Students in two Island classrooms will get to adopt their very own bald eagle chick, thanks to one of their classmates.
Joel MacDougall, a Grade 3 student at Somerset Elementary School in Kinkora this past year, and Elijah Hall, a Grade 4 student at Belfast Consolidated School in 2005/06, are the grand prize winners in this year’s National Wildlife Week 2006 Poster Contest sponsored by the Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry and the PEI Wildlife Federation. For their efforts, their classes will participate in the Adopt-an-Eagle program courtesy of Island Nature Trust.
With its distinctive white head and tail, and a wingspan of up to eight feet, the bald eagle is the largest bird of prey on Prince Edward Island. As recently as the 1980s, only one pair of eagles was known to nest on the Island. Since then, 131 eagle chicks have been “adopted” and there are 25 to 30 known nests on the Island. Groups that adopt a bald eagle chick receive a beautiful certificate with artwork by Island illustrator P. John Burden, a presentation, and a 20-page booklet with extensive information about PEI’s bald eagles. As well, the Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry keeps information on sightings of bald eagles and all information on adopted birds is passed along to the “parents.”
A total of 332 students entered the National Wildlife Week 2006 Poster Contest. There were two categories – Grades 1-3 and Grades 4-6 – with one winning entry chosen per school in each category. The grand prize winners were selected from the winning entries at the school level. Each winning artist received a copy of Peterson First Guide Birds and the Formac Pocketguide to Nature – Animals, Plants and Birds in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. As grand prize winners, Joel and Elijah also received a t-shirt and lunch bag featuring this year’s National Wildlife Week theme Watersheds... more than just water... explore yours. Through the poster contest and the National Wildlife Week kits provided to Island teachers, students learned about the importance of watersheds to wildlife and wildlife habitat in Prince Edward Island.
Following are the school winners in the Grades 1-3 category: Holly Studzinski, St. Peter’s Consolidated School; Lindsay Bushy, Souris Consolidated; Cassey Wedge and Caitlin Arsenault, Athena Consolidated; Tanner Clark, Elm Street Elementary; Alex Gray, O’Leary Elementary; Shamus Kelly, Tracadie Cross Consolidated; Mikayla Doucette, Miscouche Consolidated; Brandon MacKinnon, Cardigan Consolidated; Cassandra MacLean, Belfast Consolidated; Renata McKenna, Queen Elizabeth Elementary; Saul Lanigan and Austin Leeco, Southern Kings Consolidated; and Burke Taylor, Parkside Elementary.
School winners in the Grades 4-6 category were as follows: Dustin Keen, Montague Consolidated; Donna Wood, Bloomfield Elementary; Hannah Murnaghan, Donagh Regional School; Devan Boertien, Rollo Bay Consolidated; Alex Khan, Parkdale Elementary; Katie Sonier, Central Queens Elementary; Shana O’Brien, École Évangéline; Katie Gallant, Tracadie Cross; and Jason Wuertz, Grand Tracadie Elementary.