Our First Birding Hike

The kindergarten birders were thrilled to be at the lake today!

With all of the good birds that have been out at the lake these past couple of days, I knew I had to get the kids out there to try to see them before they continued on with their migration.

Today was a beautiful day, so we walked to the lake in town and I reviewed some science lessons.  We discussed the seasons and looked for signs of fall.  We showed them that the rotting log was turning into soil.  I showed them the reflection of the sky in the water and we talked about that.  We looked at the birdhouses that the past kindergartners had built and discussed how the high school students helped them.  We looked at different shaped leaves on different plants and pulled up weeds to check out the roots.  After noticing large cracks in the ground, they had a good discussion about that.  They were pretty sure that it was not an earth quake!

Of course we also looked at birds!  We all got a good look at a Downy Woodpecker.  One boy exclaimed, "Dream bird!"  I think he meant, "Life bird!" Life bird means that it is the first time you've ever seen that bird besides in a book. We also saw:  a Turkey Vulture, Northern Flickers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, European Starlings, American Robins, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and we we heard Cedar Waxwings and Blue Jays calling.  We got our best look at a really big bird!  There was a Great Blue Heron that let us get quite close.  It was quite impressive when it flew due to its big wingspan and even more impressive when it stabbed a frog and ate it while we were watching.  The kids looked at me in amazement!  They were really excited to see that!  As we left, we saw a Cooper's Hawk in a tree above us.  {Remember...you can click on the photo for it to enlarge.  Then you can look through the photos as a slideshow.}

The Downy Woodpecker was the first exciting bird 
that was spotted.

A Turkey Vulture flew overhead.

This Yellow-rumped Warbler looks quite plain compared to 
how beautiful it is in the spring.  There were more 
than 30 of them!

"Hey!  There's sticks in here!"  I explained that there 
were Tree Swallows nesting in there in the spring.

Here they are hiking through the "Spooky Forest"!

The Eight Girls

The Eight Boys
"Teacher!  The sun's in our eyes!"

"Can we go on the bridge?"

How the binoculars didn't slip off into 
the lake, I'll never know.  Whew!

Here is Henry, the Great Blue Heron.  
You know all about them after your last bird lesson.

Here are the kids quietly watching the 
Great Blue Heron stab and eat frogs!

Look closely.  You can see Henry down by the bush.

Here they are being a little crazy!

This Cooper's Hawk was the last bird we saw as we left the lake.

It is time to head back to school and write about our 
adventure in our journal.