They came, they soared, they warbled!
The inaugural Sapphire Coast Learning Community Bournda Bird Olympics was held on Thursday 27th July 2017.
It was a fantastic day and the students from Tathra, Towamba, Tanja and Wolumla Public Schools were fine representatives for their school communities. Check out this wonderful video made by Vanessa Milton from ABC Open.
EVERY student had a go in the bird call section and there was magic in the room as the students showed off their skills!
Each school received a set of posters from the Gould League and each participant was awarded a “Looking at Birds on the Far South Coast of NSW”, generously donated by the Far South Coast Bird Watchers.
The students participated in six activities: identifying bird calls; identifying birds from pictures; matching feathers to birds; bird knowledge quiz; bird creative art; and bird calling.
The official awards were:
Jack Lynch Memorial Award for the highest school total – Trophy donated by Robert Whiter and Georgies Fine Jewellery
Tanja Public School
Champion bird callers Bruce Chapman (Left) and Jim Burton with overall winners Tanja PS and the Jack Lynch Memorial Award.
Individual Prize for Best Bird Call – Gould League Book Prize
Kiana Murphy – Tathra PS
Highest Individual Scores – On the Perch Family Day Passes – donated by Steve and Linda Sass, On the Perch Bird Park.
Uluka Richardson – Towamba PS
Caleb Ingram – Tanja PS
Highest Individual Score from each school – BirdLife Australia – Endangered Bird pins donated by Richard Bomford
Caleb Ingram – Tanja PS
Kiana Murphy – Tathra PS
Uluka Richardson – Towamba PS
Cameron Love – Wolumla PS
Highest Team Bird Brains quiz score – Gould League book donation to school library
Tanja PS
The scores were very close with only a couple of marks between all the teams. Tathra PS students were younger so theirs was a particularly meritorious performance.
Vanessa Milton from ABC Open, documented the event – check out Vanessa’s marvellous story on the “Champion Bird Callers of the South Coast”
We were fortunate to have a few champion bird callers of yesterday present; thank you to Jim Burton and Bruce Chapman for judging the bird calling. Other Bird Calling luminaries present were Gary Beveridge, Sandra Bray, Marg Liston, Fay Deveril, Elaine Cozens and Jill. Don Bretherton (Merimbula-Imlay Historical Society) assisted with the display materials.
It was a pilot program but there was a definite vibe that it would be great to continue the event next year and to get more schools involved. Newspaper articles provided by the Merimbula-Imlay Historical Society, show that at it’s peak in the 1950s, the South Coast Bird Days, organised by Merimbula Public Principal Jack Lynch, were attended by up to 700 students and 200 adults!!
Thank you to our prize sponsors and thank you to the Merimbula-Imlay Historical Society for kindly loaning us their Bird Call display and bird call activity.
A big thank you to the Bird Brains behind this event – Peter Claxton, Principal of Wolumla Public; Nancy Blindell, SAM Towamba Public; Robert Whiter.
