Event Report - Trailblazers Nature Clubs, May 2018

The month of May was our most eventful month yet for Trailblazers! Mondays after school featured GVES Nature Club at Garnet Valley Elementary School, Tuesdays hosted Trailblazers Nature Club for grades 3-5, and Thursdays held Trailblazers Nature Club for grades 1 & 2. All of this activity made for our largest data collection effort yet! Between the 16 eBird checklists in the month of May, 56 different species of birds were recorded on the BSES Nature Trail!

The BSES Nature Trail was closed for the majority of the month of May due to a construction project so the activity of Trailblazers Nature Club on the trail was limited. I'm willing to bet if we had spent more time on the trail itself in May that we would've found quite a few more species! Instead of exploring the trail in May, we spent much of our outdoor time on the lesser explored east side of campus!

Since the start of May, three new species were added to the master list of the BSES Nature Trail!

5/11/18 - Mallard, species #124 (a flyover bird)

5/18/18 - Acadian Flycatcher, species #125

6/5/18 - Great Egret, species #126 (another flyover bird)

Highlights from Trailblazers Nature Club with grades 3-5 included a four woodpecker species day! We had Red-bellied Woodpecker on the nest, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, and Pileated Woodpecker! The Pileated Woodpecker perched overhead near the outdoor classroom for all to see. The students agreed this was one of the best wildlife highlights of the season for us!

Trailblazers Nature Club for grades 1 & 2 also had lots of great wildlife highlights. We observed Broad-winged and Red-shouldered Hawks on multiple occasions! We also observed Tufted Titmouse up-close and personal a few times. Also, one day while playing some games on a beautiful spring afternoon, an Orchard Oriole popped out for everyone to see! One of the highlights though was on a rainy day where students got to study and observe birds with our classroom nature resources. Then, they spent their time illustrating the birds they were studying. Who knew we had such fantastic artists!

56 species for the month:

Canada Goose

Mallard

Double-crested Cormorant

Turkey Vulture

Red-shouldered Hawk

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Chimney Swift

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker