Eric Dempsey on behalf of Heritage in Schools came to our school on Wednesday 15th March. He is an ornithologist which means he studies and protects birds. He had many feathers and wings from different birds. We learned a lot about birds.
We conducted an experiment where we all put our hands up behind our ears and Eric got a whole barn owls wing and he flapped it but we could hear no noise. Then he got out a single swan feather and flapped it and it was very loud compared to the barn owl. There’s little hairs on the back of the owls wing to decrease wind resistance and this helps to reduce noise. He told us how to distinguish between a left wing feather and a right wing feather on a swan. They are different shapes. The tail feathers of a peacock and a finch on the male spreads out and whichever bird had the most colourful tail spread would attract the best mate. This also worked to protect the male bird’s territory.
Swallows: Once a year they make a journey that is 10,000km to summer in South Africa while it is winter in Ireland and then they come back to Ireland via the Sahara Desert. They stop in the middle of the rain forest to eat bugs, drink water to prepare themselves for the journey across the Sahara. It takes five days and nights to cross the desert and they don’t stop to rest. The swallows in your area always come back to where they were born. Not all of them survive.
All of third class found Eric very interesting and they listened attentively. Eric gave us a gift. Once a year, spend five seconds to look at your first swallow in spring and think about the incredible journey that little bird who weighs the same as ½ bag of crisps with the brain the size of a pea has undertaken to get back to Ireland.
By Connie & Alex
