Our Feeders are Really Busy
The past few days we have been having a really hard time keeping up with our feeders. We fill them up yesterday and today the feeder with the sunflower seeds is completely empty. We are also starting to get a reputation. It is not enough that we are the nerds of the school but now we are the Bird Nerds. A label and reputation that we are all very proud of. I and the students in the ornithology class are starting to get a lot of comments from other students, teachers, and people that are coming into the school. They notice the feeders but the fun thing is that they notice the birds on the feeders. We had a visitor to our feeder that is starting to become a popular attraction around the school but one day just after we came back from Thanksgiving break she made and appearence at the feeder. The female merlin that hung out most of the winter last year and is back again this winter took one of the eurasian collard doves from our ground feeder. We didn't see her take the dove but she took it about twenty feet away and sat on a bench in front of the school and ate her meal. What a great opportunity to teach students about other aspects of bird watching. This was an example of how some birds use our feeders for other reasons as well as preator prey relationships.
