Jason Loghry, July 22
All of us at Birds Korea care for biodiversity and we do our best to involves others in the work we do. Over the past two years, our school in Gimhae has participated in different conservation projects through Birds Korea. These include the Journey of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper animation, Pledge to Fledge, a postcard exchange with students from Rudong, and a summer camp of birds, migration, and saving Spoonies. These projects have influenced our students in a very positive way and now many of them are interested in learning more about birds.
To encourage their interest, our school has purchased binoculars, a field guide to the birds of Korea, independently created a workbook and started our first bird watching club. Now we meet once a week with twelve of our brightest students and spend an hour exploring the mountainside next to our campus. There we can find a few gardens, some beautiful trees, and a quiet Buddhist temple. When we see birds, we draw and write about them in our workbooks and we use the field guide to help identify what species they are. Later in the fall season, our club wants to share what we are learning with other students at our school. Our plan is to paint a small mural in our hallway and include all of the bird species we have seen near our campus.
This year, Obang Elementary has joined as an annual member of Birds Korea. We hope students are able to get closer to nature through birds, and we want to give them an opportunity to learn about conservation from the experts at Birds Korea. We would also like to give our students a way to network with other schools or clubs online that want to share about birds, nature or conservation. If you are interested in connecting with us through Birds Korea, please send an email to jason.loghry@birdskorea.org. We are also happy to send anyone who requests, a handmade postcard from the Obang Elementary Birds Club. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Happy birding from all of us at Obang Elementary ! (Birds: Bird Identification & Research Discovery Society)