Stella Kerwin Derrick ’23, shares her interest in the local wildlife and helps spread awareness of the local bird population.
The animal and bird awareness project was created to spread information about wild animals, specifically birds on and surrounding our campus. The end goal of this project was to create an informative pamphlet that will be handed out on campus that talks about the security response to calls involving animals, wildlife, and birds you may be able to spot on campus, how man-made structures and activity affects birds, and the human impact on animals. An additional part of the project was researching methods of ways to prevent birds from crashing into large windows and creating a proposal to use one of the methods I researched to increase the visibility of large windows to birds.
I was able to interview Mr. Purington from Physical Plant multiple times to talk about wildlife on campus, his view on the wildlife, and his knowledge about bird collision deterrence. I spent a lot of time researching the hand print method for bird collision deterrence and using vinyl stickers or semi-permanent paint to achieve this. You can learn more about this process in the pamphlet that will be dispersed throughout campus.
This project gave me the opportunity to talk and learn from some faculty members I hadn’t met and taught me about the wild animals in western mass. I was able to learn more about the habits of birds and how they migrate, which I was curious about, and it helped me practice how to prepare to interview someone and finding answers myself.
I am very thankful for the support of the Workman fund, which gave me the support and opportunity needed to pursue and learn about my interest in bird collisions and the human impact on animals. The fund made it possible for me to research this topic and test out methods to increase the visibility of large windows to birds. I am also thankful for the help Ms. Brown and Mr. Purington gave me throughout this process.
