Kindergarten Field Trip

The kindergarten field trip was amazing!  I loved spending quality time outdoors with these wonderful children. They demonstrated over and over things that they've learned throughout the year.  They were observant and engaged.  They asked great questions and were very aware of their surroundings.  We ended up recording 36 species of birds for the day. A big thank you to all of you for having your child prepared and ready to go for the day.  Also, thank you to the parents that were able to come along and help out.  I really appreciate it!  

Here are some photos from our day.

We were all so happy to get going!

We began our adventure on the North Point trail where we heard and saw birds like:  Black-capped Chickadee, Lark Sparrows, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Field Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Blue Jays and others.

This is a Lark Sparrow and we enjoyed hearing its song.

The kids loved finding pine cones, rocks, feathers 

and other interesting things on their hike.

We saw many webworms along the way.  I know 

that Yellow-billed Cuckoos love to feast on them,

 so they will be all set when they return to the area.

This is a Field Sparrow.  Its song is one of my favorites in the bird world.  The kids saw several "life birds", which means it was the first time they'd seen one in their life.

This Western Grebe was hanging out in the river.

We saw many Forster's Terns patrolling the water 

and occasionally dropping down to grab a fish.

The kindergartners loved playing in the sand and 

trying to skip rocks.  This was a fun time!

The playground equipment was very nice and the kids loved it!

I thought this was so cute as these two sat together and visited.

Everyone was hungry, so we had an early picnic.  

They seemed to love it!

Kids love picnics!

We loved watching the Barn Swallows zip around by us.  

I was impressed at how the kids could identify birds 

that they had only previously seen in books, flashcards 

or on my slideshow.

This nice playground was in the Tom Brokaw 

Park in Pickstown, which is right next to the 

Fort Randall Dam.  It was very nice!

The kids love the merry-go-round!

This was my favorite trail.  I love this area and we did 

see a few good birds here.  The Spotted Towhee 

was a highlight.

I did an activity with the kindergartners that I often do when 

I take teens birding.  We sat in nature for five minutes quietly

 listening and using our senses to hear and see what 

was around us.  It was pretty cute.

A couple of weeks ago, our story for the week in our 

Reading lesson was about beavers.  Today they got 

to see a real beaver dam and see the trees that 

beavers had cut down.

She found some heart-shaped fungi.

Then she found a heart-shaped rock!

Back to Brokaw Park for some kite-flying!

The weather was beautiful, the kids were 

well-behaved and happy! It was a very memorable day!