The weather made this day feel even more sad, the gray and wet weather wasn’t a great way to end the day, but we did our best to explore and be happy together on our final day. In the morning when we arrived we finally did our signs of spring scavenger hunt that we created almost 2 months ago. It was a good day for finding some of our things, like a puddle or rain, also new flowers and growing leaves.  

On our last day we celebrated birds by doing our very own Birdathon all day. Anytime we were outside (or inside) we would listen and look for birds we saw and heard and then record them. I was so impressed with how much bird knowledge these students have absorbed over the years, they recognized the song of a Goldfinch, Common Yellow Throat, new the state bird is a Hermit Trush, and so much more! Birdathon is one of Audubon Vermont’s biggest fundraisers of the year. Our goal is to raise $30,000 each spring. We've been doing Birdathon every year since 2000. Please consider a donation of whatever you're able to give. You’re doing a great thing by joining the Audubon Birdathon. Any type of donation helps use run our programs, like this one, and even helps us help families attend our programs. A $300 donation can help a student attend summer camp for the entire week! 

 Here is Forest Classroom’s Birdathon list! 

1. Song Sparrow 

1. Ovenbird 

1. Common Yellow Throat 

1. Black and White Warbler 

1. Red Poll 

1. Blue Jay 

1. Carolina Wren 

1. Winter Wren 

1. Black-capped Chickadee 

1. Chestnut-sided Warbler 

1. Red-eyed Vireo 

1. Blue-headed Vireo 

1. Veery 

1. Rose-breasted Grosbeak 

1. American Crow 

1. Tufted Titmouse 

1. American Robin 

1. Red-bellied Woodpecker 

1. Northern Cardinal 

1. Hairy Woodpecker 

1. Mourning Dove 

1. Eastern Phoebe 

1. Red-winged Blackbird 

1. Tree Swallow 

We also spent some of our morning at the Brook! There some of us made fairy houses while others were fascinated with how fast the water was moving. So we did a little experiment. We marked off 20ft on the bank (using a 4ft tall student to help measure) and we sent down various items that floated in the water. We timed how quickly they got from the starting point to the end point of the 20 feet. We did this 5 times, added up all the times for a Mean time frame for travel. To find out the feet per second we took 20ft and divided by the average time which was around 8.2 seconds which came to be that the water was moving at a rate of 2.4 ft/sec.  

Measuring our 20 feet using our 4ft tall student Photo: Emily Kaplita

measuring the speed of the water Photo: Emily Kaplita

building a brook fairy house Photo: Emily Kaplita

1 of 3

The rest of the morning and afternoon we went on a field trip to the Bird of Vermont Museum! We got to see the 500 bird carvings that they have there and draw our favorite ones in the wetlands room, tropical/endangered species room, raptor room, and the song bird/nesting birds room! It was amazing to see all the beautiful carvings and watch for birds at the feeder out the window too.   

Hiking to the museum Photo: Emily Kaplita

Drawing waterfowl that the museum Photo: Emily Kaplita

Photo: Emily Kaplita

1 of 3

We ended our day with one last visit to Beaver Pond. We caught a couple newts, leeches, macroinvertebrates, and even one HUGE crawfish! We shared out our favorite part of the day and part of the whole year! 

One final catch at Beaver Pond Photo: Emily Kaplita

Photo: Emily Kaplita

1 of 2

Thank you for a wonderful time together!