After a very full and exciting week in the bay area, we have arrived in our hometown of Santa Cruz! On our way here, we made a stop to see our dear friend and fellow outdoor educator-- Devin "The El Camino" Peyton. He is working as a resident outdoor instructor for Vida Verde Nature Education. This is one of the coolest outdoor education centers we have seen. They provide three-day nature experiences for inner-city students in the bay area. And the best part is--they offer it all completely free of charge!!! Check out their website and support them if you can, we are 100% behind the work they do. http://www.vveducation.org

We will be teaching here in Santa Cruz for the week before continuing south. Now that we have had the weekend to travel and organize our things, we think it is time to formally introduce our traveling companions--the birds.

Now, to the untrained eye, people may describe our bird specimens as "creepy," "gross" or "yucky." These are common words we hear from students when they meet the birds. But once kids get to know these birds, they regard them with love and wonder. We think it is important to give them some good spotlight and tell their story so you all might feel the same about them.

These birds are on loan from our teacher and mentor Chris Lay at the UCSC Museum of Natural History Collections. Chris is a major advocate for natural history education and in addition to inspiring us into this field, he has sparked the natural history flame in hundreds of students. He just received a two million dollar grant to create the Ken S. Norris Center for Natural History. Check out the article about it here.

We have four birds traveling with us. José the House Finch, Coop the Cooper's Hawk, Robin the American Robin, and Cedar the Cedar Waxwing. The birds spend most of their time in protective PVC tubes but when it comes time to work with students, they come out for guest appearances. The birds become instant friends of the kids'. The birds help students see the differences in body size, bill type, and colors. They might look "scary" at first, but give them a chance! They died years ago and provide so many opportunities for learning and inspiration in the students we work with.

We carry our friends in protective tubes!
Originally meant for bike travel, the tubes
still help to keep our friends safe

Here are our friends out of
their protective homes

Check out José's bill--meant for crushing
nuts and seeds

The House Finch
Our smallest yet most brightly colored bird.

Coop is a female Cooper's Hawk
Check out the bands on her tail!
She likes to eat smaller birds

Front view of Coop. She has huge talons
for grasping her prey. The males have an
orange-speckled breast

A close-up of Coop's meat-eating bill

Front view of Robin's orange breast
and black and white throat

Close-up of Robin's generalist bill.
She can eat berries, worms, and seeds!

Cedar's back
Check out the yellow band on the tail
the waxy flecks of red give it the name,
Cedar Waxwing

A close up of Cedar's black eye-mask and
the shorter generalist bill.
Cedar eats berries and insects

Finally, in other news, the Bird School Project was featured in the Huffington Post blog for our grant award from the pollination project! This is huge news for us! Please check out the article and if you have worked with us, leave a comment on the article about the work we are doing! Check out the article here.

This morning we spent quite a while at Glen Canyon Park in San Francisco with our new friends from San Francisco Brightworks. We explored the park's many habitats, from Eucalyptus groves, to dense thickets, and chaparral. Thanks to the watchful eyes of the Brightworks students, we found over twenty different species on our jaunt!

Our good friend, and Brightworks teacher, Mackenzie Price and her ever-curious crew.

One of the many aspects that makes Glen Park Canyon a unique environment for birds.

In our beginning circle, the students spotted a Red-tailed Hawk. We watched it swooping over the meadow and dive bombing (unsuccessfully) some sort of prey in the morning light. After this spectacular aerial display, Darrow spotted a bird flying high in the sky. A Peregrine Falcon! Wow, we were off to a good start. A few more minutes into the forest canopy and we saw a bright flash of yellow land in the tree in front of us.

It didn't take long for the students from Brightworks to discover this Townsend's Warbler in the field guide.

After staring into the canyon for a few minutes we had to spend some time with our field guides to make sure we had gathered everything we had just seen. A Western-Scrub Jay, Yellow-rumped warbler, Common Ravens, and a Townsend's Warbler. And, we were hearing even more.

Teamwork. Its always helpful to go birding with a friend.

We kept moving up the canyon into the forest and took a break in the shade to talk about some of the main differences between birds.

Into the woods we go!

It doesn't take long to list the reasons for birds growing feathers. Or, does it?

Our discussion lead us to bigger questions like, "How did birds begin to grow feathers?" We sat in the trees, puzzling over the development of flight and wondering, "Why might feathers be helpful?" Piece by piece, we put together a pretty viable reason for birds to grow feathers and have other adapted traits for flight.

Darrow shows off the talons and hooked bill of the Coopers Hawk while telling the story of Archaeopteryx.

A demonstration of the patience it sometimes takes to find small song birds high up in the canopy.

Our walk was perfectly concluded with another exciting aerial display between two Red-tailed hawks, swooping and shrieking across the midday sky. Huge thanks to San Francisco Brightworks for spending their day outside with us! Keep birding!

Species list: Red-tailed hawk, Common Raven, Peregrine Falcon, Northern Flicker, Bushtit, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Gull sp., Steller's Jay, Western Scrub Jay, American Crow, Anna's Hummingbird, Black Phoebe, Townsend's Warbler, Lesser Goldfinch, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Hermit Thrush, Rock Dove, House Sparrow

Big News and Bird Friends

Bird School meets Brightworks in San Francisco