Birds

During calendar/circle time each day I include various poems related to something the children are currently interested in.  A couple of weeks ago one of our featured poems was ‘We’re Crows’ from ‘A Rumpus of Rhymes: A Book of Noisy Poems’ by Bobbi Katz.

I originally chose the poems for the ‘noisy’ aspect since making sound effects – usually very loud ones – has been particularly popular around here.  At this point I’d like to apologize to my neighbours.
Of all the noisy poems we’ve read the ‘Caw, caw, caw’ of ‘We’re Crows’ has become the favourite sound.  It resonates throughout the neighbourhood daily as we walk to and from the school and the children call out to the crows.

Watching and listening for crows has also allowed us to be more observant while we are outside.  The children have become perceptive to the sounds and activities of all the birds in the area.  They are asking questions and trying to identify the various birds we see. My favourite conversation went something like this;

• ‘Look, that bird is eating worms from the ground’
• ‘Is it a crow?’
• ‘No, I think it is a robin – it has red on it’
• ‘Oh look! I see an eagle.’
• ‘Where!?’
• ‘It is over there with that group of other birds.  It is just a little eagle and it is hiding.’

What a great imagination.

Since the children are so interested in birds I thought it would be a great opportunity to check out the CBC Falcon Cams.  For the last two weeks I have had my laptop in the playroom tuned to the live video streams and the children check on the birds when they take breaks from their other activities. The children have asked many questions and the forums have been very useful in answering the ones I couldn’t.

Yesterday we were sad to discover that one of the Brandon chicks had died.  It rained all day in Brandon on Tuesday and although Hurricane (the mom) did a great job of trying to keep her babies warm and dry she also had to feed them which meant they briefly got cold and wet.  Too young to regulate their own body temperature the cold wet weather was too much for one of the chicks.

Sad as this event was it is part of nature. Just like the death of the other birds and mice is necessary for the parents to provide food for their chicks. We will continue to watch the remaining chicks and their parents.  Nature can be harsh but it also brings us great joy, understanding and compassion.