Good resource for Bird Study MB

[Mad Dog]

http://k2gw.tripod.com/birdstudy/

[Quailman]

That's certainly a helpful website. I am teaching a Bird Study program this Saturday. I wish I had found that site earlier. I already put together my own outline for winter camp in December 2005. It worked out pretty well.

The only thing I am changing is in the way I teach the requirement to look up one each of seven different bird types in your field guide. When I taught it at camp I had two-sided pages printed and laminated with four photos per side, and the boys were to locate them in their field guides (the eighth, which I gave away, was our state bird). This took too long, though it was a worthwhile exercise. It demonstrated that what you see may not match exactly the picture in the book - different angle, lighting, etc. In the interest of time, I am going to have all of them turn to the snowy egret, for example, and explain the differnces between that and the great egret (they'll see both outside the classroom after lunch). Then I'll do the same with the other types of birds.

Requirement 7B says "By using a public library or contacting the National Audubon Society, find the name and location of the Christmas Bird Count nearest your home and obtain the results of a recent count.

1. Explain what kinds of information are collected during the annual event.
2. Tell your counselor which species are most common, and explain why these birds are abundant.
3. Tell your counselor which species are uncommon, and explain why these were present in small numbers. If the number of birds of these species is decreasing, explain why, and what, if anything, could be done to reverse their decline.

To obtain this information, go to http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/ and select [Historical Results]. You can create a trend report showing the results for several years. I don't know how else you'd know if any species were decreasing in numbers.

[k2gw]

Thanks for the tip. I added the explanation to click on "Historical Results" and "Make a graph" to the Bird Study Merit Badge web site. The CBC site changes its look occaisionally so I'm not always linked to the right page within it.

[Quailman]

I held the class today. I was a little disappointed that only 7 of 11 scouts who signed up actually showed up. OTOH, it was 85 miles away at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. It went well otherwise.

I used the report table I had printed for the CBC nearest our home. It's 14 pages. They seemed to understand the impact gathering all the data can have. What really impressed them, though, was the extra report I attach that just shows Brown Pelicans seen in all of Texas for since 1949. In '57-'58 it drops from 400 or so to about 75. Then for a twelve year span there were a total of about 15 seen, including several years with none. Now they're close to original numbers (more being seen, but by more observers), and we talked about DDT and conservation. I've given a copy of this report to boys working on Environmental Science.

Each boy was able to identify more than 20 birds with ease. I got there a little early and scouted the ponds, so when we went out after lunch I was able to tell them what sort of birds we were likely to see at each stop and they were looking through their field guides en route. Waterfowl floating on ponds or prowling the shoreline are sure easier to ID than kinglets or sparrows flitting in and out of foliage. We did get a couple of passerines, though.

In the classroom I played sounds of birdcalls for them and they took notes and seemed to learn them. At the end of the fieldwork, one boy said, "Hey, listen! That's a killdeer!" yet none had heard one prior to me playing the call for them.

I sure like teaching elective merit badges, where the boys sign up for them because they're interested in the subject rather than because they need them to advance.

[riverwalk]

Sounds like you did a fine job. I still want to visit that site as well. It does feel great when the Scouts really want the subject matter. Tell me, what is the OTOH for?

[Quailman]

On The Other Hand

[riverwalk]

I knew some email meanings, just didn't think I knew that one, thanks.

[Quailman]

The link in the first post discusses how to host a Bird Study MB Day. I am going to try to plan one for next January (When this part Texas is overrun with waterfowl that are large, generally stationary, and easy to ID). I hope I'm not getting started too late.