Hey All! Thank you so much for following us through our adventure of our mission to save the Blue birds here on campus! So since the last time we posted, there has been some progress! To recap, the last time we posted we cleaned out all of our birdhouses and got them all ready for the bluebirds to start their new nests for this spring! After this exciting day of getting down and dirty as well as learning all sorts of interesting facts about blue bird houses as well as bluebirds! After that, our team waited a week or so and we went out again to check the progress of our birdhouses and to our surprise we did indeed have new nests inside them!!!! And thankfully they were all, what looked like it to us, were nests that bluebirds would have built! Upon further examination of the nests we did not see any garbage or indications of the English Sparrow infiltrating the bluebird nest houses! We were so happy with our results because it looks like the bluebirds have a home this spring and summer to nest and raise their young and help to populate the Penn State Berks Campus with more and more blue birds! Once again thank you so much for following our adventure with this project and this is definitely something that will continue here at Berks! This is the Berks Blue Birds flying away! 🙂
Category: Berks’ Bluebirds
Getting Down and Dirty (Berks Bluebirds) 4/7/15
So today was an exciting day for the Berks Bluebirds Team because we actually got to go out into the field and visit each and everyone of our 5 birdhouses. Our Bluebird houses are scattered throughout the campus along the edges of the Penn State property along Tulpehocken Road which is located behind the residence halls. Today, Nicolette, Hunter and I went out to each house and opened all of the houses and were able to clear them of the nests that were previously there from the year prior. By doing so we were able to see just how these birds build their nests, what they build their nests out of and get a better perspective o
n how important these houses are to their survival and growth. Each birdhouse had a nest in it and the twigs, grass, etc were nicely bundled up into a neat cluster which almost filled the entire birdhouse which surprised us! We were also told by one of the Penn State Berks Maintenance Crew who usually takes care of these birdhouses told us that Blue birds are not the only bird species to utilize these birdhouses.English Sparrows are another type of bird that populates this area and he said that these birds are mean and try to kick the bluebirds out of the houses. He also told us that we can tell when an English Sparrow is trying to build a nest because they do not use the typical twigs, leaves, grass, etc that bluebirds use; instead they will typically use garbage they find on the ground as well as some leaves and twigs, but mostly garbage. If we see these kinds of nests forming then we are supposed to get rid of them in order to make room for the bluebirds to make their nests. We actually found a nest in one of the houses that contained a lot of garbage and we suspect that this nest was created by one of these English Sparrows. We will be monitoring the progress of the nests and houses for the remaining weeks to come and see what kinds of birds are actually populating the birdhouses. Feel free to take a look at our birdhouses and the progress we made today!
Fun Facts about Endangered Species (Berks Blue Birds) 3/31/15
Our team is doing research on endangered species. Here are some things you may or may not have known about endangered species.
- suffers damage to habitat, disease or predation, and hazards to the continued life
- Humans can contribute to extinction due to new development, industry, and agriculture
- Loss of genetic variation (diversity within species) (allowing ability to adapt to change) can cause extinction. A large population allows for greater genetic variation.
- Some top endangered bird species of the US: perching birds, seabirds, woodpeckers, and shorebirds
- Pacific Island Birds became extinct due to loss of habitat and over hunting
- 10,065 bird species around the world are threatened species, 600-900 part time or full time US birds
SOURCES-
- https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-endangered-species
- Education.nationalgeographic.com
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“Birds.” Endangered Species: Protecting Biodiversity. Kim Masters Evans. 2014 ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2015. 121-139. Information Plus Reference Series. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
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URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3601600014&v=2.1&u=psucic&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=44d4145d176b4ec8e9f2e3eed76a3e24
The First Look (Berks Blue Birds) 3/24/15
Today Jackie and I went with Kevin Black, a maintenance personnel here at Berks, to take a look at the locations of our bird houses. He described some of the steps we need to take to take apart the bird houses when beginning to clean them out. We will start cleaning out these bird houses within the next week.
Overview of Berks’ Birdhouses (Berks’ Bluebirds) March 8, 2015
So basically my team will be working with the Maintenance and Outdoor Staff here on the Berks Campus with our attention focusing on the Eastern Bluebird Birdhouses that are scattered throughout campus. Our job will be to go out and take a look at the condition of the birdhouses in our specific location on campus and clean them and search for any possible damage to them. Then, we will decide if one needs to be replaced or if we need to add another birdhouse in the designated location. In order to properly maintain a\and or build a new one we will have to research the Eastern Bluebird and find our all about their likes/dislikes/preferences, and what kind of habitats are perfect for them and how to best maintain them. After we have gathered all the necessary information we will relay this information to the M&O Staff and take the necessary next steps. After this we will closely monitor the birdhouses and make sure that nothing is wrong or damaged throughout the semester and we can actually see if these Eastern Bluebirds are actually utilizing the houses or are other bird species claiming them for their home.