Slice of Life #6

After I got home from tutoring this morning I made my way to the window on the far side of the house  Outside that window I can see my bird feeders (all eight of them).  Saturday and Sunday are my Project Feederwatch days so I make sure to spend a few minutes each day observing the feeders and writing down the species I see. I always keep my camera nearby so that I can photograph any new or exciting species that visit the yard.

As I settled in to spend a few minutes relaxing and watching my feeders something caught my eye.  Under the feeders, mixed in with a flock of blackbirds (grackles, starlings, and red-winged blackbirds), I caught sight of something different.  Something the color of a burnt orange crayon and about the size of a female cardinal. It hopped around, in between the blackbirds, and I suddenly realized what it was.

I turned to grab my camera and it wasn’t there!  Ahh!  That’s right, I had taken it on the field excursion yesterday.  It must still be in my field bag!

I flew out of the room, rushing past Chris.  “New bird!  Need the camera!” I explained. He didn’t even blink.  He’s pretty used to my bird antics at this point.

I grabbed the camera and rushed back to the room.  No!  The bird was gone!  I scanned the tree line and tried to see into the bushes.  Nothing.  Arg!

I was pretty sure I knew what I had seen but without a photo to get a closer look I felt guilty  counting it and adding it to my Project Feederwatch data. With a sigh, I packed up  the camera and headed out to run errands with Chris.

We returned about an hour later and I figured I’d give it one more go.  Not expecting to see the bird again, I sat down and started to count the juncos flitting about the feeders.

Then I saw it.  Red.  Orange.  Grey.  It was back!  I grabbed my camera and began clicking away through the window.  The bird hopped around, cracking sunflower seeds and safflower seeds, ignoring the other birds doing the same.  After taking a lot of pictures I grabbed my phone and opened up the Merlin app.  After inputting the size, color, and location of the bird I was vindicated.  My rare sighting was confirmed!

Meet the fox sparrow.  A first of the year, a first in the yard, and a lifer for me!

Slice of Life #3

Happy World Wildlife Day! The UN’s World Wildlife Day aims to “celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.”  As a grad student studying biology whose campus includes the Wildlife Conservation Society’s NYC zoos and aquarium I was very excited to learn about this day!

As the weird English teacher who is always spreading the word about cool science stuff I decided to celebrate World Wildlife Day by sharing book titles in the eco-lit genre, books that will help inspire conservation ideas.  The theme of the day is “The future of wildlife is in your hands” and eco-lit can help ensure that the future of wildlife is in the hands of capable individuals.

Slice of Life #1

And we are back! The Slice of Life Challenge is my favorite time of year because it helps me get back in the habit of writing.  I’ve lost track, but I believe this is my 9th year of participating in the challenge (which is coordinated by Two Writing Teachers). Stacey of Two Writing Teachers helped me confirm my longtime commitment to the challenge.

And as I mentioned in the above tweet, I also challenge my students to participate in the challenge in order to help them build a habit of writing.  All 73 of my 9th graders will write at least 10 blog posts during the month of March.  The real “tryhards”, as my students say, will write one blog post each day for a total of 31 posts at the end of the month.  It requires commitment but will result in improved writing skills for my students.  My favorite day of the year is when I get to read their reflections on the slicing process at the beginning of April.

I just checked our class blog account and it looks like many of my students are determined to complete all 31 blog posts.  Wish us luck as I am making the same commitment!

Happy slicing!