Barb, Author at Homeschool Nature Study

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Barb — 1 Comment

Nature Goals 2019 – 2nd Quarter Update

2^nd Quarter Update

Use the Outdoor Hour Challenge topics to stimulate my interest in my local habitat and help to build my skills as a naturalist. I have been faithfully following the Outdoor Hour Challenge but I have not been as good about posting my results here on the blog. I do lots of research and preparation work during the week leading up to each challenge and then sort of fall flat on writing about it. Perhaps a good addition to this goal would be to post at least on blog entry per month sharing what we learned in completing the weekly Outdoor Hour Challenges.
Keep a detailed record of my nature observations. I’m still going strong with my observations in my daily journal, the five year journal, and my personal nature journal. I have learned a lot about our habitat by comparing this year’s details with last year’s records. It helps me see patterns and then anticipate when something will bloom or the arrival of a particular bird. In general, things are much later in the season this year, our temperatures are much cooler, and there has been far more rainfall.
Hiking and Kayaking. Our hiking and kayaking have ramped up for the season. There have three kayak trips and numerous short hikes. We hiked a new trail from La Pine State Park to Fall River which is mostly through the evergreen forest but also a little along the Deschutes River. We also hiked a favorite trail at Smith Rock State Park (making a note to write a blog entry about this awesome state park).
Read nature related books this year. I’m enjoying a new book featuring insects of the Pacific Northwest. I am also working my way through the book, Nature Walks by Claire Leslie Walker.

As noted in my Nature Observer post for June 2019, I am spending a lot of time outdoors while the weather is warmer and things are growing and visiting in my yard. It seems like every effort I make to be outdoors is rewarded with an interesting discovery.

Note for 2020: Next year I am going to make it a goal to plant more seeds earlier indoors, perhaps in a green house, so that I can get a jump on the growing season here in Central Oregon. The seeds we did put in pots early are doing fantastic and we are beginning to see the fruits of our labor. This goal may dovetail into another goal to increase the bird and butterfly friendly areas of our yard.

Did you make nature goals this year? How are doing at achieving those goals?

These are Amazon affiliate links to books I own and love.

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge Summer Willow Year-Long Study

We’re coming up to our fourth and final willow tree study in our Year-Long Tree Study. Take some time this week to revisit your willow tree and make your summertime observations. You may wish to pull out your autumn, winter, and/or springtime observations to make some comparisons.

If this is the first time you’re studying a willow, follow the link to the challenge in the archives for suggestions to get started. All of the previous season’s studies are listed below for your convenience.

Link to the challenges in the archives:

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Summer Willow Study

The Summer Willow study is found in the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook. If you have access to this ebook in your Ultimate or Journey level membership, make sure to print out the notebook page that goes along with this challenge.

You’ll also find a complete list of tree nature study lessons (for every tree in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock) here on this link.

Links to prior season’s Outdoor Hour Challenges:

Autumn Willow Nature Study

Winter Willow Nature Study

Spring Willow Nature Study

Don’t have a willow?

Complete a summer tree study for any tree you found during your outdoor time.

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Barb — Leave a comment

July Printables for Members – Rock Set #1

Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:

Rock Set #1 Notebooking Pages

Rock Set #1 Notebook Pages: This set of five new notebooking pages for your nature journal is perfect for recording your research notes and sketches for each rock. Topics included: Pyrite, obsidian, coal, hematite, and chalk.

(See the end of this post for more information on how you can become a member.)

Note: If you have any subjects you would like me to create nature notebook pages for, please let me know in a comment here on the blog or in an email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.

Use the discount code NATURE5 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership!

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Summer Wildflowers!

It’s that time of year again! Wildflower season is upon us and it may just be the topic that your children will really enjoy as you take your summer nature walks. Who can help but notice the colors of summer when they start to bloom? Every habitat has something to offer before the season passes.

Use the ideas in the link below to take a closer look at a few of your wildflowers of summer. After you make some observations, you can create a nature journal page for each flower. Keep your study simple and fun this summer and you’ll be sure to make some fond wildflower memories for your children.

Link to the challenges in the archives:

Asters, Daisies, and Black Eyed Susans

Queen Anne’s Lace

You’ll also find a complete list of wildflower nature study lessons (for every flower in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock) here on this link.

In addition, you can use any of the three Outdoor Hour Challenge wildflower ebooks to learn more about wildflowers not included in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock.

You may also be interested in reading this entry that features wildflowers and nature study:

Wildflowers to Love

Amazon link to Handbook of Nature Study

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Barb — 2 Comments

Our First Day of Summer 2019

I decided to observe the first day of summer by taking a tour of our yard to look for interesting things to note. First of all, the temperatures have been cool again…really cool at 33 degrees when I get up in the morning. I haven’t lost any of our plants yet to the cold temperatures so I’m hoping they will continue to grow.

Our transplanted sunflowers are looking good in their new box. I think we may have over planted but my husband just can’t bear to thin the seedlings. I’m dreaming of the colorful flowers to come. The only thing to be concerned about are the deer that may somehow get inside our fence and eat the flowers like they’re at a salad bar. It’s happened before!

I don’t think I have mentioned that the sunflowers we are growing come from Renee’s Garden. I have once again received some complimentary seeds from them to use in my garden.

Chocolate Cherry Sunflowers

Van Gogh Sunflowers

Birds and Bees Sunflowers

I also have a container filled with Junior Sunflowers.

I will share my results once they flower!

We’re blessed with an abundance and variety of wildflowers in our yard this year. Partly because we have kept the deer out and mostly because I convinced my husband to let a few areas just grow wildly. This has revealed a number of plants we didn’t know we had growing along the edges like the penstemon, the goosefoot violets, and the salsify.

Along with the increase in flowers, there are many more insects to observe. Right now there’s an insect that is rolling itself up in our aspen tree leaves.

We have ground squirrels that are burrowing into our landscaping berms. They are trying to tunnel their way over to the birdfeeder. Our dogs then take the opportunity to dig the tunnels out and chase the squirrels away. This is a problem because they unearth so many of our newly planted flowers in the process. I’m trying to resolve this problem without harming any flora or fauna.

The babies are all hatching in our nests and nesting boxes. There have been a few casualties along the way but I think for the most part the birds are thriving and it has been a successful year of supporting the birds in our habitat.

On a more serious note, we almost had a tragedy involving our puppy and mushrooms growing in our yard. We didn’t realize we had any mushrooms until I started looking carefully when Sierra started acting strangely. She was stumbling around, very agitated, and drooling. I found the mushroom near where she had dug up a small tree stump in our backyard. We rushed her to the vet’s and they were able to get her stabilized with fluids and oxygen. They tried to induce vomiting but were not successful. But, in the end, after a long and scary night, she came out the other side and seems to be recovering. We were very relieved that we caught it in time to get her help and that she’s a strong, healthy puppy.

PLEASE check your yard for mushrooms. Doing more research on this topic, I’ve learned that mushrooms are a common cause of poisoning for dogs. You can bet I will be mighty vigilant from now on and pluck any mushrooms up and throw them away as soon as I see them.

We’re looking out over the next couple months with anticipation for all the summer things we want to do while the weather is warm.

What did you do for the first day of summer?

Here’s a link to the original challenge for many ideas and printables to use as part of your early summer weather study: Outdoor Hour Challenge – Summer Weather

Posted on June 24, 2019 by Barb — 4 Comments

Nature Observer – June 2019

In complete honesty, I’ve spent every available minute this month outdoors enjoying the beauty and unexpected variety of life that seems to have been drawn to our yard. It’s very true that if you create a natural space that provides shelter, food, and water, the living creatures will come to visit.

Birds – over 20 kinds!

Insects – mostly bees, butterflies, mosquitoes, snakeflies, gnats, and ants

Amphibians – frogs and toads

Mammals – elk, deer, ground squirrels, Douglas squirrels, gray squirrels, bats

Arthropods – a variety of spiders

The effort to create an inviting environment for nature to come to us has been worth every minute and achy muscle. We’re excited to see what the rest of the summer brings to us!

Here are some nature highlights from our month.

We started the month off with a family paddle down the Little Deschutes River. The sky was amazing! It doesn’t get much better than this when you’re out for a smooth water ride: the wildflowers were blooming, the birds were visible (including about a hundred cliff swallows), and the river all to ourselves.

Everywhere I looked this month I spotted a colorful wildflower. I’m keeping a list in my nature journal of all the flowers we see and it’s getting rather long. My favorite flower of the month is the wild blue iris. The meadow behind our house came alive with irises for about a week. They stand just above the grass so it looks like a sea of lavender-purple.

As I have shared here before, we don’t live in a place that is highly favorable for growing a traditional vegetable garden. Instead, I’ve opted to grow fast germinating flowers and some potted herbs. Everything is starting to really shoot up with our warmer weather and I’m anxious to see how they fare over the next few months.

We’ve been busy transplanting native plants to our newly created garden berms. Each time I find a good candidate, I try to observe the growing conditions so that I can put the transplant where it has a good chance of taking hold. I’ve moved lupine, salsify, violets, columbine, and grasses. It’s all a great experiment to see what does well and what we can move in the future.

I’ve observed so many pollinators this month in our garden! Mostly bees, but also butterflies have come to land on our flowers. This is a great success for us because we’re thinking a lot about the design of the different areas of our yard to be more pollinator friendly.

On that note, here’s an image of our freshly sprouted wildflower garden that we seeded a few weeks ago. We’re taking a gamble that we can get these plants established before the fall frosts come. If we are successful, this should reseed itself each year.

Let me set the record straight. I am not a fisherman. But, I am married to one. This month the season opened on our river behind our house and we were out there several evenings walking and fishing. We had all the boys with us on one of those nights and that was the night my husband caught THE biggest rainbow trout we have ever seen. Look at my hubby’s face…joy! In the spirit of fair play, he released this big daddy back into the river to live a little longer. This is why I love him so very much….he knows the nature lover in me admired that fish’s beauty and freedom more than I would have a few delicious bites of trout.

Now for a couple of pages from my nature journal.

There are so many wildflowers growing on our property this year after the rains of May and early June.

I could call this the “super bird list” since it has so many birds and the addition of a new bird to add to our life list.

I’ve been eager to spot a porcupine in the habitat behind our house but have been unsuccessful so far. But, we have seen two dead porcupines on the road near our house. I stopped to look at one of them up close since he wasn’t run over but just bumped. This was a first for me to see a real porcupine this intimately and to see the quills and the fur. My admiration grew for porcupines after learning about their unique features and then having the opportunity to see one in real life. This is how advanced preparation is beneficial!

Are you following me on Instagram?

Are you eager to see the new year plan for the Outdoor Hour challenge for 2019-2020? I’m going to be posting a blog entry soon that outlines the plans for the next two years. If you subscribe to my blog, you won’t miss it!

Use the discount code SUMMER5 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership. This will give you access to all of the ebooks, newsletter, and printables available only to members. Your membership is good for one year from the time of purchase. Don’t wait until September to purchase your membership!

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Barb — Leave a comment

Spring 2019 Bird List

I’ve been posting on my Instagram account (outdoorhourchallenge) the monthly list of birds we observe from our window and in our backyard. But, it appears I haven’t really talked about our bird visitors for some time here on the blog. So in conjunction with or instead of the Baltimore oriole nature study from last week, I’ll be sharing some of our bird stories and the list too!

As you can see from the list, we had a huge variety of birds visit during the month of May.

Birds that Visit the Feeders

Northern flicker
House finches – They are seen in the feeder but also on the lawn as they eat the puffs of dandelion seeds that get left behind by the mower.
California scrub jays
Red-winged blackbirds
Pygmy nuthatches
Mountain chickadees – We have two nesting boxes with chickadee nests. I saw a mama bird fly out of the box, land on the sidewalk, pick up some ants, and then fly back up to the nest. What a good mama!
Yellow-headed blackbirds – I’ve learned the sort of mechanical sound of these colorful birds that will sit high up in our pine trees. They visit the feeder occasionally. Here’s a link to what they sound like: All About Birds.
Evening grosbeaks
Western bluebirds – We have a nesting box full of bluebirds in our yard!
Black-headed grosbeaks
Hairy woodpeckers
Steller’s jays
Western tanager – This is a new bird to our list! It’s such a beautiful and colorful bird that appeared one morning. Then, by afternoon, we had 5 males and 2 females at our feeders. I haven’t seen them in a few weeks so I guess they have moved on.
Rufous hummingbirds – They seem to have come and gone. I anticipate that they’ll return again soon.

Birds that Eat under the Feeders

Mourning doves
Brewer’s blackbirds
American robins – We have a nest up on our bbq shed. The mama very dutifully sits on the nest day after day. I looked it up and incubation is 12-14 days so she must be getting close to hatching the babies.
White-crowned sparrows
Dark-eyed juncos
California quail

Birds that Fly By

Tree swallows – There is a swallow nest in one of our nesting boxes. I love watching the swallows fly and dive and swoop in my yard as they eat mosquitoes! I wish they would eat them all!
Osprey
Snipe
Canada goose
Mallard ducks – There’s a duck family with about a dozen babies on the pond behind our house. There is nothing sweeter than a little duckling.
Common raven
Turkey vultures
Great blue herons – We observed three herons flying behind our house a few nights ago. That’s a record number of heron being seen all at one time.
Cooper’s hawk – He is a fierce predator and we’ve seen him chasing birds from our feeder several times. He is fast and flies so agilely.

Is your family looking for a resource to use to learn more about your backyard birds? You should take a look at my Learning About Birds ebook that is available to both Ultimate and Journey level members here on the Handbook of Nature Study.

Here are the specifics:

This 65 page digital ebook has 8 challenges and supplemental activities that will help you learn more about your local birds using the Handbook of Nature Study as well as the book, Backyard Birds. (See the Amazon.com store for the bird related resources.)
There are 6 notebooking pages included in the ebook. Two of these are general bird study pages that can be printed multiple times to meet your family’s needs.
Full color photos of every bird included in the ebook.
Additional information on birdfeeders, bird seed, nature table ideas, life lists, field guide help, and online identification.
There is enough material in this ebook to provide 8 weeks of bird study or more depending on how long you take to complete each challenge. Every challenge has more than one bird – see list of birds included below.
The ebook contains a chart that links every bird discussed in the Handbook of Nature Study (the book) to a challenge here on the website. This chart will help you find the bird challenges found in other OHC ebooks as well as the corresponding notebooking pages (if available).
Sample: Print your ebook sample here: Learning About Birds from the Outdoor Hour Challenge.

Use the discount code BIRDLOVER5 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study.

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge Summer Bird Study – Baltimore Oriole

Note: If you’re on the west coast, look for the Bullock’s oriole for your study instead. Information and a link are in the original challenge in the archive post linked below.

You can also substitute the How to Learn Bird Songs and Calls activity linked in the original study.

The Baltimore oriole is a gorgeous bird! I’ve never seen one in person, but someday I hope to see one during my travels. This is one reason we can study birds or other nature topics we don’t expect to find in our local area. Gathering facts and knowledge ahead of time prepares us for the time we stumble upon something new or unexpected.

Click the link below to see the original challenge in the archives or if you’re a member here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you can open the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook (linked below) for the lesson, the notebook pages, and the images.

Baltimore oriole image from Fishhawk

Would you like some fun facts about Baltimore orioles? Here’s a link to Wild Birds Unlimited: Baltimore Orioles.

Link to the Archive Challenge: Baltimore Oriole

Baltimore oriole nest from synspectrum

Both the bird and the nest would make awesome subjects for a nature journal page. This challenge can also be all about differences in bird nests using the links in the original challenge.

If you want to purchase the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook so you can follow along with all the notebooking pages, coloring pages, and subject images, you can join the Ultimate or Journey Membership Levels. See the Join Us page for complete information. Also, you can view the Summer Nature Study Continues – New Ebook announcement page for more details.

Use the discount code SUMMER5 for $5 off your Ultimate Naturalist Library membership and you’ll have access to the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook and the Brook and Stream Nature Study notebook page along with 20 other ebooks and many, many more printables!

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Summer Caddisfly Nature Study

What is a caddisfly? Use this challenge to learn about a creature you may have in your local area and you just never noticed it before!

The caddisfly larvae (caddisworms) will be found in creeks, ponds, and streams.

Image of a caddisfly case attribution to S. Rae

Image of Caddisfly attribution to Katja Schulz

Adult caddisflies are moth-like creatures that will be attracted to light in the evenings.

Watch this video to create some interest: Deep Look-The Amazing Underwater Tape of the Caddisfly. Note: this video has references to evolution.

The Outdoor Hour Challenge for caddisflies is a great opportunity to take a creek walk. Make sure to watch the video linked above to get an idea of what to look for while you’re exploring your creek. You’ll also want to make sure to keep your eyes out for water striders too, since they may be much easier for your children to spot on the surface of the water.

Use the archive link below to get prepared for your Outdoor Hour time and then enjoy a day at the creek!

Link to the Archive Challenge: Caddisfly and Water Strider

Members here on the Handbook of Nature Study may wish to print out the Brook and Stream Nature Study notebook page in the printables library. This activity would be a great complement to your caddisfly/creek day.

Use the discount code SUMMER5 for $5 off your Ultimate Naturalist Library membership and you will have access to the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook and the Brook and Stream Nature Study notebook page along with 20 other ebooks and many, many more printables!

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Barb — 2 Comments

Summer Nature Study Ideas – Use the Archives!

Summer nature study can be as easy and casual as you need it to be! There are no rules to completing the Outdoor Hour Challenges and if you want to pick and choose a few of the nature study topics from the archives, feel free to jump around to areas of interest in your family.

Make sure to mark your summer calendar with one or two of the year long study summer season ideas below!

Start by clicking the link to the archived entry

Year-Long Big Dipper Study – with free printable
Summer Willow Study
Seasonal Cattail Study – with free printable
Seasonal Milkweed Study – with free printable notebook page
Year-Long Pond Study – with a free printable notebook page
Year-Long Queen Anne’s Lace Study and a free printable notebook page
Seasonal Tree Study– with printable activities and a free notebook page
Year-Long Thistle Study
Summer Weather and Summer Weather

There are many more summer nature study ideas listed under the summer tab on the Handbook of Nature Study website.

You may wish to complete one of the Summer Ebook series available in the Ultimate Naturalist Library.

Summer Nature Study Ebooks Available

Summer Nature Study

More Summer Nature Study

Summer Nature Study Continues

Author: Barb