Art of Bird Watching

Introduction:

Proctor Academy is a very unique school where there is a time in the Spring term where Seniors get the opportunaty to leave school 2 1/2 weeks early and do Senior Project. This is a weird time for the Juniors because we share classes with the Seniors, so when they leave there are only a few juniors left in the classrooms. For our APES class, there are only 7 juniors left. We chose as a group to learn more about the Art of Bird watching and how to identify birds from their sounds and their feathers/ patterns they have. We have expressed interest in building more bird houses for Proctors campus as well as on innovation night having some sort of informational, yet interactive and exciting demonstration or presetaion to help get the Proctor community more excited and aware of the birding opportunities we have on campus. After choosing our final project as a class, we went out side and did some field work. We downloaded the Merlin app, a app that allows you to record your surroundings and picks up on birds due to their unique calls. We grabbed our binoculars and Birding encyclopedias. We took a short ride over to the Proctor Skii area and went for a short walk and found some cool birds. We saw geese, Mallard ducks both the female and male, Red Winged Blackbird, Tufted Titmouse, Yellow Warbler, and an American Goldfinch. 

Plan/ schedule:

• ID 6 birds by sight and ear

• Become a expert in one bird (for me Bluebird)

  • • Natural History

    • ID

    • Diet 

    • Habitat

    • Song

    • Specialties

    • Ecosystem + value

• Make bird box

• Make infographic for Bluebird

• Make wooden QR-codes 

• Put bird boxes out in field

• Present at Innovation Night

Conclusion:

We have gone out in the field a few times. Every time we have improved as a group. We are starting to pick up on birds by their visual appearance as well as by ear. I have made a plan with Spencer for the Leaser engravings and we will be building out Bird houses next class. We are on a steady roll and i cant wait to see what we end up accomplishing.