MSTM Kindergarten

Welcome to Mrs. Webster's Kindergarten Classroom Website!

We will celebrate our 100th day of school on Monday January 31st, because Mrs. Henson and I will be gone this Friday (the actual 100th day) and we don’t want to miss out! We will celebrate all day with lots of activities all day long to celebrate being 100 days smarter. I am asking that everyone brings in a snack to add to a trail mix for that day. Please find a dry food item that your can sort out and count! Let them practice counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s. Then send to school in a baggie labeled with their name. Please send them to school by Monday January 31st. I already have Max, Kennedy, & Gretchen’s items for the trail mix!

You are also invited to help your child dress up like they are 100 years old for the 100th day of school! Some ideas would be button up shirts for boys, dresses for girls, cardigans, throw a little baby powder in their hair to make it white! Just get creative and have fun. We will be sure to take lots of pictures! :)

Our Valentine’s day party will be in the afternoon on Tuesday February 14th. We will be making something to store our Valentine’s in that day, no need to make anything at home. Kids are welcome to give cards out to classmates with a treat trinket, but you are not required to do so! Next week I will send home a list with everyone’s name and more details so your child can write names on their cards. Volunteers are welcome to attend that day, just be sure to let me know you are coming!

February snack calendar is in your child’s folder today, thank you to those who have sent in extras for our shelf for those days that we forget! Do to our small class size, your child may have to bring snack twice in one month. I try to rotate it so it isn’t always happening to the same kids.

Decorah Eagles January 10 was National Save The Eagle Day! We have a short blog on it here: http://bit.ly/2j1QBY5 With your support, and help from our volunteers and partners, here's the 2016 Raptor Resource Project Annual Banding Report that summarizes the work of the past season: https://www.raptorresource.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-bandingreport.pdf Educators, if you haven't done so already, please register with us to help us serve you and your students! To register, follow this link: https://goo.gl/Ecp7k7 The Weather Forecast 2016 Nesting Record Egg #1: 2/18/16 @ 8:28 PM Egg #2: 2/21/16 @ 7:46 PM Egg #3: 2/25/16 @ 6:59 PM D24 Hatch: 03/29/16. First look at 6:22AM D25 Hatch: 03/31/16, 3:15PM CDT What about the unhatched egg? Blog here. D24 Fledge: 6/11/16. D24 was 74 days old at fledge. D25 Fledge: 6/17/16 @ 4:26pm. D25 was 78 days old at fledge. D25's death: D25 was found dead alongside a road on September 26th. Learn more here: http://bit.ly/2d0QFHx Thanks to A2Z Security Cameras for their help and support with our new HD cameras and to the City of Decorah MetroNet for their help bringing the Decorah N2B nest to the world! About the Raptor Resource Project The Decorah Eagle cam is brought to you by the Raptor Resource Project, which specializes in the preservation of falcons, eagles, ospreys, hawks, and owls. We create, improve, and directly maintain over 50 nests and nest sites, provide training in nest site creation and management, and develop innovations in nest site management and viewing that bring people closer to the natural world. Our mission is to preserve and strengthen raptor populations, expand participation in raptor preservation, and help foster the next generation of preservationists. As a nonprofit environmental organization, we depend on donors, research, and our other programs for our entire budget. Your support will result in direct impacts and improvements for birds of prey! Donate via Paypal. For those of you who prefer donating via US mail, our address for donations is: Raptor Resource Project P. O. Box 16 Decorah, IA 52101 Thank you for your support. To contact us, please email moderatedchat@raptorresource.org. Thanks to NBC Dateline for the story! https://www.facebook.com/datelinenbc/videos/10154040987956420/ Thanks to The Nature Conservancy for naming us their webcam of the month! http://blog.nature.org/science/2015/03/24/best-nest-cam-bald-eagles-birds-nature-wildlife-video/ Teachers and Educators Are you looking for bald-eagle based lesson plans or activities? Visit our Eagle Education Board for activities, lesson plans, and more! Raptor Resource Project Links Our website: http://www.raptorresource.org Our facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaptorResourceProject/ Our blog: http://raptorresource.blogspot.com/ Our forum: http://www.raptorresource.org/forum/ Merchandise: http://www.raptorresource.org/support-the-raptor-resource-project/merchandise/ Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, passed away on July 27, 2015. We remember his legacy here. Decorah North Nest Followers have noticed we are now watching two nests in Decorah! For now, the nest we watch on this page will continue to be referred to as the Decorah Eagles nest. Our new nest is located north of Decorah and will be referred to as Decorah North. Decorah North can be watched here and here. While Decorah North nest is lovely, this chat channel is for discussing the Decorah Eagles, not the Decorah North Eagles. You are welcome to join our forum or follow this link for the Explore site. Map of N2B Chatroom Guidelines RRP Moderated Chat is a structured environment to learn about eagles, particularly the Decorah nest, in a family friendly setting. Moderators (Mods) participate in discussions during the hours chat is open. The Mods are appreciative of all who visit this cam and this chat. However, we cannot each say hello and/or good-bye to each and every person. Please know that we celebrate you being here. And that we do see you!! Moderators will enforce the following guidelines. Be respectful and polite. No profanity, personal invective or other inappropriate comments. Keep your language G rated and appropriate for family usage. While we are all one Eagle Family and celebrate and mourn with the other eagle nests/cams, as one of the busiest chat rooms and to avoid confusion we must keep the discussion focused on the Decorah nest. No comments touching on politics, religion, or sports. Respect the diversity of the room. Limit personal information, either asked or given and use common sense regarding what you share in Private messages. Be thoughtful in your choice of words when you post. What you intended to say may not come through clearly to others. In reading posts, give the poster the benefit of the doubt in what they were trying to convey. Disagreements might be unavoidable but should remain polite, and they should never become arguments. Do not post strings of several emoticons, smile-y faces, or random characters. Do not post in all caps; it's like YELLING. Do not invite roll calls of any type. While viewers come from all over the world use English only to communicate most effectively with other chatters. PLEASE NOTE: Verifiable Private Messages (PMs) that are insulting, offensive or rude may result in being banned from the chatroom. If you are receiving such PMs contact a mod for instructions before you delete them. Moderators have volunteered their time to make chat a family friendly place to watch the Decorah eagles nest with the added bonus of learning about eagles. While Mods spend time learning about the eagles, particularly these eagles, we are not avian/raptor experts. We try to answer questions with the knowledge and information we know. The limits of chat prevent us from posting sources for much of our information but the RRP Forum has the Mod Education Threads that are full of detailed info and many sources are cited there. Moderators are here to make sure all viewers have a good experience. Lead moderators are jfrancl, FaithHopeCure, and tulsaducati. Moderators are bellenurse1, Bob1603, bustopbird, e3forpresident, EagleFanDave, eaglesrock29, gardengirl1, glogdog, hummingbird2011, izzysamlikeseagles, JanBosworth, lgb011, littlebittykitty, Lshirely, nature27, Oregonian1944, Pagent, pyrmum1, rivian21, ThinkingWoman, and TX_Ninja. Moderators can timeout, kick, or permanently ban chat abusers and will delete inappropriate posts. If your presence is disruptive, mods will remove you from chat. Allow mods to deal with chat abusers and do not engage them yourself. Enjoy this chat about the Decorah Eagles and visit the Ustream Chat Mods boards on the RRP Forum for more interaction and eagle time! Ustream Mods Want You To Know - Education Ustream Mods Want You To Know - Entertainment 2015 Egg/Hatch/Fledge Dates D21: Egg 2/18/15 6:07 PM – Hatch 3/27/15 6:52 PM (37 days) - Fledge 6/14/15 1:11 PM (79 days) D21: Two views of fledge Here!! And a ground view of the fledge Here!!! D22: Egg 2/21/15 7:01 PM – Hatch 3/29/15 8:16 AM (36 Days) – Fledge 6/17/15 (80 days) D22: Video of egg laying. D23: Egg 2/25/15 6:57 PM – Hatch 4/2/15 9:43 AM (36 days) – Fledge 6/19/15 (78 days) D23: See the actual hatch up close. 2014 Egg/Hatch/Fledge Dates D18: 2/23/14 4:55 PM – Hatch 4/2/14 9:22 AM (38 days) – Fledge 6/18/14 (77 days) Electrocuted 7/8/14 Male D19 (Four): 2/26/14 5:33 PM – Hatch 4/3/14 11:29 PM (36 days) – Fledge 6/18/14 (76 days) Female fitted with transmitter Electrocuted 3/2/15 -- Details can be found in this RRP Blog. D20 (Soar): 3/2/14 6:43 PM – Hatch 4/7/14 10:42 AM (36 days) – Fledge 6/20/14 (74 days) Rescued w/broken wing 6/22/14 Male – non-releasable will become education eagle. As of 12/12 this eaglet is now an educational eagle (in training) by Kay Neumann and will be called "DECORAH". He has a permanent home at S.O.A.R. 2013 Observations With the unanticipated move to a new nest (N2) without cams we only had observations to go on. First observed brooding on 2/17/13, first observed feeding on 3/29, first visual confirmation of 3 eaglets was 4/5. So we know D15 hatched by or before 3/29, and all 3 were hatched by 4/5. Fledge dates: D15: 6/23/14, D16 6/17/13, D17 6/26/13 2012 Egg/Hatch/Fledge Dates D12: Egg 2/17/12 7:47 PM – Hatch3/27/12 1:16 PM (39 days) – Fledge 6/13/12 (78 days) – Electrocuted 7/1/12 Male D13: Egg 2/20/12 9:04 PM – Hatch 3/28/12 9:35 AM (37 days) -Fledge 6/14/12 (78 days) D14: Egg 2/24/12 8:05 PM – Hatch 3/30/12 6:50 AM (35 days) – Fledge 6/18/12 (80 days) – Found electrocuted 11/26/12 Male fitted with transmitter 2011 Egg/Hatch/Fledge Dates E1: Egg 2/23/11 5:33 PM - Hatch 4/2/11 2:39 AM (38 days)– Fledge 6/18/11 (77 days) E2 (D1): Egg 2/26/11 6:42 PM – Hatch 4/3/11 7:02 AM (36 days) – Fledge 6/23/11 (81 days) Female fitted with transmitter E3: Egg 3/2/11 6:47 PM – Hatch 4/6/11 6:48 AM (35 days) – Fledge 6/20/11 (75 days) BALD EAGLE NEST ETIQUETTE This is not intended to be an absolutely complete list, please remember to use common sense—these are wild raptors with a natural fear of humans, let’s keep them that way!! Bald eagles can be very sensitive to human behavior, and what may seem innocuous to a human may disturb an eagle; humans are still the biggest threat to eagles. Remember, Federal law in the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Protection Treaty protects bald eagles. Respect the landowners. Don't trespass or intrude on them in any way. Heed all No Trespassing signs. Federal law requires you to stay at least 330 feet away from any nest. This distance is also true for individual eagles that may be perched on a tree or standing on the ground. Use your car or a tree as a blind putting it between you and the eagles. They are less sensitive to those objects than a free-standing or moving human. If an eagle stops what it is doing to watch you, you are disturbing the eagle—move on! Be as quiet as possible. Don't honk, rev your engine, play loud music, shout or make any other loud noises. If you see an eagle, consider yourself lucky. Don't do anything that might stress the bird. They will see you. Move slowly and carefully and keep your gestures restrained. Do not feed the eagles in any way. This includes leaving food on the ground. These birds are wild and should not become dependent on humans. If an eagle is on the ground, do not approach it. When it flies off, do not attempt to follow it. It is illegal to possess any part of a Bald Eagle; this includes any feathers you may find. If you see a feather—leave it alone. Be aware of your surroundings. If an eagle is near a road, check for traffic before moving. Your safety is important. Binoculars and/or cameras will afford you the best view while visiting a nest. Demonstrate eagle friendly actions by your own behavior. Be courteous to both other eagle observers and wildlife. Keep the area free from litter. Pick up after yourself and take your trash with you. Enjoy your visit to Decorah or to wherever you might go to view these magnificent raptors!! Thanks to the UStream Decorah Eagles Chat Room Moderators for these guidelines FISHING AND HUNTING LEAD FREE We encourage people to use non-toxic alternatives to lead shot and tackle. We sent several eagles to S.O.A.R last year with lead poisoning. Wildlife face a lot of dangers we can't do anything about, but this one we can! For information about lead-free hunting and fishing, check out: RRP's non-toxic page. S.O.A.R's non-toxic tackle page. MN PCA's non-toxic tackle page. EAGLE LINKS The following websites provide good information about bald eagles: Animal Diversity Web Cornell Lab of Ornithology VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES RRP's youtube channel can be found here. Several active fans have captured videos from this cam from past years, including: prairiefirewind's videos dragonlainey's videos 70chico1's channel Eaglewhisperer18's Videos Mochamamma's videos Blossem Holland’s videos Robin Brumm’s videos Elfruler’s world SLP's 2013 Chronological Photographs. The Decorah eagle nest was featured in a PBS Nature series program, “American Eagle,” that premiered in November 2008. Filmed by cinematographers Robert Anderson and Neil Rettig in high-definition, the video is available on DVD and online. Frequently Asked Questions The Eagles' Nests Mom and Dad have built three nests on the property, and we built one. N0 or the first nest, built sometime before 2006, was built by Dad and his original mate, OM. The location can be seen in the map above. N1 or the second nest, built largely or entirely by Dad and his current mate Mom, was started in late 2006. Mom and Dad left N1 in 2012 and started working on N2, about 500 feet away from N1. In July of 2015, N2 was destroyed in a storm. Neil Rettig came up with the idea of building a nest not far from N2's old location to see if the eagles would adopt it. Bob was thrilled by the idea, but passed away before it began. We named it N2B in Bob's honor. N2B How high is N2B? The bottom limbs are 70 feet off the ground. How big is the nest? It was roughly 5 feet wide by 4.5 to 5 feet high when we stopped building. How old is N2B? We built N2B in August of 2015. It is in its second season! N2 How high was N2? N2 was about 60 feet off the ground. How big was N2? When the cameras were installed in 2013, N2 was about 4 feet across, 3.5 feet deep, and approximately 460 pounds in weight. How old was N2? The eagles started building it in Oct. 2012. It was ready for the 2013 nesting season. N1 How high was N1? N1 was about 80 feet off the ground. How big was N1? N1 was about 6 feet across, 5 feet deep; and weighed roughly 1300 pounds. How old was N1? The eagles began building it in 2007 and used it to successfully fledge 14 eaglets. A previous nest close by fell when a windstorm broke one of the branches. They left N1 after the 2012 nesting season. What is the area around the nests like? The nests are in cottonwood trees on private property near the Decorah Fish Hatchery (operated by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources), on the banks of the babbling waters of Trout Run in extreme northeast Iowa. N1 can be seen from the hatchery, but visitors to the hatchery should keep their distance from the nest tree, both to respect the private property where the tree is located and to avoid disturbing the eagles. Here is a ground-level video of the surroundings, taken in March 2010. This video shows the eagles’ point of view. Which is the male and which is the female eagle? It is hard to tell the difference unless they are both on the nest. The female is larger than the male. This female has an arched ridge above her eyes that goes further back than on the male, and her eyes are surrounded by a greyish shadow; the ridge above the male’s eye is shorter and seems a little closer to the eye. The male has a line around his eyes that makes them look “beady,” and his head looks “sleeker” than the female’s. Here is a bigreddiggy video about the differences: Telling the difference between Mom and Dad. What is the history of this male and female eagle? They have been together since the winter of 2007-2008. The female's markings at that time indicated that she was about 4 years old. The male was already mature in 2007. There is no way to know his age. Once an eagle reaches maturity at 5 years of age, there is no way to determine their age if they have not been tracked prior to turning 5. Here's a link to the feather changes that occur in an eagle's first years before they mature. Plumage Changes in Sub-Adults. They successfully hatched and fledged 2 eaglets in 2008, 3 in 2009, 3 in 2010, 3 in 2011, 3 in 2012, 3 in 2013, 3 in 2014, 3 in 2015, and 2 in 2016. Transmitter studies The Raptor Resource Project attached transmitters to six bald eagles: D1 from 2011, D14 from 2012, Indy from 2014, Four from 2014, and D24 and D25 from 2016. D14, Indy, and Four were all electrocuted: tragedies that raised awareness of the issue and led to greater protections on wires and poles from the companies that owned the lines. D1's transmitter stopped talking to us in 2014, although we have no reason to think she died. D25 was struck and killed by a vehicle. Follow this link for maps of their travels, a video of D1's capture (includes Bob's happy dance!) and information about the transmitters we used: http://www.raptorresource.org/d1s-latest-map/ Why are the eaglets called D##? The first place is D for the Decorah, Iowa, nest site. Numbers following the D acknowledge the number of eaglets since 2008. For 2016, the eaglets will begin with D24. Traditional names can create an undue tendency to anthropomorphize. While the human emotion that may be attached to the eaglets is understandable, an alpha-numeric system for referencing them may help us distance ourselves to observe the wonder of wildlife and nature at work. This reference system will allow RRP to integrate their findings more easily with other researchers.