Oxbow Redux

When Laurie and I visited Oxbow Meadows earlier this week, I found out about the 8 AM Saturday bird walks and planned to go. Maybe because of a stormy Friday evening...or possibly because 8:00 comes so darned early on Saturdays...Fife and I were the only visitors. We thoroughly enjoyed the leisurely walk down to the ponds with our gracious guide, Patricia. It was a beautiful day and she identified the birds I had actually seen on Wednesday -- cormorants (not turkey vultures), little blue herons (not great white egrets!!!), indigo buntings and blue grosbeaks (not painted buntings), as well as a few new ones (green heron, blue bird, wood duck, tree swallow, pine siskin, towhee, mockingbird, eastern phoebe)! We also saw the goldfinches that we had seen earlier in the week, but today they were brilliantly yellow. All were totally awesome to me.

As we were leaving the trail, Patricia spotted the adult Little Blue Herons wading in the water hyacinths. What I had mistakenly identified through the binoculars on Wednesday afternoon as great white egrets, were most likely immature Little Blues (white also).

Technology application of the day: definitely Picasa 3! It can be set to detect picture files. Although I did not use that feature, I easily imported pictures to one file, edited one or two, and could have imported them directly into this blog (Picasa and Blogger are Google aps). Instead I added a few captions, changed the font and background color, selected a transition style, imported a soundtrack, and let Picasa create a movie, which I easily embedded in the blog. I believe that even the youngest elementary-aged student could create a movie this way, with appropriate scaffolding. I can't wait to show this new feature of Picasa 3 to our teachers.


My non-SLR camera did not "capture the moment" well, but I at least had the color settings right today.

Nature: Meet Technology Integration

Following a dreary few days of rain, wind, and brrrrrrisk weather, my friend and fellow techie teacher, Laurie, and I visited Oxbow Meadows Learning Center just south of the school where we teach. We are collaborating on a science/social studies/literacy project that will integrate Georgia Performance Standards, Cornerstone literacy strategies, and speech/language goals in an exciting technology-enhanced, problem-based learning project for our students.

We picked a perfect day to visit: sunny, mild, cloudless, and almost visitor-free. Red-winged Blackbirds, Great White Egrets, Turkey Vultures, common finches, a pair of Canada Geese, one perfect Painted Bunting, a Mockingbird or two, and several snapping turtles enjoyed the day as well. Disappointed not to find a Great Blue Heron -- maybe next visit. We were delighted to chat with the knowledgeable workers and to borrow some excellent field glasses and field guide.

Red-winged Blackbird (Amazing what a little accessorizing does for a simple, little black dress.)


Great White Egret (Nimble, quick, and unexpectedly graceful on those ungainly looking legs.)



Turkey Vultures (Well, somebody's gotta appreciate 'em...they have a thankless job.)



Painted Bunting (SHAZAAM!!)



We took lots of pictures - a virtual field trip of sorts. I unintentionally used the color accent camera setting, so the greens look terrific, but everything else pales in comparison to the brilliance of the day. No matter, we'll be back, hopefully with kids in-tow.

Oxbow Meadows April 8, 2009

Click on the picture to link to the Picassa Web Album. View as a slideshow.