First Day of Eagle Camp

First Day of Eagle Camp: We had many questions about eagles. How big are they? HOw many eggs do they lay? What is the smallest thing they eat? How big is their nest? How can we find out?

We made journals out of recycled paper and sticks and began to record our questions and observations and things we are learning.

AJay Winter, a biologist from the Iowa DNR, visited our class. He writes a column for the Iowa DNR Outdoors Magazine. We learned how to catch and band birds with them, and about special adaptations birds have. For example, the redbellied woodpecker has a long, barbed tongue that it uses to pull insects out of the holes it drills into trees. The tongue curls up inside the top of its head and acts like a shock absorber when it pecks holes in the trees.

It was very hot and humid so we went swimming. We also cooled off by canoeing and we saw the eagle nest at Lakeside Lab and two adult and one juvenile eagle.

We began to learn a song about eagles.