Green Meadows Preserve: Bluebird Trail Tour
​In this trip I, with the rest of my STEM Biology/PLTW class visited Green Meadows Preserve for the tour and for some, have bird houses they made in Math class critiqued. Upon getting to the preserve and going to the small ouside class area, we were met by the tour giude who also manages and constructs the bird houses in the preserve. To start off the tour, the tour guide went into depth of how total bird population and, more specifically, total Bluebird population has decreased in North America as well as how bird species variety have declined through the years and why. He also went into depth of how there have been measures to deduce the bird reduction from happening through government acts and places, such as Green Meadows Preserve, which offer nesting sites for endangered bird species such as blue birds. Then we learned how a bird house should be made and for what purpose(cavity nest for offspring). Soon afterwards, the students that constructed bird houses presented them and were criticed based off measures that would/would not support birds in general, support birds that the students had in mind when creating the bird houses and how well they would accomodate for Bluebirds. This includes making sure not to put a perch on considering that the bird would only need to grap the edge of the hole in order to feed their offspring and considering it might invite other birds to perch there, blocking the way for a parent to feed their offspring. Other factors such as accesibility to clean and visibility were also considered for bird houses despite what bird they were made for. Other factors such as size of hole entrance, what the bird house would be attached to and distance of visible area without obstructions were factors I learned pretained to different cavity nesting birds. After the different bird houses were choosen to be the best out of a certain catagory(best overall, most insilation, best protection from predators, made of the most organic material, etc.), we were guided through one to two of the trails and got to physically see the birds and view their behavior in the time that was left. Along the way, the guie pointed out different berries that are or are not edible to different types of birds and future park projects along with current projects that have been or will be worked on. Overall, the trip enlitend me about birds, why their conservation is important, how to help, including how to build a bird house of optimal effeciency and other interesting facts about Bluebirds and birds in general. Before the trip, I never really viewed birds as a class of verdabrate that was intriguing. A few weeks after the tour, I used the information I retained to perchase a bird house that met as much of the requirments as possible and gave it to my grandparents for one of their birthdays.