Hands-On Learning

Sometimes, on nice days, I bring my English classes outside to read. Last Wednesday, I brought my American Literature class out to the baseball field to read Huckleberry Finn. Approaching the batting cage, several of my students pointed out a relatively small bird of prey (to be identified shortly) on the grass, just a few yards away. The intrepid bird didn't seem to mind the twenty-plus teens snapping photos of him with their cell phones. It soon became apparent why.

Inside the batting cage, there was a sudden flapping of wings. Ravelled in the netting inside the chainlink cage was a mourning dove; the predator had been problem-solving, trying to get to this unfortunate victim. The raptor jumped up to the top of the cage as I entered the cage. The netting was so deep into the bird's plumage, that I couldn't figure out just how many of its appendages were tangled. It was bleeding where it had rubbed against the nylon net for what was probably days now. One of my students had nail clippers on his key chain, which I used to snip two strands of nylon and then wriggled the bird out of the trap.

Outside, the students watched for the raptor, should it have tried to swoop in after the dramatic rescue! The dove stumbled on the grass for a moment and then soared up and over the foul-ball territory beyond the left field fence. Needless to say, we were all a little distracted after this, but it was a lesson Huck would surely have appreciated.

Backpacker's Global Warming Issue

Stay tuned for Backpacker magazine's upcoming Global Warming Issue. My environmentally low-impact hike/bike from the New Haven Green to the top of Sleeping Giant will be among the hike descriptions.