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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Ankeny, IA

Why I love birds

A pair of American bald eagles perched on the rim of their large stick nest on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Birds" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.
A pair of American bald eagles perched on the rim of their large stick nest on Kennedy Space Center property. NASA · Public domain
  • They can go anywhere.
  • Every kind has its own sound.
  • Some of them fly farther than a car could drive.

You can love birds in Ankeny.

What it really is

Birds are living dinosaurs with hollow bones and extraordinary navigation.

Three things to try today

  1. Learn one bird by its sound.
  2. Count how many you hear in ten minutes.
  3. Do it again next month and compare.
A pair of hands holds a small songbird while fitting a numbered metal USGS band around its leg during migration monitoring. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Birds" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.
A pair of hands holds a small songbird while fitting a numbered metal USGS band around its leg during migration monitoring. U.S. Geological Survey, Bird Banding Laboratory · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in Ankeny, IA who loves birds is not unusual. A child in Ankeny, IA who is told that loving birds is unusual — that is the problem. Ankeny has a population of about 51,567.

Bird counts are real citizen science. Your data can go into a national database.

If the kid who loves this is a girl

Read what one popular teacher said to one little girl who took out the classroom trash without being asked — and what that girl did with the rest of her life.

Girls are great at math — Ankeny, IA →

Love something else too

A blacktip reef shark swims just under the sunlit surface, above a head of coral, at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Sharks" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.Why I love sharksAstronaut Mike Fincke reaches into the sealed Life Science Glovebox to run a biology experiment aboard the space station's Kibo module. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Biology" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.Why I love living thingsA test model of the long magnetometer boom for the Europa Clipper spacecraft laid out for checkout at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Magnets" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.Why I love magnetsTechnicians in clean-room gear install guidance, navigation and control electronics boxes into the Juno spacecraft. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electronics" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.Why I love electronicsA technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electricity" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.Why I love electricityTwo rocket engine tests fire at once on the test stands at Stennis Space Center, throwing huge white exhaust plumes into the air. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Energy" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.Why I love energyThe two-bladed Mod-1 wind turbine standing on its lattice tower on a hilltop at Boone, North Carolina. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Wind Power" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.Why I love windAn orange-and-white Saildrone autonomous research vessel under sail on the water near San Francisco Bay. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Oceans" page — read by families in Ankeny, IA.Why I love the ocean

Near Ankeny

Why I love birds, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Ankeny