Share a Birdwatching Story with us

Do you have birds that visit your garden?  Do you see birds around your area?  If you have any interesting stories about the birds you see we'd love to hear them.

Add a comment below telling us about the birds you see every day.

If you have any photos you would like to share you can e-mail them to: stphilomenas4@hotmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

Look at these beautiful birds...

I watched these two fancy birds preening themselves on the roof of a house and I thought they looked lovely.  I think they are a type of pigeon, but I'm not sure what type. 

Can you find out what they are?

Hannah K keeps an eye out in the People's Park...

We're all birdwatchers so here's some news :

The Mandarin Quack!
By Hannah Kalinin.

In Peoples Park I saw today another beauty duck.  My estimate was a tufted duck as it was orange,white,black,and river,royalblue .

But it was soon googled by me.Answer :A mandarin duck, a type of tufted duck!
He is my fave bird.  I have seen 1 of them before in the zoo but never as such a nice surprise in Bray!This bird comes from somewhere far beyond Peoples Park!I love this bird and I know everyone will agree!!!

A Poem About the Mandarin Duck.

This little duck ,full of her  own little luck,

She sits on a stone ,it's her little home,

She dives , she dances,taking mallard duck  chances,

 She looks in her cool , clear ,river water pool(mirrior)

She: her name is Mandy , loving places sandy ,

She has an eye for a nest , She always looks her best ,

Of her chicks we can dream , Would always have a shiny sheen ,

She eats reed, sometimes forages for some weed ,

She flaps her webbed feet ,to the river's beat ,

She loves to be on www.birdsofbray.blogspot.com!

By Hannah Kalinin

People's Park = Bird's Den            by Hannah Kalinin

Mandy Mandarin is in the middle on a rock.  Poem and picture inspired by and dedicated to this magical Mandy.

 

 

Wicklow Bird Race

Hi,
I thought the class might be interested.

The Annual Wicklow Bird Race was held two weekends ago. A bird race consists of teams (up to four people) who go looking for as many different species of birds that they can find within certain areas or time limits or both. Wicklow county was the designated area and the race was from 8.00 till18.00.

The winning team scored 98 different types of birds on the day.

Regards,

Dermot McCabe.

4th class teach Senior Infants all about Birds

Senior Infants came to visit our class this afternoon to learn about birds.
We had activities planned for them:
1. Bird watching out the classroom window using binoculars.
2. Watching our video clips of local birds to look at behaviour and listen to bird calls.
3. Looking at picture books and posters to learn bird names and describe them.

This video show how busy it was in the class this afternoon.
We all had great fun...

Thanks to Senior Infants for being so interested in birds.

Garden Birds Survey

Log on to BirdWatch Ireland to enter the results from your Garden Bird Survey.  Use the notes you have taken in your notebook and on your survey form to help you.

Click on the BirdWatch Ireland logo to take you to the survey page.  You will have to register using your e-mail address to log on to the website.

Wise Words from Dermot

Hello again 4th Class,
I have been looking at your pictures outside your classroom window. You have some birds not on your list pictured there. 2,3,4,5 are pics of a Great Tit. Pic 12 is a male Siskin, a little finch that visits feeders in the Winter. In Pics 18,19,20 you have a Dunnock, sometimes called a Hedge Sparrow although it is not related to Sparrows at all.Your list should be up to fifty birds by trhe Summer! Nice work, all of you.
Dermot.

First Class Came to Visit

 

1st class heard about all our great work with birds.  They were very interested so we invited them to our classroom to do some birdwatching with us. 

When they arrived we broke the class into two small groups.  We gave them binoculars so they could see all the birds outside the classroom window.  Five of us were asked to be window-watchers so we could point out different birds to them.  They loved looking out the window and they got really good at seeing the birds and finding them on the bird identification posters.

We also showed them all our books and posters about birds and we played some of the videos we have taken of different birds so they could watch how the birds move.

Ms Stone brought us a beautiful painting of blue tits hanging on a branch, which she inherited from her grandmother.

We all have a really lovely afternoon.  Thanks for visiting 1st class.

Our Birdwatching Day.

A few of the girls wrote a report about our birdwatching day.  They wrote the report at home and then e-mailed them to me.  We also took some photos during the day.  I think they're so great that I wanted to share them with you.
Ms McHale.

Reporter 1: Amber K

Today walking down the park was interesting.
Because we seen a new swan the egyiption swan that we never seen before.
We saw loads of seagulls some mallard ducks.
Some of us saw black birds,Hooded Crow,rook. Some of us did see them birds some of us didn't.

Then we sketched two birds and we were suppose to take down what birds we saw as well that was really fun. We took our

• cameras
• binoculars
• pencil's and rubber's
• bird watching note books

1. with our camera's we zoomed in to take a better look at the birds
2. with our binouculars we looked in them to see if we saw birds
3. with our bird watching notebooks  we took down what birds we saw where they m/f  and the last one was to count  how many we saw

                                                     thats interesting
so i really love to see more birds/ducks down parks,fields,front gardens anywhere  at all.
                                                thats all i wanted to say
                                                           Bye!!!!!!

Reporter 2: Tarryn
Today the (14 of February) 4th class went to Dargle Park in Bray to do some birdwatching. It was a bright sunny morning and the birds were happily chirping. We saw lots of different  birds like the Seagull, Rook, Egyptian  swan, Blackbird and Mallard duck.  It was a very enjoyable outing and I was excited to see the Egyptian Swan.

Back at school, 3rd class joined us for bird watching from our classroom window where they saw a Coal Tit, a Blackbird and a Robin.

During the afternoon 4th class went to Senior Infants. We were each given a Senior Infants pupil to mind. We went outside around the school looking for signs of spring. We had to work from a sheet that my teacher, Ms McHale, gave to us to help us find the signs of spring. We saw buds, daffodil shoots, little baby leaves on the trees and new bushes.   I had a lovely day at school today.

Reporter 3: Naoimi

On monday we went to the park to have a look at birds .We saw rooks,sea gulls,mallerd ducks and an egyptian swan.We had never seen an egyptian swan before so it was very interesting and exciting! When we came back 3rd class came in to our class to look out the window for birds with us. We saw a great tit,a robin and a hooded crow. When we came in from yard we went on a nature walk with senior infants. We each got a partner and went to look for birds and signs of nature.We saw a hooded crow and a few sea gulls flying by.
It was really an exciting day!
Reporter 4: Sophie

Today we went to the park . We fed the birds bread in the peoples park which is in Bray . When we threw out the bread on the grass, suddenly seagulls, crows and rooks came gliding down . There was so many birds flying that you could hardly see a thing it was even difficult to see the sky. When we were finished feeding the bird's we sketched the birds that we had seen in our note book. I really enjoyed doing this.

While we were gone to feed the birds and take some photo's third class were using our class room to do some bird watching of their own.

Later on that day my class mates and I brought the senior infants class out around the school grounds for a spring walk. We tried to explain to them some of the signs of spring such as buds on the trees and shoots from flowers.
Reporter 5: Natalia B

Today was my favorite day in Ireland.  The sun was shining, it was a little cold and warm wind was blowing.  I am with my class went to the park. I saw the Egyptian swan.  I saw a very nice birds.  I saw rooks, blackbirds, gulls and ducks.   We took pictures of all the birds we've seen.  Then we went to the playground, it was very good.  It was a really nice day.

Special Visitor

Ms Hayes,  one of the wonderful teachers in our school, came to our class on Friday afternoon to join us for some birdwatching.  Ms Hayes used to be a member of Birdwatch Ireland, and she knows alot about birds.  She brought a beautiful calendar with her which was full of amazing photos.  She talked to us about the things we should look out for when we're trying to identify birds.

We should look at:

Their size and their feathers.

Their beaks - to tell us what type of food they like to eat.

Their wings - to see if there are any markings or "flashings"

Their feet - to see where the bird usually lives.

She also did some birdwatching with us and was amazed at all the birds we were able to name already.

It's great to have others involved in our project.

Thanks Ms Hayes.

Our Trip to Bray Harbour: Visiting the Swans



What a team!!

In January our class went for a walk down to Bray Harbour to visit the colony of mute swans that live there. 

We had to remember a few rules:

Don't get too close to the swans as they are terretorial birds.

Stay calm and quiet so we don't scare the birds.

It was a great experience as we saw loads of birds, and we were very close to them.  It was a great change to look at their behaviour and what they look like.



We took some photos.



We fed the birds.



We took loads of photos of the birds and the harbour, and of course of each other.



Some of us brought food so we could feed the birds.

I'd like everyone to leave a comment about what they enjoyed most during the day.  What are your special memories?

Bird-watching in the classroom

What an exciting afternoon we had.  We have been putting food outside our classroom window to try and attract some of the birds closer to us so we can watch them. 

This afternoon we put out some oats and some bread scraps on the wall.  We filled a bird feeder with seed and hung it on a tree, and we hung a suet ball for birds from another tree.  We didn't think we'd have many birds this afternoon, because there were so many people walking past our classroom.

But...we were wrong!

One group was put in charge of the birdwatching while the rest of us worked on our bird reports.  The group had binoculars and a camera.  They had the bird identification posters ready just in case anything came for a bite.

Over the afternoon we saw loads of different types of birds.  Two hooded crows came to eat our oats and bread.  We also saw a siskin, five gold finches, a robin, a male and female blackbird, two coal tits, a magpie, a long-tailed tit, a pied wagtail and a chaffinch.  It was really exciting.  They hopped and flew about very fast so we had to be quick to spot them.  We looked at their appearance carefully and check some of them using the posters, but we managed very well.

By the end of the afternoon everyone was looking out the window.

Tomorrow we'll put some food out earlier and we'll leave a team of birdwatchers at the window all day to see what birds come to visit.

Bird Watching walk around the school

Today we went on a walk to look for birds around the school.  We brought our binoculars, our bird-watching notebooks and our pencils and rubbers.
We had to be really quiet, stay together, and look around in the the trees, the sky, on the buildings, in the bushes, on the ground.

We got on really well.  We saw lots of birds.  The birds we saw today were:
Robin; Magpie; Hooded Crow; Coal Tit; Racing Pigeon; Wood Pigeon; Seagull; Wren; Blackbird; Great Tit; Blue Tit

We also listened to some of the birds singing:
The robin has a lovely, loud, musical chirp.
The pigeon has a soft cooing sound.
The crow has loud, rough sound.
The magpie has a repetitive, loud, rough laugh like a machine gun.

We had a great time and lots of fun.  It's nice to get outside into the fresh air.