Barb, Author at Homeschool Nature Study

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

July Wildflowers and Another Nest

I was clearing my camera and decided to include a few photos from our explorations this month so far.

New yellow wildflower. I think this is Hooker’s Evening Primrose.

New purple wildflower. I am still working on identifying this one.

Crimson Columbine.

Large Tiger lily.

No kidding, it is as large as my palm.

Osprey nest on the top of this dead tree…see it up there made out of sticks?

Here is a link to the sound that was coming from this nest:
All About Birds: Osprey
As we were standing there, the mama or daddy osprey flew in and dropped a fish from the lake into the nest and then it flew away. All was quiet again.

Just a few photos to keep track of some of the things we have experienced while outdoors this month.

Hubby surprised me with this new field guide. I haven’t had a chance to really look into it deeply but it looks very, very good. I will post a review soon.

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Barb — 7 Comments

Garden Goodies-Full Disclosure

My husband read my last garden post and was a little disappointed that I did not share some more of the successes we have had from our yard.

So, here are some photos of the things we have enjoyed.

We had a few carrots hidden in the flower garden. I don’t remember planting them but there they were when I went to do my weeding. Bonus!

We have been having fresh bruschetta with tomatoes and basil from the garden. I love it with pita chips.

Our tomatoes are slow going this year but there have been a few to enjoy with the promise of more to come.

These have been good performers from the deck container garden. I really wish I liked cherry tomatoes more but my husband eats them like candy.

The blackberries are coming regularly now and every time I do the watering I eat a handful. I mixed these in with some peaches and made a blackberry/peach cobbler….talk about yum.

Okay now my husband will be happy. He also says to say that we have had figs by the bagful from our tree, so many we have had to share them with our neighbors. There are a few apples, loads of purple plums, seedless grapes, and a full crop of walnuts to come later in the season.

I also remembered that we already dried oregano and dill from the garden. We also have had quite a few onions and I am ready to pull up another round this week to dry and store in the pantry.

He is going to keep me completely honest…thanks honey.

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Barb — 4 Comments

Quail’s Nest

I forgot that I took these photos a few weeks ago of some quail’s egg shells in a nest. The nest was right on a bank outside a friend’s house in the dry grass on the ground. Amazing that no one saw it until now.

There were so many little egg shells and they are so pretty and speckled. We were not sure whether it looked like the eggs had hatched or not….they do have three foxes that frequent their property. Would foxes eat the whole egg or just break it open and eat what is inside?

We came home and looked up to make sure they belonged to a quail:
California Quail
We learned that a nest can have as many as 28 eggs! The nest is usually in a shallow depression on the ground and lined with grasses and other vegetation, usually 5-7 inches across.

We have quail in our yard sometimes but I have never seen a nest before.

There is always something new to see if you keep your eyes wide open.

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Raptors of the Night-Owls: Summer Series #5

As much as we tried over the past few months to observe an owl up close, we just were not able to make it happen this time around. We are hoping to at least hear some owls when we go on our next camping trip to Yosemite National Park in a few weeks. We heard Western screech owls last year. Don’t you think they sound like bouncing rubber balls?

We listened to Western Screech Owls, Great Horned Owls, and Spotted Owls online as part of this challenge. We rarely see owls but we do hear them frequently in our part of the world.

We took the challenge to dissect an owl pellet. One of my sons was eager and the other one was not so eager to complete this activity. The mood changed once we got started and they each ended up learning quite a bit about owls from this activity.

(Maybe we should have found some smaller gloves.)

We each had our own pellet to dissect and I decided I am not very good at this sort of thing. I am not a “detail” sort of person so this was a frustrating activity. In the end, I let the boys finish my pellet. The boys on the other hand were awesome at this activity. I was amazed at the minute bones they were able to extract from the mass of fur.

We all think we had mole and mouse bones in our pellets and we each found skulls and jaws with teeth.

Now that was interesting to me! Little tiny jaws with tiny little teeth!

There were amazing amounts of bones in each little pellet.

Although this was not a challenge where we were able to see the owls in person or even hear them in the night, we learned so much from our reading, online research, and the dissection. We are all looking forward to being on the lookout for both hearing the owls and seeing owl pellets during nature walks.

“Owls and hawks are predators that have an ecological relationship with each other. This means that whereas owls hunt predominantly at night, hawks fill their niche during the day. Both birds hunt similar prey species.”
Discover Nature at Sundown, page 49.

Just one interesting thing we have been thinking about: There is a cycle of raptor activity-owls at night and other raptors like hawks and falcons during the day. There is always some sort of raptor activity going on in the woods. Fascinating.

Whose-Awake-Me-Too…..hopefully we hear a little of that call on our camping trip this time.

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Garden Update: Just Not a Great Year So Far

I wouldn’t quite say the garden is disappointing but it is far less productive than in recent years. Could it be the weather? Too cold and wet early on? Too hot now? I know I was committed to having a smaller garden this year so it may just be that I have become accustomed to having more of everything and this scaled back garden is what it is.

The zucchini is blossoming but nothing to eat so far. This bee was so heavy with pollen he could hardly move. I have never seen so much pollen.

Our sunflowers for the Great Sunflower Project are just now blooming so we will have the opportunity to count bees and participate in that activity this week. The bees are far more busy in other parts of the garden.

Our butterfly and hummingbird garden is a hub of activity. Swooping hummingbirds, buzzing bees, and perching finches grab your attention whenever you are outside in the backyard.

Rainbows of colors fill the flower beds now that the day lilies, coneflowers, bee balm, and roses are blooming all at the same time.

Some crazy pretty day lilies in the butterfly garden.

Most likely my new favorite flower in the garden this year is this bee balm.

Sometimes you just capture the best moments purely by chance. I was taking a photo of this butterfly bush and the bee came along and entered the shot. Pretty cool huh?

The crepe myrtles are starting to burst out in color this week. We love this bush so much that we planted three more in our front yard last fall…so easy to grow, brilliantly colored when they bloom.

Another new to us plant in our garden is this Dusty Miller. Here are the colorful buds.

This is the shape of the leaf…amazing and beautiful.

So as you can see, the veggie garden is not all that exciting but the flowers are making up for it. Hopefully my next update will be filled with yummy delicious things to eat.

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Barb — 4 Comments

Follow Up To My Summer Hikes Post

As a follow-up to my post on summer hiking and finding places that are an hour from your home, I wanted to give some tips to finding places to go close to your home. My local area is unique but so is yours and perhaps you need some help finding those interesting places that will inspire you to take a few hikes with your family. Arm yourself with some information.

I did some research on Amazon and found that if you type in some particular words you can find some great ideas for books for your family just about anywhere you live.

Type in the search box on Amazon.com:

Easy Day Hikes _______ (with your state instead of the blank)
Best Day Hikes ________ (with your state instead of the blank)
Day Hike ____________(with your closest National Park instead of the blank)
Fodor’s __________(with your state or region of the the US like Southwest or Northwest)
Moon Handbooks ____________(with your state, region, or national park instead of the blank)
Hiking ___________(with your state, region, or national park…this one will get you a lot more choices and can be overwhelming)

Another tip that I will pass on is to go to Barnes and Noble and look for their travel guide section. Browse and pick out a guide book to your own state and/or local area. Be like a tourist and read the guide book to discover more about your own locality. I actually keep the California Fodor’s book in the pocket of the door in my car. I refer to it when we are looking for local attractions for day trips and to know times and prices of places we are interested in visiting.

Of course, you can just look things up on the internet, although when I am out and about it is reassuring to have a map and some directions in my pack as a back up. I do lots of research online, but I feel better having a book describing the hikes when we head out the door. At the very least, we carry a map of the area where we are hiking. I could write a whole post about bad maps and books and trail markers but I will save that for another time. 🙂

You can look up your state in this index of national forests:
http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/map/state_list.shtml
Using a Google search you can also type “national forest ______”, replacing the blank with your state.

I sincerely hope these tips help you find some interesting places to go with your family.

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Summer Weather-OHC #3 Sunrise/Sunset Observations

We have been working on this challenge for a couple of weeks. What an amazing way to learn more about the summer season! We have never taken the time to actually note where the sun sets at different times of the year. We are now more keenly aware of the direction and the making of a landmark to keep track from week to week.

We are not able to see the horizon in any direction from our house. We live on a hill, there are too many trees, and even though it is not a crowded neighborhood, we do have near-by houses that obstruct the view. We decided we could still pick a spot on the front deck to observe the sunrises and a different spot on the back deck to observe the sunsets.

This challenge made us more aware of the everyday event that happens outside our door…far too early at this time of the year. The sunrise is much more north than I thought it should be. We have all watched the spot and agree that it is not where we expected it to be. We had to get up rather early a few times to discover the landmark but now we have it fixed. This morning there were beautiful clouds that made the day a little cooler to start off with. There were actually a few light sprinkles of rain early in the morning. By noon though, it was hot and humid, granted not a Texas humid but a California humid.

The sunsets are so wonderful from our deck now that we have a few trees missing. Although we can not see the horizon from where we are located, we noted from a particular spot on the deck where the sun goes down. It sets just to the left of our back shop’s peak.

The other weather related “project” we have been working on this summer is to note the build up of thunderheads over the Sierra in the afternoons. Many times we can look out about noon and see the beginnings of a cloud bank and then by mid afternoon we notice the spectacular clouds in the distance. Most of the time we don’t experience anything from the clouds because they are so far away. We did have a little sheet lightning the other evening which is always interesting to watch.

I took this photo last night when we were out for a sunset drive. This is facing east so the pink sunset is reflecting in the thunderheads. Sure wish all those utility lines were not in the photo.

One last observation to share:
Sunrise: 64 degrees and 47% humidity.
Noon: 96 degrees and 46% humidity.
Sunset: 83 degrees and 38% humidity.

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Barb — Leave a comment

Summer Tree-OHC #2 Our Summer Tulip Tree Study

Tulip Tree or Yellow Poplar Tree

We have been observing the tulip tree very closely and I shared the blossoms a few weeks ago when we had the complete tree covered in blooms. Now it is mostly big yellow-green leaves that provide abundant shade on the front of our house.

There is a mockingbird that frequents the tree early in the morning to sing us a song. It is a nice way to wake up, with the leaves silhouetted on the window blinds and the sound of bird song in the air.

My son noticed that the bark has some moss on it still even in the heat. There were ants on the trunk as well. There were no bees visible, but we know when the tree is blooming it is alive with bees.

Here are our nature journals which this time we decided to use photos instead of drawing. It makes a quick and easy journal that looks really nice.

I opted to add a photo to my nature journal from last month when the tree was blooming.

My son’s journal has a photo of the tree as well. He made a list of his observations and then added a photo to make a very easy nature journal entry.

This entry completes our full circle for the year:

Autumn Entry

Winter Entry

Spring Entry

It hardly seems possible that we have gone all through the seasons with our tree already. This is such a great way to learn more about what is right in our own yard. We have started to think about what tree we will observe next….oh the possibilities!

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Summer is For Hiking

I really mean to post our Outdoor Hour Challenges but somehow I just keep getting distracted. I am avoiding too much work this week because it feels like the summer sort of thing to do.

Hiking is our activity of choice these days when we have family time. The boys are old enough now that we can take some fairly decent day hikes and enjoy some awesome Sierra landscapes. Wake up, pack a lunch, and lace on your hiking shoes….out the door.

Last week we took the one hour trip over the mountain to the Cascade Falls trailhead. We had two choices…the falls or Desolation Wilderness. Since this was a day hike we opted for the easy mile and a half, out and back trail to the falls.

You actually hike to the top of the falls and look down over Lake Tahoe.

It was not too hot so we decided to find a place and just enjoy the scenery. The sound of the falls, the blue Sierra sky, and the warm air is so refreshing and worth the effort to get there.

It always amazes me that anything can grow on these giant slabs of granite. They seem to find little cracks and spaces to hold fast to like this wildflower at the top of the falls. In the top right of the photo you can catch a glimpse of the lake and how high we are up on the waterfall.

This past weekend we took another one hour drive in a different direction and ended up at Woods Lake. A short, short hike around the lake takes you to a small but pleasant waterfall.

We let the boys blaze the trail back and at some points there was a lot of scurrying over rocks. They always assure me that it is “easy”. They forget that I am getting a little old to scramble over rocks and to jump down from logs.

Yes, that is snow. There were actually still numerous spots around this high altitude lake that still had snow.

The rest of the afternoon my husband and I were planted firmly in chairs on the side of this gorgeous lake. I did some watercoloring in my nature journal and he took a little snooze. Perfect.

The boys didn’t sit still very long and they were lured around the opposite side of the lake for a little more exploring. Let’s just say that shoes got wet on this little outing. 🙂

We found a long time ago that we can explore so many different places by using a simple idea. Take a map and place a big dot on your home town. Now determine an hour’s distance from your home and draw a circle around your home at that distance. Make a list of all the places you can go that are within that hour’s distance and then start one by one giving them a try. We have been following this concept for over a decade and it always amazes us what we can find to do that is within that short distance range.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Author: Barb