The photo shows the courtyard area of the elementary school. It is surrounded by two solid brick walls and two walls of windows. Therefore,it is very visible by students, teachers, and the public. All the more reason to "Celebrate Urban Birds!"  Roger from the Backyard Station, one of the most unique, fun, and community minded stores in our small town of 1,100 people already volunteered to donate the new Droll Yankee feeders and has more ideas. We are on our way! 

A Birding Excursion and Field Guide Mural

Every spring, Nancy Jacobson of Frazee-Vergas Elementary School takes her class of 5th grade students on an overnight campout which is right in the middle of the path that the migratory birds take to fly north and south. For their Celebrate Urban Birds event, Frazee-Vergas, with the help of the birding club from the area and the park ranger, will help students learn how to spot and identify birds, and give background information on the birds that they find.

After returning from their camping trip, the students will use their artistic talents to design a wildflower garden that will be planted in the courtyard of the school.  Using sketches of the birds seen on the camping trip, the students will create a "Field Guide" mural to hang close to the courtyard for viewers to see. To add to this, students may be able to create personal pottery stepping stones to be placed in the school's courtyard garden. Finally, the students will prepare a multimedia presentation on the local birds of the area that they can present on Parent-Family Night.
 

Preparation

Nancy Jacobson, who is coordinating the project, has this update:

"I have spoken with several community people regarding our project. We have a wonderful bird store in our little community. . . and [it] will be a big asset to our celebration. There are already four bluebird houses up, a birdbath, and at least four Droll Yankee hanging feeders. Also, one of the custodians here at school had her own gardening-nursery business and is willing to share seeds, plastic border for the flower beds and best of all, her expertise!  The art teacher and I were chatting about all our possibilities the other day. We think we will offer it as a Targeted Service class and open it up to students and their parents or grandparents. . .

When I opened your envelope kits, I was surprised at the poster, because that is somewhat of the idea we had for our mural. The kids and I got the idea from a story we read in our reading books . . . [where] talking "critters" take  flight together . . . over New York City. My idea was to let the students go around our community and
take photos of buildings, water tower, and any other "landmarks" in our community and then fit our local birds and miniature people and children into the mural. . .

Another art idea is to make stepping stones from cement using coffee cans and either marbles or colored glass chunks. We haven't decided yet if we are going to plant in geometric shaped beds or larger flower beds. There are still decisions to be made, but we have some grand ideas!

Recently we have had purple finches visiting and
singing for us. Around 8:30 am there were a few Common
Grackles just outside our windows on the lawn. One obviously had an
injured left leg, as it wasn't using it at all. There was also a pair of
Mourning Doves. Several of us went for the Bird books and learned that
they mate for life, 7-10 years. That was pretty impressive!

Nancy Jacobson