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© Ben Burns

This past weekend, MassAudubon sponsored its annual Focus on Feeders bird census. My kids and I managed to spot fifteen species of birds over the course of the two days. Most were at our feeders, but a few, like the crows and the red-tailed hawk, just happened to be flying overhead while we were counting. I was thrilled that one of our resident red nuthatches showed up and posed for a photo, and completely stoked that my son Ben was ready with the camera. (If you are into birds, you can compare this red nut to the white-breasted cousin from this recent post.) Here’s our full species list:

American crow

American goldfinch

Black-capped chickadee

Blue jay

Dark-eyed junco

Downy woodpecker

House finch

Mourning dove

Northern cardinal

Red-bellied woodpecker

Red-breasted nuthatch

Tufted titmouse

White-breasted nuthatch

Red-tailed hawk

Don’t worry if you missed the fun; Great Backyard Bird Count is just two weeks away! I’ll be counting with kids from my local elementary school. How about you?

Is it me, or is citizen science EVERYWHERE? I just opened the January/February edition of Audubon magazine and found a piece about yet another web portal for curious kids and their families to explore citizen science projects that need their help. I’ve added it to my growing list (links below) of places to send folks who need a “real science” fix …

SciStarter

Cornell Lab of Ornithology Citizen Science Central

Zooniverse

Happy exploring!

© Loree Griffin Burns

One of my favorite reviews of Citizen Scientists, from librarian and SLJ blogger Travis Jonker of 100 Scope Notes, contains this line:

“The rear of the book is a backmatter-palooza …” (You can read the full review here.)

Yes! The final ten pages of Citizen Scientists are a backmatter-palooza. That’s partly because I’m a sucker for meaty backmatter; how better to truly ponder a book than to thumb around in the land after THE END, getting a feel for why the author wrote what she wrote … and where she thought you might like to go next? The truth is, though, that this book demanded serious backmatter real estate. If Citizen Scientists worked as I hoped, then readers would finish antsy to launch their careers as citizen scientists. I wanted to point them to a depth and variety of print and web resources that would help them do that.

Alas, backmatter has its downside. Foremost on my mind today: the ephemeral nature of web addresses. After Citizen Scientists went to press, but before copies were even available for purchase, one of my favorite of the backmatter web resources, the website Science for Citizens, changed its name. And its internet handle. Grrr.

We will fix this in subsequent editions of the book, of course. In the meanwhile, know this: Science for Citizens is now SciStarter. It is a great place to search out real science projects in need of real amateur scientists. Into bats? They’ve got you covered. Crazy for mastodons? No problem. Honestly, it’s project-palooza over there. For a little taste, check out SciStarter’s Top 12 Citizen Science Projects of 2012. You’ll see some you’ve heard me talk about before (Great Sunflower Project) and some that I’m only beginning to contemplate (Project Squirrel, anyone?).

Happy exploring!

© Loree Griffin Burns

Yesterday’s post reminded me to remind YOU that some excellent bird-related citizen science opportunities are just ’round the corner …

• MassAudubon’s Focus on Feeders event will take place in Massachusetts on February 2 and 3, 2013

• Audubon’s Great Backyard Bird Count will take place nationwide February 15-18, 2013.

These are great opportunities to get outside, show off your birding skills, and do a small something to help monitor the birds in your neighborhood.  Both projects are simple, fun and–I warn you!–addicting. My kids and I have participated in one or the other since 2008, and we’ve had some extraordinary moments. (Last year’s sharp-shinned hawk comes to mind.)

All the information you need to get started can be found at the websites linked above. Check them out and see if a bird count is something you can fit into the family calendar. If so, fill up your feeders, dust off your ‘nocs, and invite the neighbors. Happy Counting!

© Loree Griffin Burns

This weekend I watched my four-year-old nephew catch the birding bug. He was over for the day, and on one of his trips through the kitchen, he caught me with binoculars checking out a bird on the feeders outside. He asked what I was doing and Presto! … he’s a birder. In about twenty minutes time he spotted eight species of birds. His reaction was fun to witness; I can’t think of anything more satisfying than a four-year-old leaping up and down in your kitchen and shouting, “There’s another one! Auntie Loree, look! I see another bird! What is it?”

(I think this guy needs his first birding field guide, don’t you? I’m going to put this one under the tree for him this year.)

Happy Monday, friends. May your week be filled with new birds … and a curious four-year-old or two.

© Loree Griffin Burns

Check it out.

That right there is the FeederWatch station of the Pre-K students at Brookwood School in Manchester, Massachusetts. It has everything the students need to monitor the feeder bird populations on their school grounds: stools for comfortable viewing, windows looking out over the school bird feeders, a basket for storing clipboards, data sheets, and pencils, and photos of birds to help remind watchers what they are seeing. There is even a sign–its posted on the easel at the left of the photo–warning passersby: “Shhhhhhhh! Bird Watchers at Work!” I was lucky enough to have a personal tour of this research station, and was mighty impressed with the citizen scientists who work there. Thank you Brookwood Pre-K students!

Thank you also to the Brookwood kindergartners, who shared their MonarchWatch experiences with me, the first graders, who told me about their tulip work for Journey North, and the second graders, who taught me about chicken care, introduced me to Cynthia and Mabel … and even gifted me a couple of fresh eggs.

Hooray for student scientists and the schools that inspire them!

© Loree Griffin Burns

I’m soaking up John Hanson Mitchell’s A FIELD GUIDE TO YOUR OWN BACK YARD: A SEASONAL GUIDE TO THE FLORA & FAUNA OF THE EASTERN US this week, and I came across these words among his early spring (April, May, June) thoughts on peepers:

“… although a great deal is known about the mating habits of this common frog, not much is known about the other nine months of its life.”

They caught my attention because I happened to have observed something interesting about the post early-spring life of spring peepers recently. For the past two field seasons, while hunting for ladybugs in a milkweed meadow here in central Massachusetts, I’ve come across a surprising number of resting peepers. I’d estimate that I’ve made 4-6 individual observations, and always on the hottest and most humid of peak summer days. In each case, the frog in question was sitting on the top face of a milkweed leaf about three to four feet off the ground, shaded by the leaves above it.

Perhaps this is common spring peeper behavior? Perhaps its been observed and recorded a thousand times? Or–and I love this idea–perhaps I’ve seen something new?

There are ways to find out, of course. I can consult field guides and amphibian research journals in search of information on spring peeper behaviors recorded in summertime. I can get in touch with amphibian experts or local naturalists and ask them what they know. Or I could simply continue watching milkweed meadows and recording my peeper observations. Citizen-scientist-style.

© Loree Griffin Burns

My daughter and I made our first observations for MassAudubon’s Big Barn Study yesterday. We had seen barn swallows around the yard and suspected they were living in our big, old barn. What we didn’t realize was that they were entering the barn through the garage. (These doors are closed much of the day. Should we leave the garage doors open? Will they abandon these nests if we don’t? Will we be allowed in the garage once eggs are laid?) Or that they were building nests in not-so-safe places. (Like on top of a live electrical outlet.) As usual, closer observation has piqued our interest, and we’ve got a lot to look into.

We also learned that barn swallows are very hard to capture on film. We never saw one rest or perch, and trying to follow one in flight was a dizzy-making exercise.  Luckily, we saw a lot of other birds while we were observing the swallows … including this yellow-bellied sapsucker. We’d seen the strange holes on this tree (a Japanese mountain ash), but weren’t sure who was responsible. Now we know.

Favorite fact for this bird, mined from iBird Explorer North: A group of sapsuckers are collectively known as a slurp.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

© Loree Griffin Burns

In the forefront of this picture is my newly dug garden. (More on that another time.)

In the background is our big, old barn. Which lately I’ve been looking at as more of a laboratory.  The sort of place where I could do this.

(How wicked cool is that?)

Stay tuned …