Bird Counting

The past weekend was The Great Backyard Bird Count – and it was fun for us to count some birds here at our home.

 

We counted about 3 times total, I think.  We logged in a hawk each time, I think – several cardinals, and lots of sparrows.  We also have a Great Blue Heron that comes almost daily to our pond, or the one across the fence.  We also have a steady number of Turkey Vulters.

We did venture out on Monday to the East Texas Arboretum to count birds with friends. 

We hiked about a mile and a half, found the bird lookout, but we did not actually see any birds.  It was a little sad, but we had so much fun playing, hiking and being with friends, we did not seem to mind the lack of birds.

I think next week we will pick a bird we see often and do a deeper study of that bird.  Maybe some art to come to!

Bird Watching

We have enjoyed watching the birds, more lately I think.  We are getting geared up for a real honest-to-goodness bird study.  I think we may do this all month, well what is left of it. 

Starting on the 18th we are going to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC).  It will go on from the 18th to the 22nd.  You spend a minimum of 15 minutes counting birds – anywhere!  Could be the park, a pond, or your back yard.  Then you record which kinds of birds you see in that period of time.

So, in preparation, we are :  (1) getting out all of our bird books, (2) trying to identify those we have photographed here,  (3) planning where we want to count besides our backyard, and  (4) print out a list of birds we could see in our region (from the website).

I think we are going to walk down our road one day – there is a small pond just off the road and every time we walk by, many wood ducks fly out.  So we will go and count those wood ducks one day – should be fun!

Then, I think I want to try to spend one period over at Cedar Creek Lake since there are tons of Loons over there – and count those one day.

It is going to be lots of fun!  Lots of counting and lots of looking up birds we do not know!

So, check out the website and join us in counting some birds and benefiting the National Audubon Society, for one.  There are lots of great things to see on their websites that are very kid friendly too!

Lastly, did I mention PRIZES??  There are those as well – they award prizes once you submit your results – binoculars, bird books, bird feeders, etc!  Well worth the time you spend counting I think  - plus it gets kids excited!!

Snow and the Birds

We woke to snow this morning – what fun! 

Not a whole lot of nature study going on with these freezing temps & the ice we have been dealing with all last week.  But, today I was able to get some great bird pictures that I think we will use to start a bird study of sorts.

Here are a few of the pics I got:

 

 

The cardinals in the tree – were not too happy with me out there – they waited until I left to eat.  Too bad.

 

Hanging out in the rose bush – waiting their turn

 

Caught this one coming in for a landing – check out his feet!

PJ says that this one is about to jump and that is why his legs are extended in this picture – he is probably right – who knows?

And to finish with my favorite one:

It will be fun figuring out a couple – I think the boys know them all, but we can look into some fun details about each of them!  Fun future studies for our gang!

Pine Trees

Finally getting back into our nature study!  We were so excited to have a plan and get moving along!

So after looking at the Winter Study ideas on THIS blog – we decided to take on Challenge #5 : Pine Trees. 

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Outdoor Hour Challenge
Winter Series #5

Pine Trees in Winter

Inside Preparation Work:
This week read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 670-675 to learn more about pine trees. Even if you don’t think you have any pines in your area, it is still interesting to read the information for future reference. Make sure to note the ideas suggested for studying pines in the lesson at the end of the section.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week with your children in your own yard or on your own street. This week you will have two suggested activities.

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We chose this one primarily because we have lots of our own pine trees.  I hope to go back and do a few of the other challenges because we really are enjoying this one!

What we learned :

What a conifer is : a cone bearing tree.  We talked about how the lead branch of the tree (the one that grows the tallest and is the “leader” ) had a beetle that likes to eat the top, bore into the branch, and then eventually kill the branch.  ~Interesting!  Another interesting part is that another branch then will take over the leadership role and lead the tree.

{We learned all this from our Handbook of Nature Study by Anne Comstock}

We also learned that the Pine Trees on the West coast grow about 100 ft taller (200-300 ft) then those on the East Coast (100-200 ft).  This was interesting too, since we were able to talk about the trees we saw in person last year in Maine and Oregon!

I hope to sketch some pine cones later this week – maybe a couple different kinds.

Yesterday we did enjoy watercolor painting pine trees though :

Painting Trees VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So, I am looking forward to working through many challenges each season as we are more deliberate about getting out and studying the nature right here in our yard!!

A Look Back : Maine

It has been a while since I have posted anything here, so while sorting some pictures for J’s blog I found some good ones from Maine.  We spent about 2 weeks in Maine in 2010 and took many great pictures of our explorations.  We always get to see, touch and examine many life forms native to that part of the country! 

One of our favorites is when we are in Maine for the Friendship Day celebration.  There is a conservancy organization that comes out with a salt water baby pool full of creatures found by the locals (mostly Lobster –men).

We have held (or touched) lobsters, crabs, horse-shoe crabs, flounder, cod, sea cucumber, star fish, and more than I can remember.  Last year, a lobster-man pulled up while we were there with a yellow lobster – they are super rare!  About 1 in 500,000 are yellow.  It was pretty cool to see such a rare one!

View Full Album

The kids favorite part of Maine is playing in lowtide at the house.   This past year, they took buckets down with them, filled them with a little water and then made their own touch tanks!  Theirs did not vary as much as the one in Friendship, but it was fun!  Mostly they collected hermit crabs, who Uncle Brian taught them to find.

 

 

Maine is our favorite place in the world, aside from home.  We love to see all the fun stuff we find in tide pools, or get to explore along the coast in general!

getting back into a routine

Today we actually went out and did some nature study!

We took our classroom to the pond and sat on the dock with our pencils and our nature journals – here is what I saw

Two boys sitting on the edge of the dock drawing the view

A sweet boy filling in his picture of a deer by the pond

 

Here they are all comfortable adding some color to their pics - 

Here is my quick and simple sketch of the trees behind the pond – I was “helping”

Hope we get into a routine with this nature study – we are sure enjoying our day to day nature study right here in our backyard!

Some more favorites

Most of these were taken by Jacob – a few by mom!  Taken about 2 blocks from our house at the park.