Ridgetop Migration
Bird feet & beak activity with students at WRPP ©Geoff Benn
Last year YBA awarded a small grant to a local organization, Tuleyome, to bolster its effort to teach conservation and appreciation of birds among school-children. The essence of the program is to spend a block of time paying attention to birds in nature – much like a YBA field trip. In this case, nature is Woodland Regional Park Preserve (described in my May 2022 column), though some of the field trips go to Conaway Ranch.
Kids get binoculars, a backpack and an informational booklet, and are shown how to use binoculars. Then they go on a nature walk. At the preserve they usually see snowy egret, American coot, Canada goose, northern harrier, and white-tailed kite. They also see nests of red-tailed hawk and the nest boxes that YBA put up for tree swallows.
The roughly two-hour visits are entirely hands-on, and designed to conform to grade-level science standards set by the State. There is a series of study topics for each grade, with curricula from kindergarten through grade twelve. As an example, younger children are shown a collection of bird beaks and feet (mallard, coot, great blue heron, hummingbird, finch) and talk through how to match the birds to the food they eat, based on beak and foot shape. Among many other activities, kids make observations of a small habitat, practice quiet listening to nature, and use the Merlin app to identify birds.
Every Yolo County school district uses the program, plus some districts in Sacramento and Solano counties. Class materials are bilingual. Ordinarily each instructor takes on one school-bus load of children. Thirteen hundred kids participated in the last school year.
For more about the program, contact the lead teacher, Geoff Benn. Click here to explore the organization’s Tuleyome Adventures education program.
Common Gallinule feeding chick at WRPP ©Josh Greenfield
–Michael Perrone, Conservation Chair