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February 10, 2010 Journal Entry and weather data for today. Average temperature - 12*F Winds - 7 mph Wind Chill - 1*F Clouds - stratus Precipitation - snow and blowing snow with accumulaitons fo 7 inches + We are very excited this week because we are beginning our bird study projects and we are getting ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up Friday, February 12, 2010 and ending February 15, 2010. Below is a link to the most recent news of GBBC events

January 27, 2010 - Journal entry and weather for today. Average temperature - 22*F Winds - 5 mph Wind Chill - 15*F Clouds - blue skies/ cumulus Precipitation - light flurries this morning but by 10:30 the sun came out and has been with us all day. Today we had a group of very interesting birds come into the sanctuary today. Our visitors were American Robins. They all came at once and at that time a total of 20 robins came into the sanctaury and ate the berries on the trees that were left over from the fall. When we reported our bird lists to ebird at Cornell University, We needed to confirm our American Robin numbers, because to have 20 American Robins at one time, at this time of the year, is a bit unusual. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so below you will find the pictures we managed to take of these special visitors.







January 26, 2010 - Journal entry and weather for today. Average temperature - 26*F WInds- 8 mph Wind Chill - 16*F Clouds - Blue skies & Cumulus Clouds Precipitation - none but we recieved an inch of snow overnight

We have an important event to tell you about today. It is the 13th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count. This event will occur on the weekend of February 12 - 15, 2010. Cornell has sent a newsletter about the event. Please read the posted newsletter below. Just a quick note,also, that we had very few birds today. All total we had 42 birds. Our most frequent visitors were the European Starlings (12) & the Blue Jays (7).

January 13, 2010 - Journal entry and weather for today. Average temperature - 20*F Winds - 2 mph Clouds - stratus/ with some sun in the latre afternoon Precipitation - none/ fog in the early hours of the day.

Today was another interesting day at our feeders. Although we had no hawks we had a number of American Crows and Blue Jays. With the American Crows and Blue Jays here, many of the smaller birds came too! In the Bird Behavior Modules of Birdsleuth, we study Corvid behaviors as way to establish an understanding of the behaviors of birds, in genral. Corvods have a great presence and are very loud and are larger birds, so they are easy to spot and observe. Today we were able to have first hand observations with the 7 American Crows and the 15 Blue Jays that came into the sanctuary and stayed the rest of the day. In our observations, we noticed that the Crows were very watchful of the area and set sentinels in place to watch for invaders, such as Hawks that might come into the area. The Blue Jays did the same thing and we even heard, at one time, the Blue Jay'a alarm call for preditors. We actually didn't see any hawks but we suspect they may have been somwhere in the vicinity of the school.

In order to better understand bird behaviors, I always like to have the class use field guides and research the internet for information about the birds they see. Another important resource are local, bird experts. The class has contacts with the Audubon Society of Presque Isle and we often email them and ask questions about a specific behavior or to help identify a bird. In this case, we emailed an Audubon representative and asked about our observations. Based on our observations we noticed that both the American Crows and the Blue Jays kept watchful eyes to the sky. We relayed this information to our Audubon expert and he was able to tell us that American Crows will harass Red-tailed Hawks to keep them away from their area but don't worry to much about Cooper's Hawks, but that Blue Jays will use alarm calls to warn of preditors, like a Cooper's Hawk. He did say that Blue Jay's are very careful and come, in groups, to feed. They take turns scouting out the area and watching for danger while the others go for food. We saw these behaviors in both Blue Jays and Crows in our observations today. The American Crows and Blue Jays did post sentinels in the area and then took turns getting food. Our Audubon expert said that with the Blue Jays and Crows in the area the smaller birds, like House Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, will use the Blue Jay and Crow signals as their guide to safety from preditors when coming into an area for food. This, we assume, must be the reason why we had many more house sparrows and dark-eyed juncos at our feeders today. We also had 19 European Starlings visit the the feeders today.

We enjoyed observing our Corvids today and the other birds who came for a meal in our sanctuary! Pictures of our visitors.





January 12, 2010 Journal entry and weather data for today. Average temperature - 22*F Winds - 4 mph Wind Chill - 15*F Clouds - stratus Precipitation - none but we still have approximately 1 foot of snow on the ground from last week

Today was an exciting day in the bird sanctuary. In the afternoon, we went to the feeders to check and see if the birds were able to gain access to the seed. It had been very cold overnight and we wanted to check if things were frozen and freshen the seed and put out more peanuts and suet. While working in the sanctuary, a mourning dove came flying in and, as the children said, "smack," hit the side of the building. After hitting the building the dove managed to fly to the fence separating the sanctuary and playground. The dove sat in the snow, by the fence, for a couple of minutes. All of the sudden the dove made an attempt to fly to a vent on the corner wall of the building. As it was flying, a Cooper's Hawk flew in and followed the dove. Just as the dove landed on the vent, the Cooper's Hawk grabbed the dove, by its talons, and flew away with the poor dove. The Cooper's, when it flew in, was so fast that it flew right up close to those filling the feeders. One of the children said he could feel the hawk as it flew by him. That's how close the hawk was when it made its approach.

We no sooner recoverd from this invasion, when another Cooper's came flying into the sanctuary, landed on the fence and looked over the sanctuary for a meal for itself. By this time, all of the birds had managed to escape, so the second Cooper's flew away disappointed.

We were all in shock and awe at the actions of these two Cooper's Hawks.

In our Birdsleuth lessons, we are studying about bird behaviors and boy, did we get a chance to observe soom fascinating behaviors today. We had some interesting writings in our journals today.

So as the hawk keeps a watchful eye over our sanctuary we bid you farewell until tomorrow.



January 5, 2010 - Pictures and a Journal Entry about our first day back from Christmas Vacation and what we have seen happening in our Bird Sanctuary. Weather data for the day - Precipitation - snow - total of 22 inches of snow; Temperature - 22*F; Clouds - Stratus; Winds - 3.8 mph. The entire area is under the influence of an arctic blast of air coming from the north. Many birds have come to the feeders because of the arctic chill.



We are just back from Christmas Vacation. The snow continues to fall and we have had many visitors to our bird sanctuary. In order to get to our feeders we needed the help of Mr. Fred and the snowblower. Once a path was cleared, we had to refresh the seed and break through snow and ice that had accumulated on some of the feeders. In addition to black sunflower seeds we put out peanuts in their shells and suet. The birds are attracted to these seeds and nuts because of their fat content and this keeps the birds warmer in the cold days. Our counts for today total 178 birds. The birds to visit most often include blue jays, mourning doves, dark-eyed juncos and house sparrows. We continue to see our Cooper's Hawk, who perches in a tree across the alley and watches the activity in the sanctaury, looking for a meal. The process of eating helps the birds stay warm and protects them from the elements.



December 23, 2009 The following eNews site comes from Cornell Lab Of Ornithology and has many interesting articles to read and actrivites to do. Please take a look and see what there is to learn about birds. Cornell offers much information to help with your birding projects. Please view this eNewsletter.

=This beautiful Cooper's Hawk joined us in the sanctuary today, December 22, 2009. It is almost like he stopped by and posed for this picture just to wish all a Very merry Christmas. He stayed for about an hour. He was looking for a meal. He, decided to fly from his perch in the tree to a position closer to the fur trees to see if their were any unsuspecting birds, he might find. He later left without his meal. So from us to you Merry Christmas and we will see you next year.=

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We had an interesting occurrence in our sanctuary today. We were visited by two hawks at once. One hawk was a Sharp-Shinned hawk and the other was a Cooper’s hawk. What was interesting to observe about the hawks were their behaviors and the behaviors of the other birds in the sanctuary. The Sharp-shinned came in with the Cooper’s but did not stay long. We think he didn’t want to compete with the Cooper’s for food, because he isn’t as big as a Cooper’s. A Sharp-shinned is a little bigger than a Blue Jay and a Cooper’s is a little bigger than an American Crow. What was interesting was the defense stance the other birds took against the hawk. Immediately the birds flew in groups to the safety of the fur trees, but then one by one flew away. The hawk didn’t chase them. This could be because he had his eye on a Blue Jay that was at the sanctuary, at that time. The Blue Jay is interesting in that he is not intimidated by the Hawk but rather moves to the upper parts of the tree behind and above the hawk so he can watch and harass the hawk with his calls. The Blue Jay also makes loud call to first indicate there is a predator in the area, but when the hawk has actually perched, the Blue Jay gives off a soft whistle-like sound, that is its alarm call. This special call is a sound recognized by other birds as sign of danger in the area. The Blue jays will actually surround a hawk in trees to make it nervous and leave the Blue Jay territory. The Blue Jay did give up this time and flew away, but oftentimes will take a stand against the hawk. With the Blue Jay gone, the Hawk went into hunting mode and flew to the ground were he walked alongside the fur trees looking up through the trees and behind the trees for prey. When I consulted a raptor expert, later in the day, he told me that Cooper’s use this hunting technique often when looking for prey. This was a very interesting field observation for the children. They observed and logged their observations in their bird logs. A Great Teaching moment, from a Science and Language Arts perspective! **
 * December 17, 2009