Education

Audubon Volunteers Head to Local Schools

Once again, the bird skin program is underway with a new group of Black Canyon Audubon volunteers. Audubon will offer a program in the North Fork and Montrose area schools. The presentation includes power point slides of local birds, plenty of bird skins that the kids can touch, and bird songs. Thanks to Bill Schmoker for sharing his great bird photos.

2006 Ridgway Bird Banding Station

In September, the Black Canyon Audubon Society, in conjunction with Ridgway State Park and Colorado Division of Wildlife, conducted its’ first ever bird banding program with the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory.  For one week, from Sept 7th – 13th, the RMBO conducted an educational bird banding station for 4th graders in the Montrose and Olathe school districts.

Bird banders - Tony Leukering and Glenn Giroir set up and ran 6 mist nets at Dallas Creek located at the west end of Ridgway State Park.  Hundreds of children came through the 30 minute banding station presentation during the week long program.  The children learned about migration, bird identification, bird banding procedures and even got to release birds themselves.  The bird educators presenting to the children were Glenn Giroir (RMBO) and Cheryl Day (President of Black Canyon Audubon Society).  It was Cheryl’s first time as a bird banding educator, and she did a fantastic job! 

Great fun was had by all as the children got to see many different species of birds and even a few garter snakes that passed by the banding station.  In addition to the bird banding station, 2 other stations were also conducted.  First, was a feather station, where children got to touch and see bird feathers up close, learn about there function and biology.  The second station was an outdoor field station were children explored the grasses, dirt and bushes for food, insects, flowers and other things related to birds and their environment.

Cordilleran Flycatcher and helping hands © D. Pace

During the week long program, a variety of birds were caught including: Yellow Warblers, Green Tailed Towhees, Wilson’s Warblers, Gray Catbirds, Chipping Sparrows, Lincoln Sparrows, Black Capped Chickadees, House Wrens, Western Flycatchers, White Crowned Sparrows, Yellow Breasted Chats, and many others.  All in all, Tony Leukering of RMBO felt that the stations had good numbers and variety considering that only 6 nets were being used during this short week long program.  In addition, the weather didn’t always cooperate, and it rained a couple of the days.  This, however, didn’t hamper the banding effort as the birds still showed up in good numbers.

Arlene Crawford, park naturalist for Ridgway State Park, headed up the effort for this years program and was very excited about how the program turned out.  She wanted to see the program expanded next year and for it to include more days, more nets and more children.

This program was a model of cooperation between different organizations. Ridgway State Park donated the use of a trailer for the bird bander, trailer spaces for volunteers, set up nature programs for the children, as well as the use of their park.

And the program couldn't have been completed without the help of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Leigh Gillette, Education Coordinator for the CDOW, helped pay for workbooks for teachers and the school buses to bring the children on their field trip.

It took great effort and planning to make this years program such a success.  Thanks to all that contributed their time and effort into making this years program so beneficial to not only the RMBO, but to the hundreds of children that will forever have a positive experience and lasting memory about the benefits of birds in our world. – D. Pace