Bird Brains....For America!!

You know how migrating birds fly in a "V" formation? Ever wonder why one side is always longer than the other? Well, I'm here to shed some light on the subject.......it's because there are more birds on that side. BOOM!

In all seriousness, this week we visited 45 second graders at Melba Elementary School to teach them about migrating birds. I even created a game for them to play and learn about the dangers migratory birds face along their journey-- it was a spin on the classic 4-corners game that most everyone has played at least once in their life. The kids definitely enjoyed it and it provided a less "doom and gloom" way for them to learn about a darker side of the migration topic. Of course, not all of the scenarios were bad, I included plenty of positive events in the game as well to show that while there are several dangerous obstacles for the birds to try to overcome, there are also things being done to help them!

Fun Fact Of The Day!--- If humans were to prepare for migration and eat as much, proportionally, as birds do in the two weeks prior to migrating, we would have to eat one hamburger every 10 minutes, all day and night for two weeks in addition to the normal 3 meals a day plus snacks and drinks!! Considering some birds, like this Arctic Tern, will fly for about 22,000 miles one way, sometimes without ever stopping, its understandable why they would need to eat so much. To put that even more into perspective, in their lifetime (over 30 years), an Arctic Tern will fly a distance equivalent to 3 trips to the moon and back!!

How Neat Is That?!

Exploring Hagerman Fossil Beds......For Me!

 

 This weekend, I decided to adventure a few hours East to the small town of Hagerman, which is the location of the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. I started my adventure at the Visitor Center. While small, it contained some pretty neat fossils that had been found in the area, including a famous Hagerman Horse fossil. This collection was only a small look into the over 200 species of plant and animal fossils that have been found throughout the monument. I watched a short film about the fossil beds and even earned my Junior Ranger Badge! I spoke with the Interpretive Volunteers in the visitor center for a while and they were excited about the idea of my developing a Junior Refuge Manager Program for Deer Flat and made a few suggestions for activities that I should consider including. Before leaving the visitor center, I was given a water bottle and a National Park Service carabiner. I followed the main road for a few miles, crossing the Snake River and then turned to follow the river until I reached the Snake River Overlook, with views of the site where a large majority of the fossils had been found.  

Across the street was the trailhead for the "Emigrant Trail" which follows along the remnants of the historic Oregon Trail for a few miles. Despite the suggestion from the monument volunteers, I decided to hike the trail anyway......I should have listened. It was an out-and-back trail, which did not occur to me until I reached the end of the trail at the Oregon Trail Overlook, several miles from where I had started the hike. Being that the trail didn't offer much in terms of views, I opted to hike back to my car along the road, rather than hiking down a trail I just came off of. It was rainy and windy as I'll get out, and you could hear the wind turbines in the distance, which was a pretty neat addition. Apparently my presence on the road was a bit concerning as a man in a truck pulled over to see if I was ok and ask if I needed any help.  I finally got back to my car and made my way back to the house.
One Junior Ranger Badge Down, about a zillion more to go!

How Neat Is That?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eating Pizza For America!

 

We met up with the Boise PCEI AmeriCorps Members for dinner at The Flying Pie the other night for AmeriCorps day. We hung out, had some drinks and ate free pizza- nothing to complain about on that front! It was cool to meet other members nearby and hear a little about what their service sites are like. Plus, the pizza was most excellent.

How Neat Is That?!


Jumping Like A Mule Deer And Building Like A Beaver.....For America!

Today was my first Animal Olympics program! We visited two 1st grade classes to facilitate the program, and they were all super excited to see how their skills matched up against some of the best in the animal kingdom! We had them run fast like a cheetah, jump high like a mule deer, jump far like a grasshopper, and fly far like a snow goose. Along with testing their skills, the kids got to touch some of the neat biofacts we have in the touch trunk: beaver tail and pelt, deer pelt, raccoon pelt, great horned owl talons, etc.

How Neat Is That?!

Solving Crimes For America!

 

 Some nasty street youths vandalized our precious bird blind over the weekend! There were gang references spray-painted all over the inside of the blind and on the door. There was a token "fuck the police", but most of the rest was oddly polite: "nice birds" and "cute" were painted a few times, along with an "I heart gang signs" (weird!).
We helped one of out Fish and Wildlife Officers decipher some of the "artwork" and it will be painted over soon enough and the bird blind will be good as new!

How Neat Is That?!

Getting WILD for America!

 FINALLY got to attend a Project WILD training workshop this weekend! I have wanted to do this for years but never was available during the sessions that were scheduled. Lucky for me, training and professional development is a part of the job, so I got to attend the workshop in Boise this weekend as a part of that requirement! The first night we did some icebreakers, played some games (I was the only one who had ever even heard of Oh Deer!), and had a visit from a Swainson's Hawk named Little Hawk and a Great Horned Owl named Merlin who live at the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area! The next day we did some activities, played more games, learned about salmon and bears, saw part of the air show and did some peer teaching. Overall, it was a solid workshop and I am definitely looking forward to attending more throughout my term here- especially the WILD about Salmon workshop in July (they said we get to hold a giant salmon as part of the training!!!)

How Neat Is That?!

Field Trips For America!

 

This week has been super busy with field trips! We started off the week with two days of SEEDS4: Nature Detectives classroom visits for both of the schools who came out to the refuge two weeks ago. They were all stoked to see us again and asked me how the snake I caught while they were at the refuge was doing. We spent about an hour with each class facilitating a lesson plan/activity called "Who Uses Our Schoolyard". This activity teaches the students to change perspective to make more detailed observations and to notice that they see more of the schoolyard when they focus on different perspectives rather than just making general observations. We had them make observations of the whole school yard, looking up, looking down, and then making even more detailed observations using a quadrat method with a hula hoop and a metre stick dividing the area into two parts. When I asked the kids to share what they noticed in each of the perspectives, they came up with some awesome detailed observations.

***Funny Moment***

While the kids on the second day were making observations from the down perspective, I looked over at two of the boys who had been doing really well, to find that they had decided to use their sense of taste to make observations about the grass. They were on all fours, licking the grass like a cat lapping up milk.

Today, we had our first Discover Wildlife Journeys (DWJ) field trip of my term. About 100 6th graders from Ontario, Oregon came out to learn about being ornithologists. They participated in stations about water quality, adaptations, insects, and tracking. I ran the tracking station and facilitated a discussion with the kids about what types of tracks (signs of animals) there are before sharing a "track story". Initially, none of them knew what was going on in the track story, but after breaking down each of the aspects, they caught on and were able to figure out that it was a momma bobcat dragging something (prey or a baby) while one of her babies walked along side her.  I then explained how to identify tracks using a field guide and set them loose down one of the trails to find tracks both in the sand pits and stamped in the sidewalk along the trail. They all did a pretty good job of identifying the tracks, which is pretty neat.

How Neat Is That?!

 

SWOOP For America!

 

 

 Monday we went with the Master Naturalists to spend the day at the Intermountain Bird Observatory! The road up to the top was long, steep and winding- a totally new experience for this Florida girl. When we got to the parking area at the top, THERE WAS SNOW!!! Granted, I've seen snow before, but it was pretty neat and unexpected to see it on that trip.

We got to the actual observatory camp, we were sent up a hill to the 'hawk watch' area where we got to get up close to two raptors that had just been caught and banded (a Merlin and a Sharp-Shinned Hawk). We also got to use binoculars and a scope to see the migrating raptors the scientists were observing.

While we were at the top, clouds started to roll in (we were above the clouds for a while) and eventually surrounded us completely. WE WERE INSIDE OF A CLOUD!!!

After lunch, we went down to the lower level and got to watch the songbird banding and data collection before helping to release some of them!

The eleven staff/interns who work at the observatory live there in tents full time throughout the banding season. I could definitely see myself spending some time living in a super remote area like that. It makes my bus life plan seem way easier to handle. Overall, it was a super neat experience- hopefully I'll visit again during my time here.

How Neat Is That?!

 

 

Watershed Monitoring For America!

This weekend, I went to Boise to volunteer with the Boise Watershed Watch to get a little more experience with water quality testing before I have to teach 7th graders how to do it with the SEEDS7: Watershed Detectives field trips. I chose a monitoring location at the MK Nature center, so we did most of the tests in a creek flowing into the Boise River. Previously, I had only ever really done water quality tests with a YSI, so I figured it could be beneficial to get more exposure to different tools and methods. The one test I found unique and fairly interesting was the Dissolved Oxygen test. We had to collect a sample of water in a small beaker, take a class pipette of sorts and break the tip off in the beaker. The beaker filled with water and after inverting and waiting two minutes, we compared the color to a DO key. After completing the tests, we did a survey of macro invertebrates, and recorded other life seen in the area. We found a far different scope of inverts there than we did in the pond at Deer Flat the day before, which was interesting. I also found a dead sculpin (the fish) and saw a few kingfishers.

How Neat Is That?!