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The Educational Program

The educational program combines class work using the internet site and field tours. The program enables the students to study about the phenomenon of migration, both from the academic aspect, based on the updated information on the internet site and from the experiential aspect based on field tours to bird nests which emphasize environmental protection. The fieldwork allows the students, who communicate via the internet, to meet face to face with their compatriots during the joint field work.

The study program is multi-disciplinary combining biology, geography, meteorology, internet use and research tools. The children from the Middle East will communicate via the internet with children living along the migration route, children from the countries of the breeding grounds in Europe and Asia and children from the countries where the birds winter in Africa. In addition, a joint program will be developed for children in the Middle East and children in North America.

Satellite linked transmitters

With the aid of satellite linked transmitters attached to a bird, we are able to track migrating birds (storks, pelicans, eagles), wintering birds (cranes) and resident birds (vultures). These transmitters provide real- time information, which is received from the Argos Satellite, every 90 minutes, about the position of the bird at every point on the globe.

Video cameras in real time

With the aid of a miniature video camera which was affixed to a nest of Lesser Kestrels in Jerusalem. It is possible to follow in real-time, using the internet site, the life of the pair during their breeding cycle 24 hours a day. In the future, cameras will be place in the wintering sites of the cranes, in the roosting sites of the migrating storks and pelicans and at the feeding stations and nesting sites of the Griffin vultures.

Ringing of migrating birds

The station for the study of Jerusalem's birds which is located in the Rose Garden of Israel's Parliament is apparently the first ringing station in the world placed on property of a Parliament building. The ringing station serves as a base for joint educational activities for Palestinian and Israeli schoolchildren. In the Spring of 2000, the first Palestinian ringing station will be established in Talita Kumi, Beit Jalla, Palestinian Authority, in the future an additional ringing station will be established in the Azrak Nature Rreserve in Jordan.