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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Some Summer Birdwatching News from Hannah

I have been birdwatching recently and the good weather encouraged me too.
I got  lovely surprises too.

IN PEOPLE'S PARK/THE RIVER DARGLE:
1.A pair of moorhens - two rare water birds that are black with red and yellow bills.They have long wading legs and are slightly smaller than a mallard duck.
2.Many families of mallard duck babies - some are much bigger than others look a few days old.
3.A few days old straggler baby mallard duck got lost with the strong current of the river water's waves.
He swam from the beginning of the river to the end with hope to find his parents and siblings and his determination was rewarded with being reunited with his family.
We wished we had had some bread to feed the ducks but we did not.
We stayed out for hours thrilled by Nature.
The mother then had to keep an eye on the straggler.
We love to watch them grow.
4.We saw six young gulls and one mother gull preening themselves on the rocks in the river.

BRAY HARBOUR:
1.We often go down to the harbour in Bray  to visit the Mute Swans,Chinese geese and the noisy gulls.
Myself and my sister brought a notebook to record what we saw.
We saw about a hundred mute swans and they chased us,honking and hissing loudly.
2.We saw some chinese geese and two yellow fluffy goslings!!!
We fed them our bread and observed them.
There were five geese,two goslings and about 100 mute swans too.


Birdwatching is great in Summer too!!!

From Hannah K

We went to the Robo Show in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra

A few days before the Day arrived we practised presenting our project to all the classes.
I loved teaching the children about how we use our blog and all about our project.
We made our Checklist so we could tick off what equipment we need we had prepared and ready.
When finally the Robo Fair Day arrived we got there and back by bus.
There were lots of other stalls too.
I liked that at the beginning each school gave a summary of their project - That was a lovely way to attract us to other stalls.
The project about special Movie Affects really interested me.
We used bird books,notebooks,binoculars,posters,laptops and Moscow souvenirs such as Bonnie The bear and photos.
On the stage photos were taken,certs presented,projects were sumarised.
Teachers and other interested children came to ask about our project and visit our stall.
We met childeren our own ages,younger,older,teachers and Deirdre.
I liked the Trains Project - the childern were very good at explaining about their project.
I loved the Movie Affects project,The film they made was very well acted and they used clever techniques too.
My favourite part was the Questionare and meeting the other children at the other stalls.
Then the time to go back arrived we wished the day would repeat itself.
The End !!!

by Hannah K

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Birds of Bray attend the Empowering Minds Robo Show

Our class was invited to present our project at this years Empowering Minds Robo Show, in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra.
This show is held every year to give primary school classes the opportunity to share their work with digital tools with others.  We had a really wonderful time meeting pupils from the other schools and talking to them about their projects.  It was also great to have people come to talk to us about our project.  We know plenty about birds now, and about writing blogs, so we were delighted to show off all we had done.  We can't wait till next year.  Hopefully we'll have a new project to show off then.

Have a look at our slideshow to see how much fun we had during our day in St Patrick's College.

An unusual tale...

On Sunday I saw baby ducks and the Mammy, and I saw a HERON.  But the HERON was trying to take the baby ducks, so the mammy duck jumped on the herons back.  She got the baby ducks back.  The baby ducks swam under the bush.  Then I saw the heron sitting on the wall and it just started to stare at them, but the mammy was protecting the babies.  I couldn't see the rest and I had to go home :(

But it was very INTERESTING!!!!!!!!!!


By:Amber Kenna !!!

A Poem from Lauren and MoreBlessing

Birds Poem

                                                  birds are funny
                                                  birds are cute
                                                  birds like to have a little tut 
                                                  lisen to the birds keep your ears open
                                                   birds like to sing like a flute
                                                   always remeber to keep quite when your birdwatching
                                                   it is very important  tut,tut,tut.


by MoreBlessing and Laurenxx

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Wagtail

Wagtails are flying birds. Male wagtails are black above and white below. Female wagtails are grey and white. Young wagtails are brownish grey with black breast band.
They drink water and eat worms, flies, other insects and bread.
Wagtails can be found in towns and gardens, on farmland and near water. Wagtails are usually found on the ground. Wagtails run along the ground.  They have long tails and they bob them.

 By Natalia and Shannon

Magpie

  By Louise, Hannah and Amber
They magpie is a common member of the crow family.  They are a common garden bird in Ireland and can be often seen on roofs of houses, in the park, in woods or in forests. 

The magpie is a distinctive, noisy, black, white and bird with a long tail.  At close range the black patches show green and purple iridescent gloss.   The   magpie is around forty-five cm long.  A mature magpie weighs around 200-250 grams.

The magpie eats young birds or small birds such as robins, tits, wrens, and finches or eggs of other birds and rarely insects.  They also eat berries, fruit, nuts, peas, grain, even large table scraps.  Like other crows the magpie often buries surplus food to eat later on.

Juvenile magpies leave the nest at three or four weeks old.  Its call is noisy and completely distinctive.  Chacha chacha chack is the magpie's song call. 

Magpies are often seen in pairs or small groups.  They like to bury shiny, metal objects and along with the jackdaw has a largely reputation as a jewel thief.