It all started with a lonely Mockingbird. One day in March I was on playground duty at Oyster Bilingual Elementary School, where I work as the school librarian. We are currently located at 4th and Bryant St. NW, near Howard University. I was looking in a sweet gum tree for the Mockingbird that I had been hearing on and off during the previous weeks. All of sudden, I gasped. There, at the top of the trunk, was none other than a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker! Finding this Neotropical migratory bird anywhere is a treat, but finding it in the middle of the city, on a playground of a bilingual school that just last year had studied migratory birds, was simply amazing! Although we had no binoculars that day, many, many students got to observe the Sapsucker as it made its characteristic horizontal and vertical rows of perfectly round holes.

From that moment on I brought my binoculars to school every day. The Sapsucker has only returned once, but the holes it left in the sweet gum provide a wonderful opportunity or "teachable moment", as we call it in the education field, for discussions about the importance of trees in urban environments and the reasons for bird migration. And, as you can imagine, we have since found our friend the Mockingbird, heard his amazing song, and named him "Singer". He is no longer lonely. He has a friend named "Twirl" and we are hoping that there will soon be a nest in our holly tree.

In fact, we have observed 10 bird species on our playground and are starting to learn the names of the trees that attract them. Besides the very common urban birds, which include the House Sparrow, the European Starling, and the Rock Dove, we have observed American Crows, House Finches, Ring-billed Gulls, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and a Turkey Vulture. Most of our children have become avid bird watchers, and I sincerely look forward to my two days of playground duty. I always have my binoculars with me, and the kids come and look, go play, and come back again. It is truly exciting to have finally found a wonderful, relaxed, real-world way to help kids tune into the natural world that surrounds them.

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