Backyard Birds Archives

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Where Are the Sparrows?

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Sparrow Bird Study – from the archives and from the More Nature Study Autumn ebook

This time of year, the first birds I hear each morning are the sparrows. The have such a pretty light song that can’t help but cheer you up. This week use your local field guide to learn more about sparrows that live in your neighborhood. My suggestion is to pick one and read all about it and then go look for it. Sparrows are often in and under our birdfeeders (sunflower seeds and millet) but you may want to learn what your sparrow sounds like since they often are hidden in the shrubs or brush piles.

House Sparrow Sounds

White-crowned Sparrow Sounds – This is the sparrow that is most often spotted in my yard here in Northern California. You can listen to its pretty song at this link.

Song Sparrow Sounds – We don’t hear these in our yard but one of our favorite Oregon campgrounds always has these song sparrows in the blackberries and other bushes.

Please feel free to choose a different bird for this week’s study if you don’t have a sparrow to observe in person. You may wish to read about creating a Bird Life List and download a free printable list to start with your family: 10 Ideas for a Bird Life List.

Note: You do not need to purchase the ebooks to participate but they are handy to have for planning and for the regular and advanced notebook pages included in each one. Click the graphic at the bottom of this post to go over to check out the Ultimate Naturalist Library membership. If you would like to see a sample of More Nature Study Autumn ebook, you can download a sample here: More Nature Study Autumn Sample.

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Posted on July 6, 2016 by Barb — 2 Comments

Creating Wildlife Habitat

This is the time of year that the rewards of creating a wildlife habitat are coming clear as the insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals visit our yard each day. There seems to be someone enjoying the space at all times. I hear buzzing and chirping during the day and see signs that someone has come to drink water and dig around in the leaves at night. I even have seen where some deer have been sleeping around on the side of our house. My husband saw a fox one evening and I heard an owl in our tree.

The yard is so alive and full of surprises each day.

I highly recommend the creating of a wildlife habitat that fits your local area’s wild residents.

The National Wildlife Federation website is a wealth of information on how to create your own habitat, step by step. Read this article about creating a wildlife habitat in your own yard. There is also a short video to watch: http://blog.nwf.org/2016/02/this-week-in-nwf-history-creating-wildlife-habitat-in-your-yard/

Once you certify your garden online, you can order a flag or sign to proudly display in your yard. I ordered the classic sign and we mounted it near our front walkway. Here are all the signs available: National Wildlife Federation Sign Shop.

Would you like a free printable plan for creating your own Wildlife Habitat? I created one for you to use as you access your yard for the four elements you will need to become certified.

Download and print yours here: Wildlife Habitat Plan

For more information, use this link to the National Wildlife Federation: Certify!

I wrote an entry a few years ago about the making of our own wildlife habitat. This entry mostly shows our backyard and how we planted things and arranged the yard to accommodate a variety of wildlife. Read more about the specific things you need to create a living space in your own yard: Making Your Backyard a Wildlife Habitat. You may find this entry helpful: Birdwatching 101- Attracting Birds with feeders and plants.

Here is another entry that shows the transformation of our front yard into a more wildlife friendly habitat: Frontyard Remodel. We have since added a mason bee house that you can read about in this post: Mason Bee House. Here is an entry that shows our frontyard in all four seasons: From My Window.

Winter Garden For Wildlife Part 1: This is mostly about the plants you can add to your yard to make a winter habitat for wildlife.

Winter Garden for Wildlife – Part 2: This post will give you simple ideas for attracting and sheltering wildlife in the winter months.

You may wish to read this entry: Gardening For Birds. In this entry, I share how I have added specific plants to attract and nourish our backyard birds.

Now that summer is here, you may be spending more time in your yard or garden. Take a few minutes to observe any wildlife that visits! Use the printable above to make your wildlife habitat plan soon and then go over to the National Wildlife Federation website to get certified. Then, proudly display your sign and tell your neighbors about the program so they can participate too.

Have you thought about creating a wildlife habitat?

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Posted on June 20, 2016 by Barb — 3 Comments

New Ebook! Learning About Birds using the Outdoor Hour Challenge

I have been diligently working on a new ebook that gathers together many of the bird challenges here on the Handbook of Nature Study website. The challenges have all been revamped, updated, enhanced, and supplemented with images and notebooking pages for your nature journal.

New Ebook Available for Ultimate Naturalist and Journey Level Members!

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.
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.
Please Note: I am highly recommended the purchase and use of NotebookingPages.com’s Basic Bird Study pages and the North American Birds set of pages to use alongside the new Learning About Birds ebook here on the Handbook of Nature Study website. She has such excellent pages that fit perfectly with the birds featured in my new ebook!

How do you get the new Learning About Birds ebook?

Members of the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey levels have access to the new ebook in their library. You need to click the “Members Area” button at the top of the website, sign into your account, and the ebook is there to download and safe for your family to use when desired.

If you don’t have a membership yet, I am offering a $5 off discount code that will be good towards your Ultimate Naturalist membership.

Discount Code: BIRDLOVER5

Please note that I am an affiliate for NotebookingPages.com and these are affiliate links. I have used these pages and loved them for many years with my own family.

How To Get Started With This New Ebook!

Make sure you have a membership to the Handbook of Nature Study website! Click the Purchase Now button above or the Join Us button on the website. If you don’t already have a membership, use the discount code above for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership. If you are a member, sign in to your library and download the book.
Have the required books in your home library- Handbook of Nature Study and Backyard Birds. Both books are listed in the new Learning About Birds ebook on the resources page or you can click to my Amazon.com store for purchasing them now.
Make sure to collect your FREE Basic Bird Study pages from NotebookingPages.com by following the instructions above!
Purchase your North American Birds Notebooking Pages from NotebookingPages.com.
Enjoy your bird nature study using the convenient plan in this new ebook!

I will be including some of these Outdoor Hour Challenges for birds over the next year. You may wish to subscribe to the Handbook of Nature Study blog so you can receive the prompts in your email box each Friday.

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Barb — Leave a comment

Great Backyard Bird Count 2016 Results

Here are my Great Backyard Bird Count results for 2016.

Anna’s Hummingbird – 2

Spotted Towhee – 2

California Towhee – 1

Scrub Jay – 1

House Finch – 1

Titmouse – 1

Mourning Dove – 1

White-crowned Sparrow – 2

Dark eyed Juncos – 2

American Robins – 14

Cedar Waxwings – 30

Northern flicker – 1

12 different birds with a total count of 58 birds! This year I only managed to count birds one of the mornings during the count period. This made a big difference in the results. Although, we had more birds this year than in the last 2 years, it is only because we had such a high count for the cedar waxwings. The morning I counted they just happened to be in my tree eating and roosting.

Hope you had a chance to count birds this year! Leave me a comment if you created an entry for your results and I will pop over and take a look.

Have you seen the new product over at NotebookingPages.com? If you own a Lifetime Membership over on Debra’s website, you can log into your account on NotebookingPages.com and download your set right now. If you aren’t already a member over there, you can purchase the set separately or I would highly recommend a Lifetime Membership so you can access all of the 1000’s of notebooking pages she has to offer. ($4.95 for the set or get started with your membership with $10!)

Please note I am an affiliate for NotebookingPages.com and have used the notebooking pages with my family for years!

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Barb — Leave a comment

Great Backyard Bird Count Reminder

What? The Great Backyard Bird Count
When? February 12-15, 2016
Who? Anyone around the world…for the first time ever!
How? Count birds in your yard and at your feeders. Report the data to the Great Backyard Bird Count

Need so more information?
Great Backyard Bird Count

Video: Great Backyard Bird Count

Get prepared with printable checklists for you area…by zip code or town name.

Our family is going to be counting and I will share our results here on the blog soon!

Here is our bird list results from 2015: Great Backyard Bird Count Results 2015

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Barb — Leave a comment

Our Starling Bird Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Starling Bird Study

Of course, the week we had scheduled to observe and learn more about starlings…they have vanished from the neighborhood! They were constant visitors during the autumn months right outside my office window in the pistache trees that line the side of our house. I could hear them out there as they ate the bright red fruits from the tree. But even though the opportunity had passed see them in person, I have plenty of photos from my archives to use as the basis for our study.

I decided to try to determine where they go once they leave our neighborhood. I did some online research and found that most starlings stay right here in the continental U.S. during all seasons. But, I have been watching and they are definitely gone from our area. I think it has something to do with the food supply…which I note later below.

Journal Idea: Coloring Page from Cornell’s Bird Coloring Book (page 28). I cut the blackline drawing out and used colored pencils to attempt to show the speckles but wasn’t successful. It is really hard to get it right. Anyway, I decided to use the drawing anyway and focus on the recording good information on the page instead. This is actually quite an interesting bird.

Great Information is found in: Discover Nature Close to Home (one of my Nature Book Project selections) – see pages 59-66. This is my affiliate link. I also used the AllAboutBirds website.

Here are two sort of blurry images of starlings I have in my archives. This one from November 2014 shows the speckled look to the bird during autumn and winter. The starlings seem to be around our house only as long as there are those fruits on the pistache tree. Now that the fruits are gone, so are the starlings. We will look forward to their appearance again when the season is right.

This is an image of a starling from 2011 in February. I also have a really bad video of this bird from that day (it was just too far away for a good one). There were two of them along with some robins in the trees across from our house. They were eating something off the tree….not sure what. Anyway, this photo shows the iridescent color of the starling at certain times of year. So pretty!

Have you had a chance to look for some birds this month? Don’t forget that the Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up February 12-15, 2016! Mark you calendars!

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Barb — Leave a comment

Backyard Birds – November and December

I am thoroughly enjoying my Project Feederwatch counting this year…we added a few new feeders that are closer to my viewing window and that makes counting super easy. Even watching our “ordinary” birds gives me such pleasure. Here are some images from my counting days of my fine feathered friends.

Finches!

Loving our mockingbird and watching him visit every morning to a particular tree and then to a blackberry vine in the corner of our yard…always sitting at the top.

I caught this sparrow with his mouth full of seed. Love his feet too!

This is one of the woodpeckers that visit our feeders and trees just about every day now. They aren’t very big but they are beautiful birds.

Here is my list of birds that have come to visit during the months of November and December.

November and December Bird Lists

White-crowned sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
House finch
White-breasted nuthatch
Western scrub jay
Anna’s hummingbird
Spotted towhee
Northern mockingbird
Evening grosbeak
American robin
Mourning dove
Nuttall’s woodpecker
Lesser goldfinch
Titmouse
Northern flicker
European starlings
California towhee
Bewick’s wren
Fox sparrow

What birds did you see this month?

These are affiliate links to products I have used and love.

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Sapsucker Bird Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Sapsucker Bird Study

“They are particularly fond of the sap of the mountain ash, apple, thorn apple, canoe birch, cut-leaf birch, red maple, red oak, white ash, and young pines. However, the sapsucker does not live solely on sap; he also feeds upon insects whenever he can find them.”- Handbook of Nature Study

Inside Preparation Work:

Read pages 74-75 (Lesson #16) in the Handbook of Nature Study.
Read all about the Yellow-bellied sapsucker, the Red-breasted sapsucker and the Red-naped sapsucker, noting their ranges. The Handbook lesson features the Yellow-bellied sapsucker but for those of us in the western United States, we can hope to see the other species in our location.
Youtube videos: Yellow-bellied sapsucker and Red-breasted sapsucker.
Advanced study: This may be a great bird to use as a subject for a winter bird migration project. Read more about bird migration on Wild Birds: Bird Migration. Migration information for each sapsucker species is found at the links above.

Outdoor Hour Time:

Go on a sapsucker hunt! Make sure you know the sound that the sapsucker makes so you can listen as you take your nature walk. Also, look for signs of the sapsucker in trees. Keep up the watch for sapsuckers since they may not be our woods at this time of the year. Make this a fun outing by scouting any birds in your deciduous or coniferous forests.

Follow-Up Activity:

Create a nature journal entry for the sapsucker. What an amazing bird! Make sure to include any interesting facts you learned about this bird along with the field marks and a sketch.
As an alternative, create a nature journal entry for any bird that you observed this week.
Start a bird life list using the printable in this entry: Bird Life List.
Here is some information on more ways to create Bird Nature Journal Pages.
Advanced study: Read this article and summarize any interesting facts into a concise nature journal entry: Master Sap Tapper.

If you want to purchase the Autumn Nature Study 2015 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 Autumn Nature Study 2015 announcement page for more details.

Please note that I am an affiliate for NotebookingPages.com. This is a product I have used for many years and highly recommend.
Use code discount5 to save $5 on any purchase $10 or more from the NotebookingPages.com Shop. (This does not include membership purchases.)

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Catbird

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Catbird Study

Inside Preparation Work:

Read pages 95-97 (Lesson #24) in the Handbook of Nature Study. I really love the narrative part of this lesson and I would encourage you to read it and highlight some interesting sections to share with your children before you go outside this week.
Look up the range map on All About Birds to see if you have catbirds in your area. Here in California we don’t have catbirds but an alternate study could be the cowbird or the mockingbird.
Listen the catbird song and call on All About Birds: Catbird.
View a video of the catbird: All About Birds-Catbird. Here are two more really interesting videos: Catbird in Florida and Catbird in California.

Outdoor Hour Time:

For this challenge, use your sense of hearing to listen for bird sounds. This can be done just about anywhere, even your own backyard. Teaching your children to listen carefully is a huge part of a successful nature study program so use birds as a way of practicing this life skill.
Look for catbirds but make note of any birds that you see during your outdoor time. Have your child use as many descriptive words as possible if you happen to observe a bird. If they are new to bird study, make sure to give them some vocabulary like beak, tail, wing, feathers, etc.

Follow-Up Activity:

Create a nature journal entry for the catbird or any other bird you studied this week. Have your child recall the sound of the catbird (use the link in the preparation section if necessary). Have them describe the catbird’s song and call. Do they think it sounds like a cat?
If your family can provide a birdbath, set one up within sight of a window for observation. Keep the birdbath filled and then watch to see if you get any visitors like the catbird. Keep a list of birds you observe in your birdbath.
Advanced study: Compare the catbird with the mockingbird.

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Barb — 2 Comments

Keeping a Bird Life List

Bird watching is an active sport. With each new bird you identify you are inspired to get out and look some more! The life list is a simple way to not not only encourage your young birder but also to help them view birding and nature study as a life long habit. Creating a life list is an extension of your time outdoors that helps your child learn how science can be documented and analyzed over a period of time.

Keeping a life list of birds is a simple project. It can be kept in a variety of ways as shown below.

Ways to Keep a Bird Life List

On paper – in a journal dedicated to keep track long term.
In a book – there are log books specifically created for keeping a life list. Here is the one we have used: Bird Log Kids: A Kid’s Journal to Record Their Birding Experiences.
Back of a field guide – in the back of many bird field guides there is a place to record your life list.
On the pages of a field guide – I have seen people make a note with pen next to the photo or the illustration of each bird they observed right in the field guide.
Notebook page- there are notebooking pages from various sources (including the one below) that you print and keep in a binder as an on-going record.
Online – there are websites specifically dedicated to keeping a birds life list (like e-bird which is an app for your phone as well).
Online- I have discovered several people who create a Pinterest board sharing their life list (like this one Bird Life List).
Computer spreadsheet – some people take their field notes and consolidate them on a spreadsheet on the computer.
Checklist – Find and print a bird list for your local area. Use this as a checklist as you observe each bird, recording your observation data right on the checklist.
Your own cards – Create a field guide card for each bird on your life list (use my printable and idea).

Special Activity:Life List Printable

Bird Life List Printable
I have attempted to create a Life List Printable that will be flexible for you to use in your nature notebook. Your list can be as detailed as you wish. Things to include: Date and Time of Day. Location. Gender. Weather. Bird Sounds. Number of birds seen.

Additional resources:
Printable Checklists by Country or Region (updated the link with one that should get you started)
Bird Nature Journal Ideas – from my archives

You may be interested in the Learning about Birds ebook available here on the Handbook of Nature Study. If you have an Ultimate or Journey level membership, you have access to this ebook that covers every single bird included in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock.

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.)

Category: Backyard Birds