The Science Mouse » Field Trips

The Great American Backyard Campout

Mouse — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:44:02 +0000

June is Great Outdoors Month. You can celebrate with the Great American Backyard Campout on June 27, 2009. If you can’t camp out that day, you can always camp out a different day.

The Great American Backyard Campout provides an opportunity for everyone to relive — or to experience for the first time — how much fun it is to spend a night sleeping under the stars and enjoying the sounds of nature.

It is hosted by the National Wildlife Federation. You can register on the website, choose your own name for your campsite, your own motto and a place on the map. You can also keep all that information private. It doesn’t cost any money. You also don’t have to register to camp, but it is fun to see how many people are participating and to see your own camp.

If you would like, you may send me pictures of your camp out to post in my Reader Gallery.

Great American Backyard Campout Great Outdoors Month

A day with the sandhill cranes

Mouse — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:42:50 +0000

In late winter, sandhill cranes begin to leave their winter homes in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. They may travel as much as 350 miles a day on their way back to northern Canada where they will nest and raise their young. Theirs is a staged migration which means that they do not fly the whole way. Instead they stop and take a much needed break along the Platte River in central Nebraska. The birds begin arriving in late February and the last are gone by early April.

Sandhill cranes are three to four feet tall with a six to seven foot wingspan. They weigh six to twelve pounds, or about as heavy as a sack of flour. Here is a full-sized model of a sandhill crane compared to my three year old sister.

My sister compared to a sandhill crane. Photo by The Science Mouse.

They spend their days foraging for food in the fields near the Platte River around Kearney, Nebraska. They are looking for insects, left over grain from last year’s harvest and the particularly like cow patties. They are actually looking for the insects that are attracted to the cow patties. Therefore, they are mostly found in farmer’s fields and will also feed alongside cattle. They do not damage farmers’ crops because they are only feeding on the spilled leftovers from the previous year.

Sandhill cranes foraging in a farmer's field. Photo by The Science Mouse.

They also dance to attract mates. They walk toward each other, jump and flap their wings.

Crane dance. Photo by The Science Mouse.

They face many dangers during their migration. Some fly into power lines, get hit by cars, killed by predators, or just get worn out during the long journey. We believe that this crane ran into a power line. We found its body near a power line and you can see that its beak is buried in the ground and its neck twisted.

A crane that didn't make it. Photo by The Science Mouse.

To help the cranes see the power lines, reflectors may be placed on them which flutter in the wind. These reflectors are on the power lines near Rowe Sanctuary.

Reflectors to prevent sandhill cranes from running into the power lines. Photo by Dana Hanley.

In the evening, the cranes begin to fly back to the Platte River. They actually sleep in the shallow water of the river. They do this because if a predator tries to attack them, the splashing noise acts as a warning. This is why the Platte River is so important to their survival.

Sandhill cranes roosting on the Platte River. Photo by The Science Mouse.

We enjoyed our journey to see the sandhill cranes and hope you enjoy reading more about migration with this month’s edition of the Science Mouse. If you do any of the projects in this issue or do any artwork related to birds, please email me photos at thesciencemouseATgmailDOTcom and I will include them in my Reader Gallery.

I am changing The Science Mouse to a bimonthly e-zine, but I will be posting science related links between issues. Check back often for great science related links under recent posts!

If you would like to write for future issues, please check my theme list for topics and due dates. June’s issue will be all about frogs and amphibians!

In this issue:

Articles

A Day with the Sandhill Cranes

Studying Migration, A History

Flyways, Highways in the Sky

Interviews

Interview with Janice at Pioneers Park Nature Center

Reviews

Winged Migration, A Review

Fllute’s Journey

Projects

Building a Bottle Feeder

How to Make a Nesting Bag

Making a Birdhouse

Making Suet with The Science Mouse

Artwork

Robins, in Crayon

Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge

Mouse — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:31:16 +0000

by Bear, age 6

We went to Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri to see the migrating birds.

Lewis and Clark came through this area on their expedition. Then it was a large wetlands with lots of different birds and fish and muskrats and other wild animals. In his journal, Clark wrote:

Butiful & extensive plain, cover’d with Grass resembling timothy except the Seed which resembles Flax Seed, this plain also abounds in Grapes of different kinds.

Soon after, people began to settle in this area. They farmed and hunted. They drained wetlands and there weren’t so many places for animals to hide or to rest.

In 1935, this area was set aside by the Civil Conservation Corps under President Roosevelt to restore some of the wetlands. It now covers over 7,000 acres and is part of the National Wildlife Refuge system which protects waterfowl.

I really liked all the muskrat lodges in the pools. Sometims bald eagles perch on them to watch the water birds.

Muskrat lodges at Squaw Creek. Photo by Dana Hanley

We saw a flock of pelicans resting on their way back to their nesting grounds in the northern US and southern Canada. We even saw some of them flying over us as we drove south on I-29 on the way to the reserve!

American White Pelicans resting at Squaw Creek. Photo by Dana Hanley.

We saw snow geese along with many other kinds of ducks. There can be up to 300,000 snow geese at the refuge at the peak of migration. We only saw a couple of flocks, but one had an injured leg. They are making a journey all the way back to the tundra in northern Canada.

A snow goose. Photo by Dana Hanley.

After visiting grandma’s, we went to Squaw Creek again so my sister (the Science Mouse) could see the birds, too. We were picking her up after a visit and wanted to show her all the birds we saw. I liked the trip so much, especially the muskrats even though I thought they were beavers at first.

Bear is a six year old homeschooled boy who loves playing outside and staying in hotels.