Bird conservationist Judy Pollock and nature photographer Fran Morel joined a group of animated fifth-graders on Saturday for an exploration of birds in our community. The group meets every other Saturday throughout the school year. The hands-on program, called Quest4Earth, was developed by the Tiz Media Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization that is dedicated to bringing environmental science awareness and stewardship to students and communities.
The North Shore Channel Habitat Project is partnering with Quest4Earth this spring as the group learns about migratory birds and bird-friendly habitat. Using cameras they built earlier in the year, they plan to join in a workday at Harbert Park and create public service announcements for the project.
They started this session by making bird feeder mobiles out of recycled materials. Later, they discussed design requirements for bird feeders then used Legos to build their own.
Judy led a trivia game, then played recordings of bird calls and challenged the students to guess the bird. One knew right away: “Male red cardinal!” Fran Morel shared some of his stunning images of birds and advised the group to be patient when photographing animals in nature and not to try to get too close—advice they’ll be able to apply this spring as they watch for birds visiting their feeders.
We are grateful for the partnership with Tiz Media, the enthusiastic participation of the group—and for these photographs, which are by Susana Choto.
— Wendy Pollock