Churchbridge Grade 1 Artwork

Churchbridge Grade 7, 8, 9 Camping Trip

On June 23 and 24 the Churchbridge Grade 7, 8, & 9 classes went on a camping trip to Good Spirit Lake Provincial Park. I had a chance to join them and share some information about various plants, birds and animals in the park. After spending a few hours in the sun and swimming in the lake the first activity that the students completed was a Bird Challenge.

The students had to locate photos of birds that were hidden in the forest and then identify the bird in each photo.

Do you recongize this bird????

After cooking our yummy hamburgers for dinner, the students had to create a star gazer out of a old soup can. Each student had to pick out an unique constellation to create in their star gazer. Then when it got dark out the star gazers were used to find each constellation.

The next day after breakfast the students collected the leaves some special wild plants to make sweet clover, wild rose, wild strawberry and wild mint tea. Everyone had a chance to taste some yummy wild plant tea. Do you know how to recongize these wild plants????

Carlton Trail Regional Park

On June 27 the Churchbridge Grade 2, 3, 4 & 5 class joined me for a nature walk at the Carlton Trail Regional Park. However, we found out that the hiking trails were a little wet! We still managed to hike the entire trail and we found wood frogs, Trembling Aspens, Wild Rose, Yellow lady Slippers, Western Red Lily, Pineapple Weed, Horsetail, Cattails, muskrat and many different birds. Some adventurous students even went for a swim in the lake. Near the lake we found an egg sac from a snail and a large predaceous diving beetle larva digging down into the sand.

Snail egg sac and Predaceous Diving Beetle Larva

Snail and Wood Frog

June is the time for baby geese

On the weekend I made a trip over to the Duck Mountain Provincial Park and I happened to see group of geese families out in a pond. As you can see there was a lot of beaver activity in this pond and the geese had to step over a bunch of logs before they could go for a swim....

Summer Camps

Join YFBTA this summer to learn about nature, birds and wildlife. Summer Day Camps will be held in Saltcoats, Churchbridge and Esterhazy in July and August. Grade 4 and older will have nature programs from 9:30am to 1:00pm and Grade 1, 2 and 3 will have nature programs from 1:30pm to 4:00pm. Grade levels are based on student's grade levels for September 2011. Email yellowheadflywaybirding@gmail.com for a registration form.

Unusual Location for a Bird's Nest

June 2011

Jasmine McRae from Esterhazy, Saskatchewan took this great photo of a bird's nest that she found near her house! We think this nest belongs to a Robin. However, this bird picked an unusual location for her nest as this is on top of a truck tire.

May 2011

May was an exciting month with visits to Saltcoats School, PJ Gillen School in Esterhazy and Churchbridge Public School. Students had a chance to learn more about the following topics:

• Great Horned Owls
• Skulls & Bones
• Pond Bugs & Pond Dipping
• Identifying Birds in Saskatchewan
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• World Migratory Bird Day on May 14, 2011
• Reptiles vs. Amphibians

The Predaceous Diving Beetle Larvae

The Predaceous Diving Beetle

May Pond Dipping

Shevon Wilson the new YFBTA Summer Student is spending time in the classrooms in Saltcoats, Churchbridge and Esterhazy schools to share her enthusiasm for nature.

This is a photo of a tadpole found in a pond near Saltcoats.