Robertson+Intermediate+(CA)

[[image:Patty_Kephart.jpg width="509" height="384"]]What's in our neighborhood?
The habitat in the Bayshore neighborhood is suburban with a city park. There are houses, apartments and businesses as well as a community center and a very large arena called the Cow Palace. A Pacific Gas and Electric substation is just down hill from our school. Bayshore is located on the south east edge of San Francisco, and San Francisco Bay is just beyond highway 101. Behind our neighborhood rises San Bruno Mountain, a State Park and nature conservancy. The group San Bruno Mountain Watch has a great web site sanbruno@mountainwatch.org with pictures and information about the 27 endangered plant and animal species found there. The mountain is surrounded by cities. Bayshore is part of Daly City. Where we went to do our first observation was Midway Park. It has a field with grass, a playground and basketball courts. There are trees and bushes surrounding the park. Houses, schools, apartments and a PG&E substation are right there. The best place that we all saw that was perfect for bird watching was by the trees where the man hooks up the sprinkler. There was a puddle under a tree and a bird was taking a bath in it! Birds can get food on the ground from trash cans and dropped snacks. They can get berries, seeds and bugs too. We saw a tree frog that jumped so far in one hop! We saw a black cat that looked like it lost its owner. We also saw a couple of dragon flies. We think there probably are worms in the ground under the field where birds could find them. We saw at least eleven sea gulls flying in the distance. One of our classmates said he saw a red tailed hawk up at the crest of the mountain. Other people saw doves just sitting and relaxing, and others saw pigeons. There was a little brown bird with white tail feathers that flew really really fast. Another brown bird sat on a wire and then flew into the bushes. Someone saw a blue jay fly right out of a tree. Twelve crows or ravens were flying around. One crow had bread in its mouth. Most of the birds that my class saw were flying and soaring.

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** What features make our neighborhood a suitable place for birds? **
** Bayshore has lots of trees, tall grass, bushes, lots of places for shelter. At parks and fields there are sprinklers and puddles for water and lots of bugs crawling around and even frogs. **

** What birds do you regularly see on your bird counts? **
** Sea gulls, doves, crows, ravens, red tailed hawks, little brown birds, blue jays, pigeons. **