Random Access

Dave Taylor is sitting in the McEwan Field Station talking about the weird winter weather and its effects on the bird population at Riverwood, the garden park in waiting that provides 150-acres of much needed public green space in the heart of our city.
He has no sooner referred to “our resident red-tailed hawk” when believe it or not, the Mississauga raptor hoves over the horizon and is clearly visible outside the window. Then hawk is checking out the bird feeders that surround the field station, which serves as a living laboratory for hundreds of students who can get a taste of the wild in Mississauga without attending a junior hockey game.
Today Taylor and teacher Rita Schulze launched the Riverwood Bird Feeding TREK (Teaching Responsible Environmental Kinship.)
Among the attendees at the launch, besides the red tail, was a resident Cooper’s Hawk, several cardinals, a few northern juncos, and a clutch of chiding, chattering chickadees who were, of course, the main hope for the handful of home-schooled students who were the first participants in the Bird Feeding TREK.
They wanted oh-so-badly to have a bird feed out of their hands and, although there were a few close calls, it didn’t happen for the students. Schulze was, however, able to use a cocktail of kiwi slices dumped in a sticky substance garnished with sunflower seeds to lure the chickadees to feed.
Back in November, the former public school teacher was leading a group of students along the trails that constitute the real classroom at Riverwood when the Cooper’s Hawk could be seen chasing a Great Horned Owl. The owl eventually lit in a tree and was nicely silhouetted against the sky. It was one of those ideal teaching moments that outdoor educators dream about.
The bird feeding program isn’t just for students. About a dozen volunteers take the seed provided by the corporate sponsor, Scott’s Canada of Mississauga, and spread it on feeders that are set up along the trek, most of which are stumps in the woods that have been left for that purpose.
Taylor says the strange weather doesn’t exactly provide ideal bird feeding conditions. It’s a lot easier to bring the birds in when there’s snow cover and they don’t have multiple alternative sources of food.
January and February are slow months for outdoor education centres, because of cold weather. Without snow for sking programs, it’s even slower.
The bird program should attract more customers in this traditional down (pardon the pun) time.
The students will actually assist in academic research. The birds they see will be entered into the phenology (effect of climate on animal, plant and bird life) data base at Riverwood to be available as a living record of the changes that are taking place there. UTM students are already studying such diverse issues as the white-tailed deer population, the red maples, the impact on wildlife of the bird-feeding program and even the attitudinal changes in students who are exposed to the outdoor education program.
With the school boards struggling to stay in the outdoor ed. game because of funding problems, the Riverwood program is a beacon of light. How ironic it is that outdoor education programs seem to be dying in inverse proportion to the rise in concerns about global warming.
One of the parents attending today was Monica Spee who is home-schooling her seven-year-old son Alexander. They’ve been to Riverwood four times already with a group of home schoolers. “We’ve taken up camping and travelling more, going up to Sudbury and Grundy Lake (Provincial Park) and we come up here for the occasional walk,” she said. “We time our trips to when the birds migrate.”
Those are words to gladden the heart of any environmental teacher.