Day 13- Tues Sept. 25: This "Pledge to Fledge" really doesn't even relate to birds - directly. However, it does help kids build birding skills!
Today was our annula trip to Camp Ockanickon. Of course I was pointing out various birds to the kids. (Turkey Vultures, Eastern Towhees, Carolina Wrens calling out, and both species of nuthatch received the biggest oohs and aahs.) The big P2F incident was of mammalian blood.
An observant student discovered what he thought was a monkey sleeping in the tree. It was actually one very comfortable raccoon dozing the afternoon away. Needless to say, the other students were begging to see it.
Like a birding trip, I had to line the students up to share the sole pair of binoculars. Each student was given explicit directions on how to locate the masked snoozer. Many also needed a brief tutorial in how to use the binoculars themselves. It was the first time most of them had ever looked through a pair of quality optics.
Watching the smiles grow across their faces indicated that they succssfully navigated through the canopy and rotated the focus wheel just right to bring the raccoon into perfect view.
They now have a thirst for examining the world through magnified lenses. Definitely birders to be!
No comments:
Post a Comment