Notes from the Field

Meet Five New Space Robins

April 25th, 2016 by Natalie Boelman

The newest space robins

At 6:40 am five American robins flew into our nets. What a great start to the day!

Paul is an adult male. His name was chosen by Mrs. Arietta’s 5th grade class. (Photo credit: Natalie Boelman)

Paul is an adult male. His name was chosen by Mrs. Arietta’s 5th grade class. (Photo credit: Natalie Boelman)

Hudson is an adult male. His name was chosen by Mr. Wasser’s 4th grade class. (Photo credit: Natalie Boelman)

Hudson is an adult male. His name was chosen by Mr. Wasser’s 4th grade class. (Photo credit: Natalie Boelman)

Batman is an an adult male. His name was chosen by Mrs. Heilbronn’s 5th grade class. (Photo credit: Brian Weeks.)

Batman is an an adult male. His name was chosen by Mrs. Heilbronn’s 5th grade class. (Photo credit: Brian Weeks.)

Robbie is an adult male. His name was chosen by Mr. McAuliffe’s and Mrs. Cavanaugh’s 5th grade class. (Photo credit: Brian Weeks.)

Robbie is an adult male. His name was chosen by Mr. McAuliffe’s and Mrs. Cavanaugh’s 5th grade class. (Photo credit: Brian Weeks.)

Buckbeak is a young male. His name was chosen by Mr. Krump’s 5th grade class. (Photo credit: Brian Weeks.)

Buckbeak is a young male. His name was chosen by Mr. Krump’s 5th grade class. (Photo credit: Brian Weeks.)

 

Other bird species we’ve seen so far

While we’re on the lookout for American robins, we see lots of other bird species. Brian’s been taking some pretty spectacular photos of them, so we thought we’d share them with you.

 

Busy as a beaver!

The other evening we decided to go check out one of the many nearby beaver lodge and dam complexes. We are in Canada after all!

Have you ever heard the expression “He/She is as busy as a beaver”? It comes from the fact that beavers are famous for keeping themselves very busy gnawing away at the trunks of trees until they fall to the ground – timber! – and can be used to build their homes (lodges) and dams to create lakes where there were previously small streams. You can learn all about beavers here and the structures they build here:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/beaver/.

Although I had heard a lot about how busy beavers are, I had never seen it with my own eyes and wow, was I impressed! Seeing first hand all the work these beavers have done made me feel awfully lazy. Take a look for yourself:

 

That’s all we have for today, but tune in again soon to meet the next batch of space robins!

Space robin by Nicole Krikun.

Space robin by Nicole Krikun.

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20 Responses to “Meet Five New Space Robins”

  1. Catie says:

    I wonder why paul looks different then the other robins. It apears that you are catching more male birds than female birds, is there an explanation for this?

  2. Livia says:

    The beavers must work really hard building their dams. How do you know how old the robins are?

  3. Esther says:

    Why are you catching more male robins than females? Can you post a picture of Chiry with one of the robins so we can see if Chirpy is bigger or smaller than the other robins? How many robins have you caught in all?

  4. Sia says:

    It was really cool how the beaver’s teeth were so strong that they kept gnawing on the tree until it fell down. I wonder why only 1 female (Pepperoni) was caught. All of the other bird species that you guys saw were very cool. What robin weighs the least?

  5. Siena says:

    It is so cool, the way that the beavers can cut down the trees untile it falls over!

  6. Aidan says:

    The beavers look like they’re working hard.How does the cilimate get affected by the beavers biting the trees down?

  7. Brian says:

    It’s so cool how you caught so much robins! They are so cute! About how big are the robins compared to chirpy?
    Why are you catching so much male birds? The beaver dams are so cute too. I bet they will be adorable an furry! But,do you think climate change affecting beavers too? Thanks for your time!!! :mrgreen: 🙂 😆

  8. Megan says:

    It is very intersting how you are caching more males than females. Do you think you are caching more male robins than female robins because, the females have already laid their eggs or are they still migrating?

  9. Meline says:

    Do you know why you are catching a lot of male robins?

  10. Julia says:

    Has climate change effected Red-breasted nuthatch like it has for the american robin.

  11. Marco says:

    Its great that you found the new robyns!
    Also why do you only have one female robyn? :confused:

  12. sofia says:

    I wonder if the bevers are doing the same thing as the robins

  13. CJ says:

    The beaver slide looks like alot of fun.Do you now if any other birds are affected?

  14. Ryan says:

    I thought that it was so cool how beavers cut down the trees

  15. Tavian says:

    Its really cool how the beavers are eating the trees and that big mac was the largest bird caught

  16. jruballos says:

    why did you catch female birds in every robin picture

  17. chris&kevin says:

    how do you guys get these awseome pictures of the birds on the trees?

  18. Mr. Tanenbaum says:

    Is there a webpage where we can see the data from each robin?

  19. vianca hilario says:

    I thought that it was so cool that the beavers cut like that