1comments de Paul School

It's that time again!  Mr. Kepler's class at the de Paul School will be asking me questions about birds that I will be answering here on the landfill bird blog.  Every year this bright bunch of third graders learns about birds and their unique adaptations.  So let's get to it!

Q: Have you seen an owl, or any other bird with a broken wing?

A: I haven't seen any owls with broken wings, or any other birds for that matter.  There was one time I thought I saw a bird with a broken wing, but it turns out the bird was faking.  The Killdeer is a shorebird that performs a broken wing display when it or its eggs are threatened.  If the mama bird sees a predator, like a raccoon or a snake, she will lay on the ground and pretend she is hurt to distract the predator from the baby chicks.  The predator will focus on the mom thinking she is an easy meal.  The mama Killdeer will slowly lead the the predator away from her babies, and just when it appears she is going to get eaten, she suddenly is cured and flies away back to her chicks.  The Killdeer put on such a convincing show they even fooled me before!

Here is the mom pretending to be hurt with the broken wing display.

She leads the predator away from her chicks and then makes her getaway. 

Below is a Killdeer chick.  The mama bird will do anything, even put herself in danger to save these little guys.

Q: What is biggest number of different kinds of birds you have seen in a day?

A: It is tough to say the most number of birds I've seen in one day.  I usually don't keep records on all the birds I see, but if I did I bet it would either be in the spring or fall.  Most birds live in Kentucky year round, but there are several that are only here for a short time.  During the spring, several species of birds migrate to Kentucky from the tropics in South America.  Some stay for the whole summer, others are just here for a few weeks as they pass through on their way north to Canada.  In the fall all these birds migrate back to South America because they don't want to deal with the hassle of finding food in the snow (or shoveling their driveways!  LOL!).  So I bet the most birds I've seen in one day was either in spring in May or the fall in October.

Q: Have you seen any birds hatch?

A: No, unfortunately I have not had the opportunity of seeing any birds hatch at the landfill.  Bird nests are usually very hard to find and you would have to be there at just the right time to see the eggs hatch.  There is a cool website you can go to if you wanted to see birds hatching from their eggs.  Check out the Cornell nest cam website to see different birds sitting on their nests and eventually eggs hatching and baby chicks begging for food.  Right now the only birds building nests are owls but in the spring several more nest cams go live and you can see Eastern Bluebirds, House Wrens, and even Wood Ducks raising their babies.

Q: Do you like your job at the landfill?  Why do you like it?

A: Do I like my job?  Of course I like my job!  I get to see all sorts of birds that are rarely seen in the area like Tundra Swans, Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and Horned Larks.  It also makes me feel good to know I am helping keep people safe in the airplanes that are taking off and landing over the landfill.  By scaring away the birds I am making it less likely that they will get sucked into plane engines and cause the plane to crash.

 Tundra Swans

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

 Horned Lark

Those were some great questions guys and gals.  I'm looking forward to the next round of questions from your inquisitive minds!

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0comments dePaul School Bird Presentation

Back in January I had the privilege of speaking to Mr. Kepler's and Ms. Erickson's third grade class at the dePaul School about birds. They had been learning about birds and asking me questions through my blog, and in January I went to speak with them about bird beak adaptations. First there was a brief presentation on the eight different types of beaks and what birds they belonged to and what food items they captured with their beaks. Then we set up a fun activity where the students would come up one at a time in front of the class, select a bird, what beak they thought matched, and the food item that bird would eat.


The beaks and food items both had magnets glued to them so when the kids decided which piece of food each beak was adapted to eating, they would place the beak over the food and it would pick it up. Everyone pretty much got it right on the first try and the students did a great job of matching up birds, beaks, and food. I had a wonderful time speaking to Mr. Kepler's and Ms. Erickson's class and would love to come back again. Not many students get the chance to learn about birds and their adaptations and I am glad I was able to help do my part. It is very important we continue to teach our children about animals and the natural environment and get them interested in the outdoors so they can learn about all the amazing things nature has to offer. Thank you guys for letting me come speak to you and keep up the good work!

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0comments dePaul School: Day 3

Round three at starts now!

Q: When did you first get interested in birds? What made you interested in them?

A: I first became interested in birds while in college. One of my first biology classes was a survey of the diversity of animals and for some reason while learning about birds I became very interested in them. At the time I was unaware of just how many different types of birds there were in Kentucky, and when I began to see all the interesting birds at my bird feeder and in the woods, I became hooked. There are 364 species and I made it my mission to learn to identify and see them all.

Q: How many birds did you see over the winter break? Were there any new birds?

A: During the winter months there are a variety of neat birds that come to Kentucky, most of them are ducks. But there also are some interesting sparrows and hawks. At the landfill we have been seeing a lot of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, a couple Northern Harriers, and several White-throated Sparrows. There have not been any ducks because most of the ponds have been frozen for over a week. There has been one Pied-billed Grebe that has managed to keep an open spot on a frozen pond. With temperatures dipping into single digits this week I hope he doesn't get frozen to the pond!

White-throated Sparrow

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0comments dePaul School: Day 2

More questions today from Mr. Kepler's third grade class at the dePaul school. Let's see what they have for us today.

Q: Have you ever seen an owl at the landfill?

Yes in fact we have seen owls at the landfill. Last summer a pair of Great Horned Owls nested at the landfill in a strip of trees by the highway. These are BIG birds and they are the birds most people have in mind when they think of owls.


These birds have great vision and hearing. Unlike most birds, their eyes are both facing forward on their face. This means they can see in three dimensions much like you and I, and makes them skilled at finding and grabbing prey from mice up to big mammals like raccoons and armadillos. Another special adaptation they have is that their ears are not symmetrical. That means that the left ear is placed higher on the head than the right ear. This allows the owl to pinpoint exactly where the sound they are hearing is coming from and makes them better hunters. You may have thought that those big tufts on it's head were it's ears, but in fact they are a bundle of feathers, or "horns", that owls use to attract mates.

Q: How many birds do you see in a week?

That is an almost impossible question to answer. There are thousands of birds from American Goldfinches to European Starlings to Red-tailed Hawks and more that make the landfill their home. Although we attempt to count them every day, it is not meant to be a total count, but instead allows us to get some idea of how many birds are present and whether there are more or less than previous months and years. So while I cannot say exactly how many birds we see in a week, it is surely more than several thousand.

Thanks for the questions Team Three! Keep them coming!

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0comments dePaul School: Day 1

Over the next few weeks I will be fielding questions from Mr. Kepler's Team 3 students at the dePaul School as they start their science unit on birds. They will be asking me questions about birds and the landfill, and come early January I will be speaking to their class about the importance of birds and how they are different. This is a bright bunch of third graders and I look forward to their great questions! Lets begin!

Q: What is your favorite bird and why?

A: That is a tough question! There are so many types of birds, from ducks to hawks and sparrows to herons, that it is difficult to decide which is your favorite. Birds come in a stunning variety and I think all of them are amazing. If I was forced to pick one, it would have to be the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. These guys are real common and you have probably seen one drinking sugar water from a feeder on your back porch.


Hummingbirds are some of the smallest birds but they have a lot of personality. Males like the one above have bright red iridescent throat patches that they use to attract females. The red feathers sparkle like rubies when the light hits them at the right angle and that is how they got their name. They are small but they can move VERY fast. Their wings beat 53 times a second, so fast that you can hear a hum when they fly past. Since they use so much energy they must constantly eat to stay alive. Hummingbirds can eat twice their weight in a day! Can you imagine eating twice your weight in food a day? That would be a ton of school lunches!

Q: What area of the landfill do you see the most birds?

A: That is a good question. The spot on the landfill that has the most birds would be the active area, that is, the area where the garbage trucks dump the garbage. Big bulldozers push and squish the garbage into as small an area as possible, but that doesn't keep the birds from trying to eat it. Most of the birds that try to eat the trash are European Starlings, a bird that was brought over to America from Europe in the 1800's. There can be over 1,000 birds at a time trying to eat yesterday's trash as it goes into the landfill.

However, the spot with the most types of birds would be the wetlands. That is because wetlands are some of the most productive types of habitats, meaning they have the things birds want the most like food and nesting sites. All kinds of birds have been seen in the wetlands like sparrows, warblers, and herons.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job?

A: A big part of my job is that we try to scare away blackbirds and vultures because the landfill is located right next to the airport. Planes are constantly landing and taking off over the landfill and it is our job to make sure the skies are clear of birds and safe for the planes and passengers. We use different kinds of noisemakers that sound like fireworks to scare the birds away. They usually leave but often they do not go far. So we are always looking for birds to shoo away. Therefore, I would say my favorite part of my job is making sure the planes can fly safely and that they can worry less about flying into a big flock of birds.

These were great questions Team 3 and I look forward to your future questions!

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