We decided that woodpeckers are very beautiful birds. The two kinds we see most frequently are Acorn woodpeckers and White-Headed woodpeckers and although they are mostly black and white, they are truly lovely to look at.
“The clown-faced Acorn Woodpecker is a common bird of western oak forests. It lives in extended family groups, and all members of the group spend hours and hours storing thousands of acorns in carefully tended holes in trees and telephone poles.”
This tree is at my dad’s house and it has about a zillion holes in it from woodpeckers. He is plagued with woodpeckers pecking on the side of his house.
I found this old nature journal entry made for our backyard woodpecker….makes me smile.
We don’t have as much variety in our feeders or yard at this time of the year. The bird variety picks up as the winter marches on and by the time of the Great Backyard Bird Count, we are in full swing.
No woodpecker sightings this week but we enjoyed watching the birds we did have in our yard.
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.
This guy decided to sit and let us get a very good look at him the other day. My son was quick with the camera and snapped this photo for me.
We have had an amazing amount of hummingbirds in our yard this year and the feeders are humming all day long. They also love the butterfly bush, the trumpet vine and the crepe myrtle.
The garden is starting to look like mid-summer and not at its prime but the birds, bees, and butterflies are still daily visitors.
The daily rhythm is changing up a bit and soon the harvesting will be complete. Already the evening comes quickly and the nights seem a little crisper. There isn’t much that we can do to delay the progress towards autumn so I will try to enjoy the changes as they come.
Take some time this week to note your neighborhood and talk a little with your children about what they see out the window or as you take a short nature walk.
I have started a list of things that I would like to do this autumn for nature study and I will share it with you all very soon.
For dinner today, it will be another round of fresh bruschetta from the garden….tomatoes and basil are still coming daily. Filling the birdbaths and watering the roses will be done in the cooler evening hours. Tomorrow we are hoping to harvest the plums.
Enjoy the tastes of summer….a feast for the eyes and a feast for the belly.
We are to our very last bird challenge of this series. I can’t tell you how much our family has enjoyed learning more about the familiar birds in our neighborhood. Each bird is now a little bit more of a friend since taking some time to read and observe more about them.
Along with learning more about our backyard birds, we also have learned to identify different aspects of the bird and its behavior. We learned about the beaks, the feet, the eyes, and the feathers of many birds that we may some time come in contact with during our outdoor time. This knowledge is knowledge that we can apply to all birds and I know we are getting better at identifying birds since we took time to read through our field guide.
Inside Preparation Work:
1. Read the section in the Handbook of Nature Study about pigeons on pages 50-53. I found the information very interesting so don’t be tempted to skip it because you think you know all there is to know about pigeons.
Also read pages 91-94 about the mockingbird.
2. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study the section on the migrations of birds on pages 35-37.
“Birds that travel are called migratory birds. If the spring migrants remain with us for the summer, we call them our summer residents. Fall migrants that remain with us for the winter are called winter residents. The migrants that do not remain with us but pass on to spend the summer or winter in some other area are called our transients or visitors.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 36
3. Read in Backyard Birds pages 44-47 about the pigeon and the mockingbird. You can follow the links above to AllAboutBirds.org and click on the button to listen to a recording of each bird call. If you are keeping a list of bird calls (see challenge 5), you can add this week’s birds to your list.
4. Peterson Field Guide: Use the index to look up the pigeon and the mockingbird. Use the information to learn more about the field marks and the behavior of each of these birds. Use the maps at the back of the field guide to determine the range and/or migratory patterns of this weeks birds or any of the other birds we have studied during the challenges. You will find the correct map by looking up the entry and then noticing the “M” code that will correspond with a map in the back of the book. Notice the explanation of the colors used on the maps by using the key on page 359(W) and page 305(E).
Outdoor Hour Time:
“Pigeons are found in every city. Look for them in parks and open areas.” Backyard Birds, page 45
“The mockingbird is the only one of our common birds that sings regularly at night. It imitates the songs of other birds and has also a beautiful song of its own.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 93
This week you should be able to find a pigeon to observe up close. Although pigeons are not usually a *favorite* bird, you can use its example to take note of the beak and feet of a real live bird. I also enjoy seeing all the variations in colors of pigeons and some are quite beautiful with their iridescent colors.
Plan on taking your ten to fifteen minutes of outdoor time to observe birds. Practice all your birding skills.
Sit quietly and listen for bird calls.
For each bird you see, take note of its shape, size, beak, feet, colors, tail, wings, flight pattern, and any interesting behavior.
Take a walk in your neighborhood and look for places you might think you will find a bird: up in a tree, in a pond, on a fence, in a bush, in some tall grass, alongside a meadow, near some park benches, or at a feeder.
Get up early and go out birding at dawn or just a little after as the birds wake up and start their morning singing.
Don’t forget to fill your bird feeders and birdbaths each week! Even though this is the last official bird challenge you can keep your study going as long as you wish and your neighborhood birds have come to count on a meal and a bath in your yard by now.
Follow Up Activity for the Pigeon and the Mockingbird
Once you are inside from your outdoor time, discuss birds you observed and try to recall as many specifics as you can about each bird. Help your child get started with this activity by stating something you observed. For instance, if you observed a pigeon, you might say that you noticed that the pigeon’s feet let him waddle along the ground and not hop like a robin. Or you could say that the pigeon has a very small beak compared to the blue jay. You get the idea. You are helping your child recall things that he observed and then compare and contrast them to other facts he already knows about different birds.
Add any new birds to your bird life list, either in the back of the Backyard Bird book or in your nature journal.
You can also complete the migration notebook page from NotebookingPages.com’s bird set (shown below).
Follow Up Activity For Other Birds Observed:
Use the process described above to discuss any bird observed during your Outdoor Hour time. If you identified the bird, use the Peterson Field Guide, the Handbook of Nature Study, or the AllAboutBirds.org website to research any additional information. You can complete a notebook page for each bird if you wish. You will find general bird notebook pages in the NotebookingPages.com set or you can look up your bird in the table of contents of the Cornell bird coloring book.
Also I am highly recommending that you purchase the Bird Bundle from NotebookingPages.com as a great supplement to your study of birds using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Note: These are affiliate links.
Use code discount5 to save $5 on any purchase $10 or more from the NotebookingPages.com Shop. (This does not include membership purchases.)
The house sparrow and the mourning dove are our constant companions. The song of the mourning dove is easily recognizable and we have a pair that perch in a certain spot on the telephone wires around the corner from our house.
We have several kinds of sparrows in our yard but the most prevalent is the white-crowned sparrow. In the winter, we have scores of white-crowned sparrows that come to our feeders every day. They prefer the platform feeder or to clean up under the birdfeeder…aren’t they helpful?
The other brown bird that we see in large numbers at certain times of the year is the cedar waxwing. I especially like this bird for some reason. It reminds me of a brown cardinal and is easily recognizable by its set of field marks. We had a flock of around sixty cedar waxwings in our tree one time and it was so much fun to watch them.
“Birds do most of their singing in the early morning and during the spring and early summer months.”
Handbook of Nature Study
Another brown bird that we have in our neighborhood that we can recognize by its call is the California quail. This bird has an easy call to remember…he says “Chi-ca-go!” Click the link to the Cornell site and you can find the button to hear his call.
The California quail is our state bird and in our area they are abundant. We enjoy watching this bird scurry along the ground with his top feathers bobbing up and down.
By the way, have you noticed that Cornell’s bird site has been updated and improved? I am loving the new look and the organization of it so much better. They provide such a great service to all of us amateur birders.
Okay, one last brown bird (at least the ones I see are mostly brown) that we have a lot of in our area. The wild turkey is not the most beautiful bird in the world. The photo on Cornell’s website actually makes him look quite elegant but in real life the turkeys we see are scrawny, blue faced things that usually end up in the middle of the road trying to look elegant. The males will fluff out their feathers to impress the ladies from time to time but for the most part the wild turkey is just a nuisance to the rest of us.
I think that about wraps our brown birds for this challenge. We have a few more but this entry is already too long. I will save the other birds for another time.
If you can find this book at your library or purchase it used on Amazon.com, you find it is a great beginner’s book on birds. It is a picture book and each page is a watercolor painting of a common bird with its name. I would definitely use this book with preschoolers or grammar stage children.
We have this little guy on the shelf in our living room. Frequently someone will get him down and play his call. He happens to be my favorite of all the Audubon plush birds.
This week we were on the lookout for hummingbirds as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge: Hummingbirds nature study. We haven’t had too many hummingbirds yet in our feeders, a few here and there that we have noticed. Summertime is hummingbird time in our backyard and we have several hummingbirds that perch on the tree behind our picnic table and in the evenings we see them sitting there watching us eat our dinner. There isn’t much information in the Handbook of Nature Study on hummingbirds but it is enough to answer a few of our questions.
The hummingbirds we have in our yard are Anna’s Hummingbirds and they are very pretty. They are green and pink and very fast flyers. They will soar way up high in the air and then suddenly swoop down.
The Handbook of Nature Study says, “Hummingbirds are not supposed to sing, but to use their voices for squeaking when angry or frightened.” We often hear the male Anna’s Hummingbird before we see him. He will fly up high in the air and then swoop down and make a chirping sound. They also make a sound as they sit on the branches of the tree…cuing us to look for his distinctive silhouette.
We found this video and now we are anxious to observe our hummingbirds to see if we think it is their tail that chirps.
There is always something new to learn.
I am fascinated with hummingbirds and our last trip to the desert was memorable because we visited a hummingbird aviary at the museum. I posted then about the hummingbirds.
Isn’t he gorgeous?
This one was not shy at all and we spent a long time watching him fly and sip.
Here is a hummingbird nest that we collected a number of years ago. I am in awe whenever I look at the way it is constructed.
Can you imagine how small the eggs are inside this miniature sized nest? Amazing stuff.
One last thing to share from this week’s Outdoor Hour time with the boys. We came across a very bold Spotted Towhee that let me come up fairly close and take a video of him singing his song. Enjoy.
Hope you enjoyed reading about our Outdoor Hour this week and our continued study of hummingbirds as well as any other bird that crosses our path.
Outdoor Hour Challenge Birds #3
Goldfinch and Meadowlark (Western and Eastern)
Inside preparation work:
1. Read the Handbook of Nature Study pages 29-33 about feathers. Another great link is found here: Feather Structure. Here is another link to Bird Wing Shapes.
2. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 53-57 about the goldfinch.
3. Read the Handbook of Nature Study pages 80-82 about the meadowlark.
4. Backyard Birds: Read aloud with your child pages 16-19. Use the illustrations to point out the field marks for each bird and for the goldfinch, the differences between the male and female birds.
5. Peterson Field Guide: Make note of the wing and tail shape illustrations on pages 18 and 19(W) 24 and 25(E) Look up in the index the goldfinch and the meadowlark. Observe the illustrations carefully and read the narrative descriptions and explanations. Notice the beak, the tail, and the wing shape for future reference. (See links at the bottom of the post for the particulars on these field guides.)
Outdoor Hour Time
Practice your quiet observation skills for at least part of your 10-15 minutes of birding time. Remember the focus from challenge two and make special note of the shape of the beak and the way the bird uses it. Also, make note of the wing and tail shapes of any birds that you observe during this challenge.
Shape of the tail: Square tip? Rounded? Pointed? Notched? Shape of the wing: Rounded? Pointed? Slim? Long? Short?
Sometimes a bird’s wings and tail look differently when they fly. Observe a bird during flight to see if you can notice different colors, shapes, or stripes when they fly. Remember to make these observations for any bird you see during your outdoor time and not just for the meadowlark and/or the goldfinch.
Follow Up Activity for the Goldfinch and the Meadowlark
You can make a nature journal entry for the goldfinch and the meadowlark if you would like. There are several styles of journal pages in the NotebookingPages.com set below.
For something different in your nature journal, copy the John Keats poem on page 57 of the Handbook of Nature Study. Many families like to include poetry in their nature journals and this poem about the goldfinch is a perfect addition.
If you are using NotebookingPages.com’s bird nature study set (shown below), you can use the pages on feathers to record your feather observations or you can draw a feather and label its parts.
If you would like to hear the bird calls for this week’s birds, here are the links:
Also I am highly recommending that you purchase the Bird Bundle from NotebookingPages.com as a great supplement to your study of birds using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Note: These are affiliate links.
Use code discount5 to save $5 on any purchase $10 or more from the NotebookingPages.com Shop. (This does not include membership purchases.)
For the most part these are pesky birds, chasing other little birds out of our feeders. They also are very noisy and their voice is more like a squawk than a song. 🙂
We often put out peanuts on our deck railing for them in the winter and they rally around and gather them up and store them in little holes in the garden. They do the same thing with walnuts and acorns so often times we find little walnut trees and oaks growing in our potted plants and in our flower beds.
They can be carnivorous as well. We had a dead skink in our backyard last year that we were observing and before we knew it, a scrub-jay swooped down and flew away with it. We saw him sitting on top of our neighbors roof pecking away at its snack. (I referenced the link to the entry that tells that story below.)
Last spring we had a nest of baby scrub-jays that we could observe from a bedroom window. We watched the babies as they hatched and then as they started to stick up their open beaks for mama and daddy to put something into it to eat. They were quite helpless. Here is an entry with a couple of photos: Scrub-jay nest. My son was able to get the above close-up of the baby Scrub-jay as it perched in the bushes in our front yard. Click the photo to get a good look at the baby feathers on his belly.
We have watched mama Scrub-jay teach her baby to fly in our front yard. It was painful to watch but the baby did eventually fly away after much coaxing from mama and papa. Here is the baby when it was learning to fly. It could sort of flap from the tree to the bush but then it was afraid to go anywhere else. The mama would fly back and forth in an attempt to demonstrate how to fly.
Look at that beak! We know why he has such a big pointy beak….he uses it to eat and peck and dig.
Here is a scrub-jay in the Mojave dessert. We were having a picnic and he flew down and grabbed my son’s sandwich roll and then he flew away with it….he stopped here and was pecking at the bread.
We also live where there are Steller’s jays and they are much more majestic in appearance than the scrub-jays. They have a crest on their heads and are a deeper, richer blue overall. They too are little pests. You can not have a picnic without one trying to grab something from your plate. They can be quite aggressive. They are very common in Yosemite National Park and you know the minute you open your picnic basket that they will come flying it to check out your selection.
Here is a video I shared before of a white-headed woodpecker in the forest. That is interesting enough but for this entry you might want to watch and see at about 1:00 the Steller’s jay that joins our picnic. I had put a couple of Cheez-its on the ground for him and he perches in the tree and cocks his head to look at us. Listen to the sound of his wings as he flies down to the ground to pick up the cracker. This is typical Steller’s jay behavior at a picnic. Bold and brave.
We do have Western bluebirds in our yard occasionally but not enough to really good a good look at them. We have observed their nesting and protecting behavior one time when we were out on a country road and there were some nesting boxes along the fence. It was spectacular to observe and their colors were brilliantly blue.
Scrub-jays are some of our favorite bird nature study subjects…..
Female House Finch or is it a female purple finch?
The House finch is what you would call a “regular” in our yard. You will see one or two just about every day perched at the feeder and enjoying a fine meal.
The Backyard Bird Book said this about House finches, “These lively red and brown birds may become the most frequent visitors to your bird feeder.”
We had some trouble at first determining whether we had a House finch, a Purple finch, or a Cassin’s finch. It took us some time but we finally determined that we had House finches with regularity, Purple finches at certain times of the year, and an occasional Cassin’s finch. (see the link below to view their photos)
I still have trouble and the photos in this entry could be of purple finches. (I know that many of you think I am the expert but I am truly learning right alongside you.)
How do you tell the difference? They are all on the same page of our field guide and the Peterson’s Field Guide to Western Birds shows the field marks to look for on page 343. The males have very distinct coloration differences and once you know what to look for, you can easily distinguish the three birds from each other. This clear indication of the field marks is what I really like about the Peterson Field Guides.
This photo really shows the color of the finches that we have in our feeder. Some day I will get a good photo of one of this beautiful birds.
Another mystery to us was this orange finch.
We discovered that there is a variation in the house finch where sometimes it is orange like this one that comes daily to our feeders.
“House Finch coloring varies widely, and research shows that most of the variation is caused by diet. All male House Finches have the same potential for yellow, orange, or red coloration.” Project Feeder Watch
Other birds we observed this week:
2 gorgeous red-tailed hawks soaring over my dad’s house
Canadian geese flying over our house
Crows
Western scrub-jays who were building their nests and are very vocal right now
Titmouse
Dark-eyed juncos
Wild turkeys-whole flock in the road with one male showing his big, fluffy tail
Robins singing in our tree-my middle son said that they woke him up yesterday morning with their very long song
Some kind of yellowish brown finch in the bushes alongside our trail
Turkey vultures soaring in the afternoon sun
Cedar Waxwings-about two dozen in the tree at once
Mourning doves-a pair of them my son spotted in the lawn and then under the feeder
California towhees
It has been a busy birding week around our place. When we take our afternoon walks now we can hear lots of different birds…it is as if a whole world is awakening around us. I love it.
These are some feathers we found on our front lawn under a big tree. We are not sure what kind of bird feathers they are but they were very, very soft. We spent our Outdoor Hour listening to birds and trying to spot them. Our feeders have slowed down a bit in the last few weeks with the changing weather. The most predominant birds in our backyard feeders are Western scrub jays and House sparrows at this time of year.
My son was telling me about the flock of robins that were perched in the tree outside his window yesterday after our snowstorm. He thought there must have been dozens of them.
We have a resident robin that sits in the very top of our tree outside the front window and he sings and sings and sings very early in the morning…starting just about this time of year.
We read through the information in the Handbook of Nature Study and found most of it was new to us. How could we be so uninformed about a bird we practically see very day?
“Moreover, a robin notebook, if well kept, is a treasure for any child; and the close observation necessary for this lesson trains the pupils to note in a comprehending way the habits of other birds. It is the very best preparation for bird study of the right sort.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 57
This statement in the introduction to robins made me stop and think about all of our bird studies. The point is well made that birding is more than just learning to identify birds. Careful study of any particular bird helps us to learn so much about *all* birds and it gives us skills we can use with all birds. We took special interest in the schedule of robin study in the lesson given for robins. This is another example of how to expand nature study to really get the most out of it. My boys were not particularly interested in studying robins so I think we will skip the in-depth study but we will apply the principles to a bird that does interest them.
This week some of us decided to use the coloring page from Cornell to complete in our nature journal and Mr. B (youngest son) decided to just free-hand draw a robin to include in his binder. I like to use the coloring page and then add my own interesting facts as well.
We will be moving on to the House finch later in the week and I will share that study when we are finished.
