We are staring a month long focus on birds using the Handbook of Nature Study and other resources found here on my blog and in each Friday’s post. Make sure you have subscribed to this blog so you will receive the monthly newsletter download link for additional bird study encouragement and special discounts on ebooks and other products.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
For our first bird related challenge, let’s all print out our Bird Study Grids from the newsletter. This month they are a little different than in previous months. I have given you two simple grids that you all can use wherever you live and at whatever time of year you want to study birds. There are also two smaller tally sheets you can print out for your nature journal to record bird colors and bird parts you observe. Print and cut any or all of the grids this month and have some fun while taking your Outdoor Hour Challenge time either outdoors looking for birds or from you window if you need to.
Printable Activity: Handbook of Nature Study Nature Table Ideas Birds
Use the suggestions on this free printable to build or add to your nature table. There are many suggestions that have hyperlinks so make sure to check those out for additional ideas and resources. Send me a photo of your nature table and it may be included in the next newsletter!
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, completeOutdoor Hour Challenge #4.Use your outdoor time to talk about your new focus for the month on birds and all the different ways you can learn about birds. Spend a few minutes listening for birds, looking for signs of birds, and then completing the accompanying notebook page in the ebook or an entry in your own nature journal.
I think we are all looking forward to this month’ bird nature study theme! Birds are such fun creatures to watch and to learn about and something we can all participate in no matter where we live or what the weather is like outside. I do quite a bit of birdwatching at this time of the year from my window with a pair of binoculars I keep handy. I hope this month‘s study rewards your family with some joy and discovery! To help you out, I have created a newsletter full of ideas and resources. Be inspired and give the grid study a try!
Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:
6 fabulous articles related to different aspects of bird study (5 from OHC participants)
February Study Grid – actually four grids this month!
My Birdfeeder Journal – printable notebook page
Show and Tell from OHC Participants
Special Discounts from both Crowe’s Nest Media and for my Spring Bundle
Recommended study links
Chart correlating the Outdoor Hour Challenge bird studies with the Handbook of Nature Study
I have attached the newsletter download link to the bottom of my blog feed so if you are a subscriber you will receive the link to the latest newsletter at the bottom of every post for the month of January. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can still subscribe and receive the newsletter link in the next post that comes to your email box. You can subscribe to my blog by filling in your email address in the subscription box on my sidebar.
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If your link is clickable, right click the link and then “save link as” to save the file on your computer.
If the link is not clickable, cut and paste the link to your browser, open, and then save your newsletter to your computer.
This month’s blog sponsor is Crowe’s Nest Media!
See the newsletter for a discount code on these two fantastic DVD’s. You can read my review of each of them and then click over to get your copy with the super discount available.
Bird watching year after year, you begin to have favorite birds that visit your feeders. You know the comings and goings of the common feeder birds as they stop by to eat each day; sparrows early in the day, scrub jays perched on top, the titmouse speeding in and out.
But sometimes you have birds that bless you with a rare visit…not even to the feeder but still close to your yard and within binocular range of your front window. We have had several hawk visitors over the years that we have observed in this way. This week there was a bird on the telephone wire across the street from our house. I spotted it from the window and then grabbed my binoculars. I grabbed my “big” camera with the really good zoom lens and stepped outside and across the street to see if I could capture him in an image.
It was as if he was posing for me. The look on his face was cautiously curious. I snapped away and here are a couple of frames that really give you a feel for this beautiful hawk.
I think he is a Red-shouldered hawk, both from the description in my field guide, looking at AllAboutBirds, and listening to him as he later soared up in the sky.
Isn’t this a magnificent bird? Look at all those colorful feathers and the patterns are amazing. All hawks are beauties but this one is especially beautiful…I am in awe.
Here is what AllAboutBirds.com says about the call of the Red-shouldered hawk:
“A Red-shouldered Hawk’s most common call is a plaintive, rising whistle that sounds like kee-ahh. The call tends to be repeated 5–12 times, with each note lasting about half a second. Hawks use it to claim their territory and when alarmed.”
So now that I can listen for the two syllable call (kee-aah) of the Red-shouldered hawk, I will easily be able to identify it when I hear it while on hikes. There are several other hawks I hear from time to time and they are much different: Sharp-shinned hawk – which says kik-kik-kik. Red-tailed hawk – which says keee-eeeek-aar (like a scream) Cooper’s hawk – which says cak-cak-cak-cak-cak
Do you have hawks in your neighborhood? Can you identify them by their call?
According to the Cornell website, many hawks are now stalking backyard birdfeeders and finding a meal of smaller birds to be much easier than hunting in the wild. I thought that was interesting.
I had in mind a totally different post for you this week but our internet has been down for over a week so working online has been limited. Instead, I have a collection of recent bird photos that show some of our feeder birds that we enjoy everyday. As the leaves fall from the trees, observing birds becomes much easier. We also have more of a variety to enjoy this time of year and keeping track of them for Project Feederwatch becomes our normal routine at least two days a week.
The Outdoor Hour Challenges this month focuses on the weather and we have been noting how the weather affects the birds in our yard. We have had ice on the birdbaths quite a few mornings this week and if I don’t go out and break it up, the birds skid around on it which makes me laugh.
House finches can seem common at the feeders…oh, just another finch. But, when you see these colored birds through the eye of a camera, you realize they are not just another bird. They come in varying shades of pink, orange, red, and purple…they come day after day and provide a happy bird song (listen on All About Birds to hear the sweet sounds of a finch).
Our backyard Anna’s hummingbirds are still at the feeders every day. They have a particular tree they sit in and most days it is on the same little branch that hangs over one end of our deck. I can hear them making their little chattering noises whenever I am outside. In this image the feathers look black but it is just the way the light is hitting him. If he tilts his head in just the right way or the sun hits him just right, his chin and throat are the most brilliant pink and his body is a dazzling green. I always thought that hummingbirds were delicate creatures but I have seen them at my feeder in the pouring rain and when we have snow. All About Birds says that they weigh the same as a nickel….imagine that!
The return of the Dark eyed junco is complete for the season. We started having one or two a day under the feeders but now I am counting 12-20 every day. They mostly poke around under the seed feeders to glean some food but I have noticed that they are hanging out at the suet feeder as well. They do give the woodpeckers first chance at the suet but as soon as the woodpecker flies away, they hop on and have a meal.
Our Northern Mockingbirds make daily appearances at the berry vines in our front yard. I read on All About Birds that they switch to an almost all berry diet in the fall and winter. The other fact I learned about the mockingbird is that they don’t sing at this time of the year. The website says that they sing from February to August and then from September to early November. Isn’t that interesting? I am going to record the dates I hear them sing in my neighborhood…a little extra project for me.
The Nuttall’s woodpecker is a frequent diner at the suet feeder. We seem to have a female that is rather shy but I have observed her quite a bit as she hops up and down the trees near the feeder. She shares the feeder many times with the little White-breasted nuthatches.
The excitement this season is that we appear to have a wintering Red-breasted nuthatch who comes daily to the trees outside my window. At first I thought he was my usual White-breasted nuthatch but I read online that the Red-breasted has an eye stripe….sure enough, our nuthatch had an eyestripe. He is super quick and I have yet to capture a clear image but you can see in this one that he definitely has an eyestripe! Hopefully I will get a good image of him for my nature journal sometime this winter.
Project Feederwatch has helped bring my bird observation skills to the next level. In just a few minutes a day, I have learned so much more about the bird life right outside my window. What a gift this activity gives…hopefully you enjoy seeing my bird friends and are inspired to start learning about your own backyard birds.
Take it one bird at a time and enjoy!
There is a wealth of birding information on the internet but I have not found a more homeschool-friendly site than the ones sponsored by Cornell University. I would love to encourage you all to subscribe to their homeschool blog (click the logo to pop over there now).
Now that the season has changed and we have cleaned up the yard for the coming season, I thought I would share a few of the ways we keep our yard as a wildlife habitat in winter. It is just a matter of knowing which plants to prune back and which ones can be left as they are.
We have learned by trial and error mostly.
The Heavenly bamboo along the front of our house is not only colorful this time of year with the leaves turning reddish and the berries ripening to a brilliant orange-red but it is a source of shelter for birds and insects. I have seen the Ruby-crowned kinglet gathering spiderwebs from these bushes. (Audubon website says of the kinglet’s nest, “Moss, grass, lichen, bark strips, twigs, rootlets, needles, and spider webs comprise its outer walls, and feathers, plant down, and hair form a soft lining.”)
We leaves some of the grasses and weeds for the birds and other animals to use as food and shelter.
They don’t look very appetizing but the birds think these are tasty little treats….blackberries left on the vine just behind our bird feeding station. The finches, sparrows, titmouse, and towhees all shelter on and under these vines. I also saw fox scat just by these vines last week so I think they might be gleaning a few berries as well (as evidenced in the scat).
The coneflowers are another favorite in the winter flower garden. I cut them way back but leave some of the seed heads for the birds to glean from.
We also have learned that some of the weeds in our yard are best left to over-winter. These mullein plants will shoot up a stalk next spring and then flower all summer. The hummingbirds and finches will use them as a steady part of their diet. We leave those in the garden.
I harvested about thirty pounds of walnuts this year for our enjoyment. I will spend many a winter evening hour cracking nuts for our family and to share with friends. Some of those friends will have feathers and fur. I leave quite a few of the nuts for the squirrels and Scrub jays to use for their winter meals. When I note that all the nuts are up off the ground, I will regularly set some out of my store cupboard in various parts of the yard. They always disappear.
Lavender along the front wall is once place I trim but not all the way back. It looks sort of wild but it does provide shelter all winter long for birds and nectar for the hummingbirds and bees. Yes, we have bees and hummingbirds in the winter who frequent this section of the garden. It amazes me every time I see the birds hovering over those small little flowers but they must be gathering some food or they wouldn’t come back. I also love leaving this section of lavender because when the sun hits those plants it produces a sweet smell that reminds me that summer will come again.
It can’t all be about the animals, birds, and insects.
I have another post that I will share in the next few weeks showing some more sheltering spots in our yard that may inspire you to try your hand at a winter garden for wildlife.
I love the way this image came out with the gray sky as the background and then the shapes of the sticker balls and leaves.
The bird watching in our neighborhood has significantly improved with cooler weather. The number and variety of birds has been amazing! Every day I end up with my camera and binoculars viewing some new bird visitor….in my feeder, under my feeder, in the berry bushes, in the pistache tree, in the birch tree, in the sweet gum tree.
This was obviously on another day when we had crystal clear skies. This Western bluebird and many of his friends were eating the fruits of the pistache tree. These are such pretty birds and they always seem to come in a flock.
I love it when I load the photos onto my desktop and I find I have captured a “moment”. This is another Western bluebird image showing his magnificent wings and ability to grab a bite to eat on the fly. Love it!
Here is another one of those surprise images. I think this is a starling and I love the way it shows his legs and feet and speckled belly.
We had a couple of days this month when we had turkey vultures by the tens all soaring over our house. All of those black specks are turkey vultures just soaring and swirling around. We looked it up on the internet and there is an official name for this….a kettle of turkey vultures.
We also had one day where the sparrows came by the hundreds to eat at our feeders, in the trees, and on the street as well. It was an amazing sight. We have been counting birds as part of Project Feederwatch a couple of days a week.
Here is my list:
House sparrows
House finches
White-crowned sparrows
Dark eyed juncos
Titmouse
Anna’s hummingbirds
Lesser goldfinches
Spotted towhees
Western bluebirds
White-breasted nuthatches
Cedar waxwings
American robins
Mourning doves
European starlings
Next month one of the Outdoor Hour Challenges is to note how the weather affects animals and birds in our neighborhood. This will be a fun way to see how our autumn birds stack up against other seasons.
It is that time of year again! Time to start counting birds in your feeders and joining thousands of other families in reporting your data to Cornell University.
Project Feederwatch officially starts on November 10, 2012. How about a short explanatory video?
This is a project that your whole family can participate in and enjoy over the next few months. It is easy to get started by visiting the Project Feederwatch website. You can download their free instructional handbook: Project Feederwatch.
We completed our first year of Project Feederwatch last year and it was something that we totally enjoyed doing. You can see our December list of birds and some of our bird images in this entry: December Bird List With Two New Birds!
I know that participating in this project helped us learn more about our local birds, we got better at identifying our feeder birds, and we discovered some new feathered friends. Oh, and we helped Cornell University in their bird research at the same time!
Many of you participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count each year and Project Feederwatch is a way to take that experience and build on it. The commitment is very similar except that you count birds two days in a row each week (you pick the days) and then turn in your data using a personal ID number. Project Feederwatch keeps track of your results.
There is a $15 participation fee but with that you receive a big packet of information and a bird poster to hang on your wall. You can sign up here: Project Feederwatch.
There is a wealth of birding information on the internet but I have not found a more homeschool-friendly site than the ones sponsored by Cornell University. I would love to encourage you all to subscribe to their homeschool blog (click the logo above to pop over there now).
Free Resource!
One last resource that you can download for free: Winter Bird Highlights. I think this is an awesome resource and I have enjoyed reading it and it has me all fired up for some bird watching and counting!
This week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge was to do a robin nature study…but where were the robins? Just a few weeks ago we counted six for our Project FeederWatch count. We saw forty-two during the Great Backyard Bird Count this year in February. This week….zero. We have been vigilant about looking but they are gone from our neighborhood now. So what to do?
We were out looking for any birds this morning and we were surprised to see that our neighbor’s trees were full of Cedar Waxwings! We have learned that they visit us on their way south and then again northwards. The interesting thing, according to our family’s records, we usually see the big flock come through during the GBCC in February. We did not see them this year at all until now. What does that mean? Not sure but it will be interesting to see what happens next year.
Would you like to see our Cedar Waxwings?
They filled three trees and were munching on the “nuts” from the pistache tree that have lasted all winter…just waiting for them to come and polish them off before the next growing season. What a wonderful provider they have!
Yes, we had very gray skies this morning but it wasn’t very cold. They sat resting and eating for quite some time and I was able to get up close to take a few colorful photos of them as they sat in the tree. Don’t you just love their yellow-tipped tails? I could really hear them making their very unique buzzing sound. Do you want to hear? Here is a link to AllAboutBirds and you can click over and hear what I heard…click the “high pitched hissy whistle” and that is exactly it.
Then in a blink of an eye, they were off again. I was amazed at just how fast they flew away in a flock. What a great experience we had this morning! I am forever grateful for the Outdoor Hour Challenges. I know that if I had not started this adventure with all of you that I would have missed out on so many deeply memorable times with my family.
It spurs me on to get outside and this month I have enjoyed joining in with Debi at Go Explore Nature and her #GetOutside project…a photo scavenger hunt. This simple project has already brought such joy to our family. It has encouraged us to think about how we can incorporate outdoor time each day in the month of April. I hope you will consider jumping in with us and take a few minutes to read more about the way it works on her blog. You can see all my entries in my Flickr Set: April GetOutside Project.
Another great week of nature study with my teenage sons.
Don’t forget to share your April Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.You can submit entries directly to me if needed: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com
Birdcage Press Wild Cards – Cards, Activities, and Instructional Booklet
Wild Cards – Backyard Birds is a great learning tool for nature study loving families! They are beautiful to look at and full of information that has helped us get to know our backyard birds a little better. The quality of the cards, the images, and the informational booklet has impressed me!
Wild Cards – Backyard Birds
For a bird-loving family like ours, this set of cards and accompanying book is a perfect fit! We have had more fun quizzing each other with these colorful and informative cards.
This set of 36 cards with clear and beautiful images introduces six types of birds: Tricksters, Songbirds, Woodpeckers, Hummers, Little Chirpers, and Waterbirds.
The 32 page booklet not only gives more details for each bird in the set but it actually teaches you how to identify birds by looking at different attributes.
The combination of cards and booklet will give beginning birders as well as experts a fun way to learn more by using them to play games with your family (instructions included).
The booklet also gives additional ideas for online learning with your cards.
Big thumbs up from our family for Birdcage Press Wild Cards!
We are going to purchase more of these sets to have on our nature shelf, in our nature pack, and with our card game collection. Fun and learning go hand in hand with this product from Birdcage Press. The Backyard Birds set is only one of thirteen sets available on Birdcage Press. You can click over and see more for yourself: Birdcage Press Wildlife and Nature Products.
Giveaway and Free Shipping Offer
If you would like to order from the Birdcage Press website, you can use the free shipping code until 3/31/12. Shipping code is good for purchase of ANY item on their website. Free Shipping Code: IN12
More Reviews and Giveaway Opportunities for Birdcage Press Products: Spell Outloud — Choice of Egyptian Art Cards or Battle Cards-Military Jets Finding Joy — Choice of Wild Cards – North American Birds or Art Ditto Game. Jimmie’s Collage –Choice of Impressionist or Renaissance Art Game Mama’s Learning Corner — Renaissance Art Game Harmony Art Mom — Choice of Go Fish for Art or Art Close-Up Cards The Curriculum Choice — Art Ditto Memory Game Hodgepodge — Go Fish for Wildlife – Sea Creatures The Traveling Praters — Choice of Go Fish for Van Gogh and Friends or 52 Amazing Places-National Parks Get Along Home — Choice of Wild Cards, Backyard Birds or Renaissance Art Game
What a great weekend of bird watching we had as we participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count! We have finished our counting and I thought I would post our results.
We compared our numbers to the last three year’s numbers and there is virtually no change. The only significant bird missing from our list is the Cedar Waxwing. We usually have a flock come through during the GBBC weekend and this year we did not. We were talking about why that may be and the only piece of information that may be significant is that every other year we have had at least one day of snow on the GBBC weekend. We have not seen the flocks of Cedar Waxwings that we usually see this time of year come through yet. What does that mean? Maybe nothing but it is worthy of noting.
Our family really enjoys the bird count each year and now that we are participating in Project Feederwatch we have become very good at recognizing our feeder birds. Learning to identify your backyard birds is easy and you can take it one bird at a time. Don’t get overwhelmed and make it fun for the family.
Bird Outdoor Hour Challenges
There is a series of bird nature study challenges here on my blog. Each challenge helps your family get to your own backyard birds. I invite you to use these free challenges as a way to develop a love of birds in your family.
There is a wealth of birding information on the internet but I have not found a more homeschool-friendly site than the ones sponsored by Cornell University. I would love to encourage you all to subscribe to their homeschool blog (click the logo above to pop over there now).
Of course, my favorite resource is their AllAboutBirds website which is a great tool for identifying and learning more about birds in your own neighborhood.
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