While the weather in New England can be unpredictable this time of year, a sure sign of spring is once again filling the air: chicka-dee-dee-dee! Birdsongs are back, and they’re not the only joyful sounds. Take a walk through campus in the spring. You’ll hear a symphony of the season: students laughing on Big Blue as they soak in the returning sun, eighth graders proudly rehearsing their Capstone presentations, first and second graders excitedly singing from the stage, and classrooms launching into new projects that will carry them to the end of the school year. Spring at Belmont Day is a season of joyful noise.
In celebration of the season, our colorful bird friends will begin migrating back to the Gallery to start our second school-wide birding project. Students throughout the school will help us collect and visualize data representing bird calls detected by our Haikubox stationed in the nearby woods. Our birding project will help us learn more about the nature around us, how nature and technology can interact, and the limitations of technology and artificial intelligence in this context. And, of course, it helps us all to build a good deal of excitement about birding!
If you’d like to join in at home, here are a few tips and resources for getting started:
- Pick an observation spot: Choose one place outside, your backyard, a park bench, a nature path, or even a big window (we love birding through the windows of the Barn Conference Room)!
- Listen First: Many birds are heard before they’re seen. Try closing your eyes and tuning into the sounds, how many different calls can you notice?
- Bring a Notebook: Draw, list, or describe what you see and hear.
- Use a Field Guide (or App): Tools like the Merlin Bird ID app can help identify birds by sight and sound. It’s like having a bird expert in your pocket. Or bring along a guidebook like the Sibley Guide to Birds.
- Participate in Global Big Day: On May 10, be a community scientist, and report your bird observations to eBird! Your observations will help scientists better understand global bird populations–even 5 minutes of birding can help!
- Keep Track of the Birds at BDS: Our Haikubox data is live and can be viewed here if you’d like to follow along at home!
In the words of the Massachusetts Young Birding Club, “If you’re interested in birds and want to go out and look for them, congratulations–you’re a birder!” So have fun out there, BDS Birders!
