All of the photos above were taken last week on our quest for goldenrod. Turns out after reading up and doing some investigation and actually helping another OH Challenge family to identify a mystery flower, I learned that this is not goldenrod but rather rabbitbrush.
We spent quite a bit of time looking at and comparing photos with our field guide and on Calflora.org. Turns out to be something new to us….Rabbitbrush.
We had a sample of the flower and that really helped us when it got right down to making a firm identification.
We decided to turn to the chrysanthemum for our formal nature study this week and we talked about composite flowers and made a journal entry.
I think we were still successful and learned so much about our local wildflowers. We spent a glorious afternoon on a perfect autumn day together outdoors as a family.
Hat Tip to Alex for the new Flickr tool to make the mosaic with photos. Thanks!
Fiery Skippers in the garden are pretty common this time of the year.
Just as ordinary to our autumn season are the turkeys that wander onto my dad’s property everyday as they make their rounds. Even though they are not my favorite bird, I have come to recognize their beauty…..and also their silliness.
They think if they hold still I can’t see them. They will be as still as statues until some signal goes through the flock and they trot off for cover.
There they go making their little gobbling sounds. Silly turkeys.
Enjoying our gorgeous weather…..perhaps a hike later today.
Trees are such a part of our life and there are quite a few growing in our yard that delight us during the different seasons. In the past, we chose an oak and then the sweet gum tree to study for a complete year.
We talked it over and decided that our new year-long tree study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenges will focus on a Tuliptree in our front yard. I was leaning more towards studying the Chinese pistache that is actually in our neighbor’s yard but so close to the fence line that it might as well be in our yard.
The boys campaigned for the Tulip tree and since the whole point is to get them enthusiastic about a tree, we will go with their choice. The photo above shows the top of the tuliptree and to the right of it is our magnolia. The tuliptree is much taller than any other tree in the front yard and gives us lots of shade in the summer.
We talked about the tree for a few minutes before we headed out the door to spend our Outdoor Hour Challenge time observing our new tree friend. We talked about how the robins like to sing from the top of the tree, how the seeds are like helicopters, and how tall the tree is growing. One son added that he likes the tree but it is one of the biggest producers of leaves and soon it will mean lots of raking and composting. I shared how I remembered the blossoms on the tree and the humming of the bees last spring. We already knew quite a bit about our tree so we were anxious to see if we could learn anything new.
We took photos of our Tulip tree and gathered a few leaves to put into the flower press. A journal entry was made so we can compare with our winter study.
Most of the leaves are shaped like this……
But there were some that were shaped like this……
We were wondering why the leaves on the same tree are shaped so differently…..any guesses?
Many of the leaves have fallen already and there are quite a few turning yellow-orange-brown as well.
This is the fruit that turns to the seeds….great helicopter seeds that fall by the thousands.
How about that bark? It has the fluffy green lichen and the flat bright orange lichen as well.
We actually had a squirrel friend spend some time in our tree this afternoon.
This was a great start to our new tree study and this tree will be easy to keep track of since I can see it from my bedroom window. I love watching the shadows of the branches and leaves on the blinds. It makes a great swishing sound in the summer when the breeze blows and during winter storms it has a sway and a creaking sound as it bends in the wind.
We will try to spend some time this week watching as the leaves start to really fall and before you know it, this tree will be bare. 🙂
I love it when we can mix nature study and art together and this week we found an excellent project to work on together.
The Handbook of Nature Study suggests making leaf prints as a part of studying a tree (Lesson 173). The directions in the book include gasoline and kerosene and I thought there had to be a more modern and easy way to accomplish lovely leaf prints.
We used ink on stamp pads for this project. I have a small collection of colors and we started off with brown. You might try using washable ink pads since your fingers do get a little messy.
You really need to press the leaf firmly onto the ink pad so you probably do not want to use dried up leaves since they will more than likely crumble on your ink pad and leave behind a mess.
After pressing onto the ink pad the leaf doesn’t seem to have a lot of ink on it and I was surprised how beautifully the impression turned out on the paper.
We made a few test prints on scratch paper and then we got busy working in our nature journals. We found that using multiple colors on the leaf made a really nice print.
You can really see the veins and the leaf shape if you press the leaf firmly onto the paper and work carefully so you don’t move it around before lifting it up.
Once you get started you can be a little creative if you have the desire. Wouldn’t it be pretty to have a tree with blue leaves?
We made our prints, added some labels, and now they are securely tucked into our nature journals.
This will be a project we use more often since I like it even better than leaf rubbings. We will be adding an ink pad and a few Wet Ones into our nature pack to use when we are out and about.
This series of challenges has greatly encouraged so many of us to look at the changing season with new eyes.
Goldenrod is a showy yellow flower that is included in the Handbook of Nature Study. Anna Botsford Comstock encourages us to engage our child’s imagination as we hunt for “golden cities” in our neighborhoods. If you do not find any goldenrod, an alternative autumn flower study could be the aster. You will find information in the Handbook of Nature Study on the aster starting on page 506. You could also study the chrysanthemum using Lesson 131 in the Handbook of Nature Study. Chrysanthemums are available in abundance right now at your local garden nursery in a wide variety of colors.
Inside Preparation Work
Read Lesson 132 (pages 503-506) in the Handbook of Nature Study. These few pages will give you some great ideas for sparking your child’s interest in goldenrod. It is suggested to also read through Lesson 131 on Composite Flowers since the goldenrod is a perfect example of a composite flower to study. Use the illustrations on page 505 to help your children understand a little better what you are looking for as far as disc and ray flowers. (If you still have a sunflower blooming, you can also use it to demonstrate a composite flower.)
Outdoor Activity
Take a “field excursion” to look for goldenrod. In my research I discovered that there are over a hundred species of goldenrod in North America and they can be found in meadows, pastures, and alongside roads and in ditches. Their brilliant yellow color will alert you to their little “golden cities”.
The Handbook of Nature Study suggests on page 506 to notice where you found the goldenrod growing. Did you find more than one kind of goldenrod? How many insects did you find visiting the goldenrod’s flowers? Did you find any galls growing on the goldenrod?
Anna Botsford Comstock says to not worry so much about identifying a particular species since they are difficult to distinguish.
If it is appropriate, choose one sample to take home for further study during your follow-up time. I made a simple nature notebook pagefor you to use if you wish.
If you are studying an aster or a chrysanthemum for this challenge, I urge you to still read about the goldenrod and take the outdoor time with your children to enjoy the season. There is an Aster Nature Study here on my blog for more ideas.
Follow-Up Activity
Allow time for discussion and a nature journal entry. If you were able to bring home a sample of goldenrod, take the time now to really look for the parts that are discussed in the Handbook of Nature Study. Use Lesson 132 on page 505 to guide your detailed observations of the flower heads. There are suggestions for sketches within the lesson.
If you have a membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you can use the Autumn Photo Project activity in the printables section of your membership along with your autumn goldenrod study. Print the page out and take a camera along with you to snap a few of the suggested nature photos. This will keep your whole family involved as you take a walk together.
This is the version of the Handbook of Nature Study that I recommend using along with the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Please note this is an affiliate link to Amazon for a book that my family owns and has used for over a decade.
We took a long walk today to enjoy the last of the hot afternoons…we know they will be coming to an end soon. Here are a few things I want to share from our day.
This is a sure sign that autumn is coming quickly. The aspens are beginning to change color and the wind makes them shimmer and shake.
The Kokanee salmon are spawning and their green and red color is brilliant in the clear creek water.
The creek is very shallow and the salmon come here to lay their eggs and die. This becomes a habitat for eagles and bears and ducks this time of year. Can you guess why?
If you click this photo it will enlarge and you will see the outline of a bear at the bottom of the photo among the trees. She was on the other side of the creek sharing a salmon with her baby. We gave her a lot of space and the few of us that were there snapped a few photos and left her in peace.
The whole afternoon was picture postcard perfect.
The Pussy Paws are golden and the Rabbitbrush is golden and the pines are green and the sky is blue……where are my paints?
This was a great afternoon and I feel so refreshed.
This week’s challenge is a continuation of an annual tree study for some of you but a new challenge for many.
Our family is going to be choosing a new tree to observe and get to know from our backyard. I prefer for my boys to pick a deciduous tree so there will be lots of changes to observe, but you are welcome to choose any tree that you and your children are interested in getting to know better.
Inside Preparation Work
Read the section in the Handbook of Nature Study discussing seasonal tree work. You will find it on pages 622-626. This week the challenge includes making a seasonal observation of a tree. Lesson 172 on page 623 includes five suggestions for studying your tree during autumn. If you are just joining the challenges, pick a tree from your yard, your street, or a near-by park to observe over the course of the next year. I would suggest printing out the Seasonal Tree Notebook Page and taking it with you so you have the option to complete it during your outdoor time.
Outdoor Time
Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to choose a tree to observe over the next year. You can take photos of your tree to put in your nature journal or you can sketch the tree in your journal. You may also choose to complete the Seasonal Tree Notebook Page during your outdoor time.
Follow-Up Activity
Allow your child a few minutes to tell you about their outdoor experience. Talk about the tree you chose to observe for you seasonal tree study. Check in the Handbook of Nature Study to see if your tree is listed there and make sure to do the reading about that particular tree over the next few weeks. There should be some suggestions for observations that you can follow. File your page away so you can compare it during your next Seasonal Tree Study.
We are hoping to take some time to go walking and find a tree to study this week. The photo above was taken a couple of years ago and it reminds me of the warm autumn day we had hiking and taking in the fall color of the aspen trees.
This is what it really is all about for our family-building memories and experiences that shape who we are and how we feel about our Creator.
This is an affiliate link to a product I have used and highly recommend.
We went on a search for cattails and we found that we have two different areas of cattails within walking distance of our house. We decided that we could cut one cattail to bring home to closely observe. I was surprised at how “into” finding the cattails the boys became once we got started.
Another place that we found cattails was along the walking trail we frequent every week. These were much taller than the others and I think this will be the spot we observe over the next year.
There was a little water in the ditch where we found our cattails but not much. It was more like a muddy puddle than anything else.
Here is a close-up of the flower spike and right now it feels like velvet. The boys were surprised at how soft and fuzzy it was to the touch. We talked about what we learned from our pre-study and how the cattail is edible. We all decided that we would like to try eating it someday……something to plan for the future.
My sons were content to complete the notebook page with photos but I was inspired as so many others are by the simple beauty of this plant that we so often don’t take the time to appreciate. I pulled out my watercolors and made a quick painting for my nature journal. I found a tutorial in a watercolor book that I have on the shelf that showed how to add stippling with a pen once the paints are dry. I love the way it adds a little detail to the cattail.
This was a perfect way to start off our Autumn Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges.
A few weeks ago I wrote about finding something extraordinary in the ordinary as far as things we see in our own backyard and in our own neighborhoods. We have done some follow-up work on our five subjects and I wanted to share a little about what we learned and didn’t learn. 🙂
Morning Glory (Handbook of Nature Study page 519 reference to twining)
We learned that it is closely related to the sweet potato. It is called a morning glory since the blossoms only last one day. It grows in just about any soil, doesn’t like too much moisture, and will thrive in full sun.
I love the way the vine curls up the poles and then into the trees.
Alligator Lizard (reference and photo of alligator lizard and fence lizard, Handbook of Nature Study, pages 210-211)
We did some research on our alligator lizard but guess what? We saw an even bigger and more glorious lizard last week.
How is that for a lizard? I love his feet!
I think he might be a Northwestern Fence Lizard which we have had in our backyard before but he also may be a Sierra Fence Lizard. He has lots of color on his back and we have always just called these guys “blue bellies”. I am not definite about who exactly he is but still enjoyed observing him with his wonderfully long toes on his feet and his inquisitive eye.
We learned from reading on different websites that lizards can have ticks! That is something we definitely did not know before and for some reason we all found it very interesting.
This is an older journal entry my son did for a lizard we had in the backyard. He incorporated a photo and a sketch. We did some additional research this week on the alligator lizard and found that there are several species that live in our area. Now we are not sure which one we have so during our next encounter we will know more in detail what to look for.
Caterpillar (Handbook of Nature Study -lots of caterpillar info. We used page 299 for a drawing in our nature journal.)
We had no luck with figuring out what kind of caterpillar we saw on the sidewalk under our Sweet Gum tree. You would think that with its bright colors and outstanding horns and markings that we could find it somewhere in our field guide or online. Nope. We will be keeping our eyes open to see if we can observe more about these creatures right outside our back door.
Hummingbirds (Handbook of Nature Study section on hummingbirds starts on page 115)
We were still not able to figure out our dark headed hummingbird from a few weeks ago. We have been watching the feeder but the regular hummers are keeping it busy. Anna’s Hummingbirds are very common at our feeders all summer long and then even over the winter. We learned that they are *not* migratory which is really interesting since it gets very cold here in the winter and we even have snow. Where do they live when the weather is bad in the winter? You can be sure we will be keeping our eyes open to answer that question.
We have been working on taking photos of the birds in sports mode and we get much better photos…a tad bit clearer.
After some research and online digging, I think we have identified our migratory black headed hummer as a Black-chinned Hummingbird. I looked at the migratory map on WhatBird.com and it looks like it is highly likely it could be just this bird. Here is more on their migration.
We read some more about this regular to the feeder, or more specifically…under the feeder. They always come in a pair. What is interesting is that the map does not show that we should have these birds but we have them year round in our yard. The other thing that is interesting is that the maps show that we should have Spotted Towhees all year but we don’t during the summer. Hmmm….don’t know what that means but it is interesting.
We also learned that California Towhees are sometimes called “car birds” since they like to run and hide under parked cars. We have actually witnessed this behavior several times and think it is quite funny. They also will sit on car mirrors and “fight” their own image. We have not seen that behavior but it wouldn’t surprise us.
Our Fabulous Five Ordinary Things
That wraps up our fabulous five ordinary things that we looked more closely at from our yard. This was a great exercise and we will be certain to do it again.
Woke up this morning feeling a little sad about the end of summer.
I am going to miss…..
Summer hikes in the National Parks……
My gigantic sunflowers and participating in the Great Sunflower Project, sitting quietly watching for bees.
Crazy games of volleyball in the park with friends…even in the rain.
Hikes with the boys looking for Big Foot in the redwoods.
Lunchtime walks at the river with our swimmer dog Kona.
I am even going to miss the hot summer afternoons and garden tending.
The Oregon Coast-camping, hiking, photographing, exploring, sitting peacefully in the sand, hiking in the trees, identifying mushrooms, observing banana slugs, and dodging rain….all of those things made such great memories this year.
Freshly cut grass and crepe myrtle blooms in the warm summer evenings….usually with accompanying bats flying overhead.
I will just need to find some things to fill me up during this autumn season. I will challenge myself to find the best parts of this season.
