Birds and Flight - 2011

This winter we are working with the RSPB to learn about birds. We have a field operator called Dave who will come to help us learn more about caring for the birds and how to feed them through the winter. He will show us how to do a bird survey and take part in a national survey.

We will be learning about birds in the classroom too and have already learned a bit about 3 kinds of feathers and what they do. We will keep you posted about our learning.

We have been playing a bird migration game and have learned about the hazards birds face on their long journey. Some birds travel thousands of miles every year and many do not make it.

Dave from the RSPB came to visit us this morning. He taught us to identify different types of birds by their colour, size and sound.

We learned why some bird numbers were dwindling and added lots of theories of our own. Dave said we are the future and it will be up to us to protect the birds later so its important that we can think of answers.

We had a little test to see how much we had learned and we passed with flying colours!

He showed us how to conduct a survey and then we went out in groups to look for birds. We found lots of different birds around the school such as starlings, carrion crows, bluetits, gulls etc. It was very cold but we didn’t mind at all because we had great fun and learned a lot.

8th March 2011

Dave came to visit us again today to tell us about the re-introduction of the white tailed eagle to Scotland.

We learned about the size of the bird and we were able to compare the size of feathers and claws from the eagle with the same from a buzzard. We know the favourite food is fish but the eagle also eats other birds, small animals and even roe deer.

The eagle became extinct in Scotland around 1918 and is gradually being reintroduced through the East Coast Project. Every year 15 chicks are brought over from Norway and eventually released into the wild. It takes 5 years for an eagle to mature and start a family.

We learned about the life cycle of a blue tit too. Dave showed us pictures from the brood when the chick is born then when it becomes a fledgling then a juvenile and finally an adult with chicks of its own.

19th April 2011. - Dave came today from the RSPB, unfortunately this was his last visit.

Today we learned a bit more about adaptation of beaks, feet, wings and eyes. We went over the results of the Big Bird Survey and he showed us how to make graphs of the results. We have learned a lot about birds and wildlife in our environment over the last few months and we will continue to look after them and keep learning.