Every year during Spring Break, the killdeer come to nest on the St Paul Parochial School playground. Not just one, mind you, there's always two and possibly three nests placed there along a fenceline. This always ends badly for the killdeer! When the children return from break, they return in full force, screaming, laughing, running, and often trodding on the nests breaking the killdeer's eggs. As many of us know, the killdeer nests on the ground and then goes to great lengths to draw people and predators away from the nest by pretending to be hurt or injured. The problem is that the eggs are cleverly camouflaged and look just like the gravel and bark chips. It's not the students' fault. Given the choices of places they nest, it's a wonder this bird isn't extinct!
The Preschool discussed it as a group and decided to make this year different. We got some shiny tape and silver curling ribbon and went to work making an elaborate bird deterrent to keep them away. We practiced knot-tying and made streamers on the tape. It was an excellent bit of teamwork, I could almost hear the theme song to "Rocky" while they worked, a truly applaudable group effort. Sadly, the day we were to put it up, Preschool was called off due to snow. I went to the school the following Saturday to install our creation on the playground myself. It was glorious, if I do say so.

A few days later I returned to the playground to see how our project was faring. Unfortunately, the tape had disappeared! What's worse, and what really made me panic, is that I could see some killdeer in their favorite nesting spots running and calling. Not a good sign. I so hoped they hadn't already made a nest! I didn't want to be the one to tell the class that our efforts had failed. So I got more tape, hastily put it up, and this time had the sense to include a sign explaining it's purpose. Thankfully I did not spy a nest or eggs (although the killdeer did seem anxious.) This is how it looked when I was done. (below) Nowhere near as elaborate as the original!

When we all returned, refreshed from Spring Break, I explained to the children that the original tape disappeared, but I had replaced it with a sub-standard effort of my own. During recess we examined it to make sure it was sound. Satisfied, we continued with playtime. (And believe it or not, it was beautiful that day, sunny and clear, warm, the way we imagine Spring to be.) Right before I called the children in to line up, I looked at a nest a robin had been working on before break. The robin had clearly been very industrious, because the nest was complete. It was made on a drainpipe that ran under the eaves of the school and along the building to the ground. What caught my eye, though, was, as one of my students Grant put it, the "decoration" the bird used on the nest. That robin had somehow found some of our curling ribbon and used it in it's nest! That suddenly made it OK, that the original tape was used for another bird, for a different reason. As Grady, another student, said, "I'm glad the robin could use it!"