Happy 'Bird-Day' to Us!

Testing the theory of 'If you act like birds, they will come!'

Everywhere we went in Harrington, we were surrounded by birds! As budding birdwatchers, we were able to identify many of them by their colours, their behaviour, or their songs. Try to remember all the different kinds we saw or heard. Which one was your best ‘Bird-Day’ present?

The question we were trying to find the answer to this week was “What do birds eat and why?” Although all birds have beaks, not all birds have the same kind of beak. Use the chart below to see if you can find an example of a bird for each type of beak.

Each bird’s beak is like a tool. Some are like pliers. Some are like a staple remover. Some are like an eye dropper. What did we discover when we tested out how well these tools could pick up the different types of food?

Chipmunk used a strainer to act like a duck's beak. The grass and peas represented its diet of water plants and small fish.

Daisy's beak was a skewer which represented the Great Blue Heron's beak designed for catching frogs and fish.

Can you remember what kind of birds Beaver, Catfish , and Rose were by the tool they were usig for a beak?

Because it was our ‘Bird-Day’, we enjoyed other activities that helped us understand birds better. Use the photos below to talk about them with your family.  

We all agreed that this was the first day spring actually looked and felt like it had sprung in Harrington! Let's look back at some of the cool discoveries we made.

Beaver, Rose, and Daisy discovered that the hibernaculum we built for frogs has flooded with all the rain we've had. They think that the frogs will love their new indoor pool!

When we played the game ‘Bird Migration’ last week, we talked about the top predator for birds each year. If you have an outdoor cat at your house, please think about adding a bell to its collar. It is estimated that about 60 million birds are killed in Canada each year by both wild and domesticated cats. Let’s do our part to make sure that birds and their young have the chance to celebrate many more ‘birthdays’ just like we did today with our good friend, Catfish!

We hope all of your birthday wishes come true!