The second grade went on a field trip to Farmington Bay to learn about adaptations, wetlands, and shorebirds. It was a rainy day so we didn't get to go on the walk to see the birds, but we did drive around on the bus to see as many birds as we could. And we saw quite a few!

We saw the rookery for the great blue herons, although we didn't get great views of the herons themselves. We saw red-winged blackbirds, American coots, cinnamon teal, mallards, gadwals, snowy egrets, avocets, Canadian geese and a few others. Farmington Bay has about 8,000 acres and 5 million birds. There are 47 types of ducks that come there. In February there are many bald eagles. I liked seeing the snowy egrets the best, although I'm not sure why. The avocets are also quite pretty.

Here is the great blue heron, roosting on its eggs.

No one was sure what he was. He was with a group of Canadian geese, but his head was bigger and his coloring was different. Maybe he was a Canadian goose with some type of growth on his neck? Maybe he was some other type of goose? Not sure.

The avocets are colorful. Many of my students picked these as favorites.

My favorite...the snowy egret. The kids were especially interested in the American coot because it doesn't have webbed feet and has to run on the water to take off. After seeing the birds, we went into one of the classrooms to learn more about some of the birds and to talk about adaptations. The kids learned how different types of beaks help birds to catch different animals and even tried it out, using different objects as beaks and trying to "get lunch"... plastic plants, fish, worms, bugs, and other yummy foods.

In the second classroom, the students got to see and learn a bit more about some of the predators at Farmington Bay...coyotes, raccoons, red foxes, skunks, and muskrats. They saw some of their skulls and were able to see and touch their pelts. The teacher showed them owl pellets and explained what they are (which grossed many students out). We also learned a cute little ditty about scat. Then the students used ink pads and molds of the animals' feet to make footprints/tracks on their papers.

After returning to class, I had the students write about what they had seen and learned. They also drew pictures of the birds and Farmington Bay.

Here are what some of the students had to say (in their own words, with occasional small corrections by me of spelling or punctuation..but not word choice/grammar): AT: "Today we went on a field trip to Farmington Bay! We saw lots of birds! My favorite was the snowy egret! They have long legs. They eat fish. It still flies even if it has long legs. The snowy egret predators are coyotes, red foxes, raccoons, and skunks!" ER: "Today we went on a field trip to Farmington Bay.I learned that the great blue heron builds a giant nest. I saw a snowy eegret, American coot, great blue heron and Canada goose. My favorite bird was the killdeer because it would pretend to have a broken wing to save its eggs." KI: "Today we went on a field trip to Farmington Bay. A killdeer can do a trick. First he pretends he has a broken arm when a predator comes close. He jumps then flies goes back on his nest. My favorite bird is a bald eagle." IC: "Today we went on a field trip to Farmington Bay. My favorite bird is the snowy egret. I liked the trip because I like birds and I never seen so much birds." JA: "Today we went on a field trip to Farmington Bay. I learned that killdeer pretends it has a broken leg and when an animal comes and tries to eat a killdeer's babies, it pretends it has a broken leg and walks over to another place. The animals goes over there and the killdeer flies and goes back to its babies." IS: "Today we went on a field trip to Farmington Bay. We learned that a pelican uses its beak to catch fish but its mouth is full of water so it tips its mouth and water goes out of the mouth. And the pelican has tasty fish to eat. I learned that the pelican goes in groups and just the right time they all dive at once."