeze, seasonably cool

Mourning Dove – 3
Northern Flicker – 1
Blue Jay – 11
American Crow – 1
American Robin – 3
European Starling – 6
Red-winged Blackbird – 1
Common Grackle – 4
Chipping Sparrow – 1
House Sparrow – 4

On both walks there were many birds that were observed but went by unidentified. Binoculars would have been very useful for observing these birds. Unfortunately there was not a supply of binoculars sized for second grader eyes. It would be a great to have a classroom set of compact binoculars for younger students. Compact binoculars can be adjusted to fit the intrapupilarry distances of young ornithologists.

For some birds the identification was made by the bird's song or call. A good example of this is the American Crow which has a very distinctly different call than the American Crow. Two other birds were identified by their songs, the Chipping Sparrow and the Killdeer. The Chipping Sparrow has a song that is a series of chips that is sung to a tempo that makes it sound like a sewing machine. Hence I suggested to the students that it was the “sewing machine bird”. We were able to see the sparrow fly about, but it was far enough away to pretty much look like and "LBJ" - a Little Brown Jobber. The Killdeer was only heard and never observed. It was calling from a gravel parking lot where it might eventually nest right on the ground not making much of a nest but with eggs that blend right in with a gravel environment.

We can compare this survey with the bird walk that was done with Plattekill’s sister elementary school, Ostrander Elmentary. To see the Ostrander data, check Ornithology at Ostrander Elementary entry for March 16th.

Owl Pellet Study at Kings Elementary School

On Wednesday, April 7, I visited the Kings Elementary School in Warwick to work with 3rd graders studying owls. Part of our study was to dissect owl pellets to see what their favorite food is. Here is what we found:

Mrs. Flynn’s class – 8 pellets dissected, with 20 mice, 0 shrews, 0 moles, 1 bird
Mrs. Nachtigal’s class – 10 pellets dissected, with 26 mice, 0 shrews, 0 moles, 0 birds
Mr. Dinoto’s and Mrs. Kipp’s classes – 23 pellets dissected, with 63 mice, 0 shrews, 0 moles, 2 birds

In our discussion before dissecting the owl pellets I had presented the idea that the most favored food for owls were mice and that shrews were a secondary food and moles and birds were much less often eaten. It was very interesting to find with the 41 pellets that were dissected that there was no evidence that any shrews had been eaten and that, in fact, 3 birds were part of the owls’ prey.

Compare these findings with owl pellets dissections that I have reported here on my blog - most recently Lynnwood and Ostrander Elementary Schools, Jefferson Elementary in February 2010 and Nazareth Intermediate School in January 2010 (there are other reports - look for them in the archived blogs). The average number of animals eaten per owl pellets is pretty much consistent with the findings of other classes. If this data is combined with the data from other classes it does show the moles and birds are much less eaten than mice and shrews.

Cape May Birding Trip

I had a few days off with no school programs scheduled so I decided to take a little trip south to Cape May, New Jersey, to look for birds including early migrants. Cape May is actually a fall birding hot spot, but it’s not at all bad for over wintering birds and spring migrants. I started my visit with a stop at the Cape May Bird Observatory Northwood Center to get a map and find out where to go looking for birds. As soon as I got out of my car I spotted a brown thrasher – ah, a bird I wouldn’t see at home in upstate New York at this time of year.

I birded at the Cape May Point State Park, Concrete Ship, the Nature Conservancy’s Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area and a section of the Cape May Canal off of Seashore Road (there had been a black-necked stilt seen there, but it escaped me).

I first took a walk around the trails at Cape May State Park where I had the chance to see a sharp-shinned hawk scoot in and scare up the Carolina chickadees, pine warblers and robins. The warning calls of the chickadees were quite distinct from the black-capped chickadee call which I am more familiar with. I observed a large number of osprey, including one that had caught a fish. Also had great looks at hermit thrush and Carolina wren moving about on the ground just off of the board walk trail.

At the Concrete Ship there were a large number of red-throated loons (which at this time of year in New Jersey have no red on their throats), northern gannets and black and surf scoters. Then it was off to the Nature Conservancy site.

The most interesting finds include piping plover at the Bird Refuge. While enjoying the plovers which were along the sandy beach not much more than twenty feet from me two American oystercatchers came squawking their way to a small pool of water twenty feet on the other side of me. Though not the rare bird the plovers are still a very cool bird to see up close. Along with these two species of birds there was a nice variety of ducks.

On the way to Higbee Beach I looked for the black-necked stilt at an impoundment just off of the Cape May Canal, with no luck. I stopped at Higbee Beach mostly to check it out so I knew where to go for an early morning bird walk with CMBO staff and volunteers. There were a lot of yellow-rumped warblers feeding about the upper tree branches. The early morning walk was super with my only sightings of palm warbler, Bonaparte’s gull and red-breasted merganser for my little trip. There was also large flight of northern flickers.

I had 63 species for the entire trip. Here is a list of the birds I got.

Mute Swan
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Mallard
Gadwall
Northern Pintail
American Wigeon
Northern Shoveler
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Surf Scoter
Black Scoter
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-throated Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Osprey
Piping Plover
American Oystercatcher
Sanderling
Bonaparte's Gull
Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow
House Finch

Another Bird Species Account by 3rd Grader

Michael Castellana was so inspired to be an ornithologist he's done more research on another bird. Here is his second species account, this one on the Indigo Bunting. Again, my appologies in not being able to download the pictures that he included in his write-up.


Indigo Bunting
Size: 51/2” (14 cm)
Male: Vibrant blue finch-like bird. Scattered dark markings on wings and tail.
Female: Light brown bird with faint markings.
Juvenile: Similar to female.
Nest: Cup; female builds; 2 broods per year.
Eggs: 3-4; pale blue without markings.
Incubation: 12-13 days; females incubates.
Fledging: 10-11 days; female feeds young.
Migration: Complete, to southern Florida, Mexico and Central and South America.
Food: Insects, seeds, fruit; will visit seed feeders.
Compare: Male Eastern Bluebird is larger and has a rusty red breast.

Bird Taxonomy and Bird Lists

As part of my ecologist visit at Ostrander Elementary we did a bird survey. I explained to the students how ornithologist might take field notes. I learned long time ago of a four letter coding system for the common names of birds listed in the American Ornithological Union (AOU). In researching the use of field notes for ornithologist I've found that several scientists have proposed a six letter coding system (go to http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/sixlettercode.html). Both systems use the first letters of the common names of birds. In the four letter system that I am familiar with, birds that have a single word name the abreviation for that bird would be the first four letters of its name. For birds with two names, the first two letter of the first name are combined with the first two letters of the last name to come up with the four letter abreviation. In the case of birds with three names, which includes hyphenated names, the first letter of each of the first two names are used with the first two letters of the last name. For birds with four names, the first letter of each name is used for the abreviated name. There are some cases with the four letter system where there are two birds with the same abreviation (i.e. Barn Owl and Barred Owl). This is where the six letter system would work better.

Here are the abreviations for the birds that we identified on our bird walks at Ostrander.

Red-tailed Hawk - RTHA
Ring-Billed Gull - RBGU
Rock Pigeon - ROPI
Mourning Dove - MODO
Northern Flicker - NOFL
Red-bellied Woodpecker - RBWO
Downy Woodpecker - DOWO
Blue Jay - BLJA
American Crow - AMCR
Fish Crow - FICR
Black-capped Chickadee - BCCH
Tufted Titmouse - TUTI
White-breasted Nuthatch - WBNU
Brown Creeper - BRCR
Northern Mockingbird - NOMO
American Robin - AMRO
European Starling - EUST
House Sparrow - HOSP
Red-winged Blackbird - RWBL
Common Grackle - COGR
Northern Cardinal - NOCA
Song Sparrow -SOSP


I have arranged the list above in what scientist call taxonomic order. This is the order in which birds are classified to show the close relationships between them. For example ducks and geese are very similar types of birds and are classified as Anseriformes. Gulls, although they are found near water and even swim on the surface like ducks are more like shorebirds, so they are classified as Charadriiformes. Most of the birds we observed around the school are called perching birds, which scientist would call Passeriformes. Although the red-tailed hawk perches in tree branches its body, wings and beak shape and its behaviors are not like that of the Passeriforms. These characteristics of the red-tailed hawk are shared by all hawks, falcons and eagles. These birds are called Falconiformes. Just to confuse you, owls, although they might look and act a lot like hawks are not included with the Falconiforms. Can you think why? The owls belong in the group Strigiformes.

There were 22 species of birds observed on my bird walks with 3rd graders over the three week period of my ecology visit. As spring time progresses and the migrant birds return there might be more than twice an many species that would be found around Ostrander Elementary. These might include: Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Bald Eagle, American Kestrel, Wild Turkey, Killdeer, Eastern Screech-owl, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Barn Swallow, House Wren, Carolina Wren, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Bluebird, Cedar Waxwing, Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Baltimore Oriole, Brown-headed Cowbird, Rose-breasted Grossbeak, Purple Finch, House Finch, American Goldfinch, and Chipping Sparrow. Some ornithologists keep a list of the birds that they see in a particular area. You could use this list to create a checklist and record the bird species observed over the course of the school year.

3rd Grade Ornithologists Report

Michael Castellana, in Mrs. McQuiston's third grade class did some research on the Scarlet Tanager after our bird walk on Friday. He sent his report to me and kindly gave me permission to post it on my blog. He included photographs of the male and female Tanager, but I have had difficulty posting those. I will work on that and hopefully will be able to include the two photographs in the post in the future.

Here is the report Michael sent:

Scarlet Tanager
Size: 7” (18 cm)
Male: Bright scarlet red bird with jet pack wings and tail. Ivory bill and dark eyes.
Female: Drap greenish yellow bird with olive wings and tail, whitish wing linings, dark eyes.
Juvenile: Same as female.
Nest: Platform; female builds; 1 brood per year.
Eggs: 4-5; blue green with brown markings.
Incubation: 13-14 days; female incubates.
Fledging: 9-11 days; female and male feed young.
Migration: Complete, to Central and South America.
Food: Insects, fruit.
Compare: Male Northern Cardinal has a black mask and red bill and lacks the black wings of male Scarlet Tanager.

Bird Walk Make-up

On Friday, March 26, we were able to do the continuation, actually a second attempt at the bird survey walk with Mrs. McQuiston’s third grade class that we had started on Monday. The weather was much better than on Monday. It was mostly cloudy when we started at 1:10, but then cleared to just a few cirrus clouds. There was a brisk breeze from the northeast. It was seasonally cool. We took the same route clockwise around the school that I had done with the other 3rd grade classes.

We were able to observe and count the following birds:

American Robin – 9
American Crow – 5
House Sparrow – 8
Tufted Titmouse – 2
Red-winged Blackbird – 30
European Starling – 3
Red-tailed Hawk – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 1
White-breasted Nuthatch – 2
Mourning Dove – 1
Song Sparrow – 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 1
Downy Woodpecker – 1

We saw an American Crows carrying nest material, small sticks, flying in the same direction that had been observed by another class.

Spring Bird Survey at Ostrander - Third Class

On Monday, March 22, we had a bird survey walk with Mrs. McQuiston’s third grade class. The weather was iffy – completely cloudy, light drizzle and a light breeze with a mild temperature. We weren’t sure if we would be able to do the walk because of the weather, but decided to give it a try. After about half an hour the rain became more steady and decided to head back inside and do another walk later in the week.

We were able to observe and count the following birds around the school building:

American Robin – 4
American Crow – 2
House Sparrow – 3
Tufted Titmouse – 2
Blue Jay – 5
Northern Mockingbird – 1
Northern Cardinal – 3
Common Grackle – 4
Red-winged Blackbird – 10
Fish Crow – 1
European Starling – 12

We saw two American Crows carrying nest material, small sticks, flying toward the tree line behind the school. We plan to look for the nest. The Fish Crow was identified by its distinctive call. The Cardinals were very active doing there mating/territory calls all around the school.

We hope that Friday, our alternate day, will have better weather.

Lynnwood Elementary Ornithologists Study Owls

Today Lynnwood 4th grade ornithologist studied owl with me. Four classes dissected owl pellets and found the following.

Mrs. Janssen’s class dissected 11 pellets and found 31 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles, 0 birds
Mrs. Lodge’s class dissected 9 pellets and found 21 mice, 2 shrew, 0 moles, 0 birds
Mrs. Shields’ class dissected 11 pellets and found 30 mice, 1 shrew, 1 moles, 0 birds
Mr. Freeman’s class dissected 10 pellets and found 29 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles, 0 birds

All four fourth grades combined dissected 41 pellets and found 111 mice, 5 shrew, 1 mole and 0 birds. Do these numbers support the hypothesis that was discussed in class?

During one class our discussion touched on how many animals does an owl eat for a meal. For this we need to look at our data and calculate an average. Now for most 4th graders this will be a new mathematical computation. To get an average, of course, we need to total the number of animals found in the pellets, 117, and divide it by the number of pellets dissected, 41. The average for our data therefore is 2.9, almost 3 animals per meal. Compare this average to the averages for owl pellet dissections done by other classes (see - Ostrander Elementary on March 8, 9 and 10; Jefferson Elementary on February 3; Nazareth Intermediate School on January 25, 26 and 28; and Circleville Elementary on November 4, 2009 - there are other investigation recorded on dates previous to these that you can search for in the blog). You will find that this is a little higher. Why might this be? Remember, ever scientist starts their science work with a question.

There might be a couple of reasons why. One might be a result of the start of the spring season. The owl pellets that were dissected were collected soon after they were produced by wild owls. That means these pellets show what the owls are eating now, in the early spring. The mice in northern California, Oregon and Washington, where these pellets come from have already started there reproductive cycles. Owls would hear the sounds and activity of a mouse nest, land on the nest and eat up the mouse family all at once. Indeed, there were several pellets dissected that had 5 or 6 mice in them, with all of the skulls being quite small. This would support this hypothesis, since the small skulls would be from young mice.

Another possibility is that the pellets dissected were not an average sample of owl pellets. Since I order many pellets from Pellets Inc. and I had to pay extra for a rush order to get these in time for our study, the sales representative told me he would make sure we had large pellets. Large pellets usually might occur when an owl eats a larger than usual meal. If he was carefully picking large pellets for our order that might result in a larger average of animals per pellet change our findings.

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.

Another Ostrander Owl Ecology Class

I finished my last owl ecology session at Ostrander Elementary School with Mrs. Busse’s 2nd grade class. We dissected 14 pellets and found 30 mice, 7 shrews, 2 moles and no birds. Check out other owl dissection data from presentations I have done previously, including the results from the two other second grade Ostrander classes in earlier blog entries.

Ornithology at Ostrander Elementary School

I am continuing my Ecologist-In-Residence program at Ostrander Elementary School in Wallkill. Today we were ornithologists with Mrs. Stokes 3rd grade class doing a spring bird inventory of the school yard. Our walk was at 1:45 in the afternoon. We counted the following birds:

Common Grackle – 6
Ring-billed Gull – 4
American Crow – 38
House Sparrow – 4
Mourning Dove – 3
European Starling – 3
Red-winged Blackbird – 11
Blue Jay – 1

I had been doing General Ecology walks with 1st grade classes earlier in the day and there was much more bird activity. During those walks we saw over 1000 Canada Geese. We also observed a Red-tailed Hawk, several more Blue Jays and many more American Crows.

The habitat for birds at Ostrander is very good. As the spring season moves forward more birds will return from their winter homes and many more species could be counted at the school. I have two more third grade ornithology session scheduled next week. It will be interesting to see what the bird species counts will be for those classes. I will post those findings here after I have done those walks.

Owl Pellet Study at Ostrander Elementary School

I visited the Ostrander Elementary School in Wallkill, NY today. I had two 2nd grade classes where we studied the common owls of the area and dissected owl pellets. Here is the data that was collected.

Mrs. Dutka’s class dissected 12 pellets and found 23 mice, 0 shrew, 0 moles and 1 bird
Mrs. Lazinski’s class dissected 10 pellets and found 19 mice, 2 shrew, 1 mole and 1 bird

A total of 22 pellets were dissected in which we found 42 mice, 2 shrews, 1 mole and 2 birds. What does this tell us about the favorite food of owls?

We will be taking apart owl pellets in other 2nd grade classes. We can add those findings to these to get a better idea of owl food preference. In addition we can look at the findings of other schools here on my blog. Check out my blog for February 3 at Jefferson Elementary, late January at Bushkill Elementary and November 4 at Circleville Elementary, among the recent school visits where I studied owls with elementary ornithologists.

Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Survey with Pierre Van Cortlandt Middle School 5th Graders

Earlier in February I visited the Piere van Cortlandt Middle School in Croton-On-Hudson. We did a survey of aquatic macroinvertebrates from pond water samples taken from a pond at the Landis Arboretum in Esperance, NY. These samples were taken from under the ice covering the pond which was about a foot thick.

Zabbia (first class first day), Ernau (second class first day), Dillon (third class first day), Barkan (first class second day), Herbert (second class second day), Liss (third class second day)
Waterboatmen - Dillon 1, Barkan 2, Herbert 3, Liss 1
Nematode - Dillon 3
Crawling Water Beetle - Ernau 3, Dillon 5, Barkan 3, Herbert 5, Liss 6
Dragonfly - Zabbia 34, Ernau 40, Dillon 39, Barkan 42, Herbert 31, Liss 35
Caddisfly - Zabbia 20, Ernau 27, Dillon 21, Barkan 18, Herbert 17, Liss 15
Backswimmer - Zabbia 4, Ernau 8, Dillon 8, Barkan 2, Herbert 8, Liss 6
Leech - Zabbia 5, Ernau 2, Dillon 3, Barkan 2, Herbert 2, Liss 2
Mayfly - Zabbia 16, Ernau 1, Dillon 1, Barkan 5
Bloodworm Midge - Zabbia 7, Ernau 11, Dillon 3, Barkan 5, Herbert 4
Freshwater Shrimp - Ernau 2, Dillon 2, Barkan 2
Giant Waterbug - Zabbia 4, Dillon 1, Barkan 1, Herbert 1
Cranefly - Dillon 1
Daphnia - Zabbia 1, Ernau 2, Dillon 1
Damselfly - Zabbia 10, Ernau 11, Dillon 4, Barkan 8, Herbert 7, Liss 3
Snail - Zabbia 2, Dillon 3, Barkan 3, Herbert 2, Liss 6
Water Pennies* - Ernau 1, Barkan 6,
Adalphia** - Barkan 1
Riffle Beetles*** - Barkan 2
Stonefly**** - Liss 1

* Water Pennies are the immature stage of the riffle beetles and occur only in streams. Since our samples came from a pond these wouldn’t be found there. I am not sure what creature may have been mistaken for a water penny.
** I think there was some confusion in the writing of the name “daphnia” which resulted in this entry.
*** Riffle beetles are found only in streams. The beetles identified as riffle beetles were most likely crawling water beetles.
**** Stoneflies occur mostly in streams or large lakes. They do not occur in the pond where our samples were taken. I suspect this specimen was really a damselfly.

In our first study of aquatic macroinvertebrates, the samples taken from the duck pond, we were doing a qualitative study. In a qualitative study we are looking at what kind of life occurs in that habitat. With this study we were looking for not only what is there but in what amounts. This would a quantitative study. Depending on what information a scientist is looking for they might do either studies.

I was interested in knowing how well 5th grade scientist might be at finding and identifying aquatic macroinvertebrates, a quantitative study. I wanted to know not only whether the 5th graders would find dragonflies, for example, but how many they would find. If the numbers of dragonflies found by the six classes varied widely I would then presume that there was wide range of ability at finding these creatures. In fact, students were quite capable at finding the macroinvertebrates, especially the larger size ones like damselflies, dragonflies and caddisflies.

As we did our investigation I began to wonder about the midge fly larvae, also called bloodworms. Several students observed bloodworms being eaten by dragonfly nymphs in the uncamouflage containers. It seems from the data that indeed they were being eaten since we found more of them on the first day (11 being the most and an average of 7 being found) as compared to the second day, where the most found was 5 with an average of 3. The bloodworm midges with their bright red color need a lot of hiding places. The investigation tubs must not have provided enough hiding places and they were being eaten.

As with any scientific work the more you do something the better you get at it. As beginning aquatic ecologist I am sure that there were some misidentifications made. For example I know that there was only one waterboatmen in all of the tubs. The waterboatmen look a lot like backswimmers. When I look at the data for waterboatmen I presume that the wide range in the number reported is a result of this misidentification. I’m sure that the extra waterboatmen were in fact backswimmers.

Mistakes in identification can be suspected if we analyze the data. Look at the giant waterbug data. Three classes found one giant waterbug, two found none and one found four. Again, with my experience, I know for sure that there was only one giant waterbug in our samples. When I analyze our findings I see that most teams, if they found a giant waterbug they found only one. I would suspect then that the class that found four likely misidentified the species and mistook some other organism for giant waterbugs.

When we look at most of the other creatures that were counted we see that we get very consistent numbers. In the cases where there was definitely some confusion in identification (the riffle beetles and stoneflies), the species that they likely were fit nicely into the numbers found by other students (the riffle beetles being crawling water beetles and the stonefly being a damselfly). This tells me that students were doing a good job in identifying most of the macroinvertebrates. There is one other species though, where I think there were some mistaken identities. Can you figure out which species this is?

From this data I conclude that 5th grade scientist with guidance, practice and experience a very capable of doing an inventory of aquatic macroinvertebrates. Even though some misidentification might occur the students did a great job in finding and identifying most of the aquatic organisms that we had in the sample tubs.

For more aquatic ecology investigations, including photos of some of the aquatic macroinvertebrates that might be seen in a freshwater pond see blog entry, Pond Ecology at Central Valley and Circleville, dated November 19, 2008.

Jefferson Elementary School Owl Pellet Dissection

Here are the results for the owl pellet dissection that I did with the 5th grade ornithologists at the Jefferson Elementary School in Rotterdam, NY.

Gorski’s class – 12 pellets dissected, 28 mice, 1 shrew, 0 moles and 0 birds found
Guzewich’s class – 11 pellets dissected, 34 mice, 0 shrews, 0 moles and 0 birds found
Fiske’s class – 10 pellets dissected, 28 mice, 0 shrews, 0 moles and 1 bird found
Zanta’s class – 11 pellets dissected, 24 mice, 3 shrews, 0 moles and 0 birds found
Walker’s class – 10 pellets dissected, 24 mice, 2 shrews, 0 moles and 0 birds found

In our discussion we concluded that we could get a better understanding of what the owls eat if we took apart more pellets. Unfortunately time and money constraints didn’t allow us to take apart more pellets with each class. By looking at the data from all the classes though we are “taking apart more owl pellets”. What does this data tell us about owl food preference?

You can take this further if you can figure out how many pellets an owl might make in a night. This is what most likely happens. Starting at dusk an owl hunts and eats until it’s full. Then the owl finds a roosting place where it will rest, spit out a pellet and digest its food. This whole process might take a couple of hours. Then the owl will go off and hunt some more doing it all over again. Can you figure out how many pellets an owl might produce in a night? If you can, you can also figure out how many mice an owl might eat in a year.

Look through the blog for more owl pellet dissection entries. That would provide even more data to analyze and get a better understanding of owl prey preference.