Citizen Science Archives

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Barb — 3 Comments

Watching Birds from our Observation Station

Watching birds is a daily activity that all in our family enjoy. Mondays and Tuesdays are Project Feederwatch days so we tally birds and keep official lists on those days and then share our data online. It is a simple routine that we look forward to each week. Since we have been participating in Project Feederwatch and the Great Backyard Bird Count for many years now, there are rarely birds we can’t identify but we did not start off with that level of knowledge. One bird at a time, we added to our life list.

Now that we can tell a Purple finch from a House finch and a House sparrow from a White-Crowned sparrow, that counting goes much faster. We have our clipboard, binoculars, and field guide right in the front window where we can view our bird feeding station and bird bath.

This month’s Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter has several smaller grids for you to use while observing birds in your yard. Each of these grids will help train your eyes to see different aspects of the birds and keep a simple record of what you see. Being able to name the colors and to describe the various bird parts is a first step to learning to use that information to identify your backyard birds with a field guide. The two grids in the newsletter are perfect for beginners or younger children and the other tally boxes will give your older students something to use with their nature journals.

I encourage you to print this page out of the newsletter and keep it with your bird watching resources. There is also a notebook page for your nature journal to record your feeder bird activity.

Diary of a Country Woman Collage @HBNatureStudy

I was inspired by The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden to include a poem and perhaps a sketch a bird’s egg in my nature journal. If you have the book, pull it out and add it to your nature table, open to one of the March pages which feature birds.

I am excited to share my recent Florida adventure with you. I was able to add quite a few birds to my life list while visiting Sanibel and Captiva Islands as well as visiting the Corkscrew Swamp Sactuary and Clam Pass Beach Park in Naples.

It was a trip of a lifetime and I thoroughly enjoyed my birding…wished I had taken my better camera but I still have quite a few interesting things to share. I hope to have the entry done by next week.

So have you gotten started with your bird grid studies?

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Barb — 15 Comments

Using Less Plastics Update – Cutting Back

Using less plastic is one of my long term goals this year and we started off January with a great gusto! If nothing else, focusing on where we use plastic and how it comes into our house everyday has made us aware that we need to make a conscious effort to eliminate the lazy ways we have developed in our family.

I decided I will keep a running list of all the ways we have either cutback or eliminated the use of plastic as we go through each month, sharing a few ideas each month. At the end of the year it will fun to see our improvement in this area of using less and reusing more.

#1 Organize our collection of reusable water containers.
By far the most wasteful use of plastic we have in our family is the use of plastic water bottles. The convenience of grabbing a plastic bottle as we go about our day was just too tempting. Of course we have reusable water containers and Mr. A pretty much always uses them for his water needs, the rest of us did not. That changed this month. I organized our collection of reusable water containers and put them in a convenient location in the kitchen instead of in the pantry. Now, we can grab a container at the beginning of each day and use it whether we are around the house, out hiking, or going to school or work. I decided I actually like the taste of the water from the stainless steel container better than from the plastic bottle and it keeps the water colder for a longer period of time.

#2 Use consistently our reusable shopping bags.
We have a nice collection of reusable shopping bags that go back and forth between the store, the house, and then back into the car. We have used these for a long time now but we not always as consistent as we could have been. I kept track this month and I only had to use six plastic bags this month – two from Target, two from the grocery, and two from Home Depot. I need to remember to bring in my bags to ALL stores. But, those six bags were recycled in various ways during the month so they were not wasted.

This month has been pretty exciting as our whole family has worked together to come up with ways to decrease our use of plastics. I know that we will never totally eliminate the plastic from our lives but that is not our aim. We are striving to be better at not being wasteful when there are alternatives that fit our lifestyle.

What is your best tip for our family in achieving our goal of using less plastic? Leave me a comment!

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.
Your Backyard: Birds
Your Backyard: Monarch Butterflies

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Barb — 6 Comments

Project Feederwatch Continues – More December Birds

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).

You can also follow them on Facebook .
You can download their FREE Homeschool Guide to Project Feederwatch.
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.

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Barb — 2 Comments

Backyard Birds – Autumn Images

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.

Fun Turkey Vulture song on YouTube.com

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.

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Barb — Leave a comment

Project Feederwatch – A New Season of Observations

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?

Project Feederwatch

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.

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!

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Barb — Leave a comment

More Nature Study Book 3 -Spring Buds, Catkins, and Blossoms

More Nature Study Book #3
Spring Tree Study – Buds, Catkins, and Blossoms

This challenge is aimed at getting you outdoors and looking at trees early in the spring. What should you be looking for? Try looking for buds, catkins, or blossoms. The challenge is not specifically about willow trees but the willow is covered in-depth in the Handbook of Nature Study and contains information you can apply to other trees. Since everyone has varying conditions, adapt this study to your local trees and their current stage of growth.

In the winter we looked at twigs. If you have a twig you have been watching, make sure to wrap up your study this week with a journal entry and final drawing.

Inside Preparation Work:

Read pages 651-654 of the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 179 on the Willow) and pages 648-650 (Lesson 178 on the Horse Chestnut). Read for information about the twigs, buds, and pussies.
View this page on catkins and note what to look for during your outdoor time. Explain that the “tassels” of the oak and “pussies” of the pussy willow are really flowers. Catkins appear before the leaves. There can be male and female catkins. Ebook users: Use the illustrations in the ebook to learn about the different ways buds can look and be arranged on the twig.
Interest arousing YouTube videos: Horse-Chestnut Bud and Birch Buds. Fascinating.

Outdoor Hour Time:

Go outside and look at the buds, catkins, or blossoms on trees in your yard or neighborhood. Ebook Users: See chart in the ebook for blooming times for common trees.
Gather some twigs with buds, catkins, and/or blossoms to bring inside for observation. Place each twig in a jar with water and label with the tree name if possible. Note: Catkins and blossoms contain pollen.
Advanced Study: Watercolor a spring blossom if you have one to observe in person.
View this video on YouTube which shows birds feeding on willows.

Follow-Up Activity:

Use your senses to observe your buds, catkins, and/or blossoms. (touch, sight, smell). Make a record in your nature journal including a sketch. Make sure to record the length of your bud and as many details as possible including color. Ebook Users: Optional coloring pages: Horse Chestnut and Pussy Willow.
Watch your buds over time and see what happens. Record how long it takes for the buds to open. Place a piece of white paper under the jars with catkins and observe what happens over the next few days. Record your observations in your nature journal or on a notebook page.
Examine your bud to determine what type it is using a hand lens.

Advanced study:

Extend your study to include information about the tree your bud came from using a field guide or the internet.
If you haven’t dissected a bud yet, use a bud you collected as part of this challenge. Each bud is different so take your time to remove the scales and layers as you go. View this image to see how you can record your work in your nature journal.
Sketch your catkin and research how the catkin functions as part of tree reproduction. Use this link to learn more about classifying buds: Buds. This one is an excellent visual guide: okPlantid.
You may be interested in previous spring tree studies: Year-Long Tree and Spring Tree.

Elizabeth shared this link with me and it is a perfect citizen science project to go along with this challenge. Project Budburst. Free printable journal pages you could use with this challenge too!

You can read about our Spring Buds, Catkins, and Blossoms study:
Buds and Catkins – Our Spring Nature Study

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Barb — 5 Comments

Great Backyard Bird Count 2012 – Complete!

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.

Western Scrub Jay 2
Oak Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Spotted Towhee 2
White-crowned Sparrow 10
Dark Eyed Junco 11
House Finch 10
House Sparrow 14
California Towhee 1
American Robin 42
American Crow 3
Anna’s Hummingbird 3
Nuttall’s Woodpecker 1
Mourning Dove 5
Northern Flicker 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Western Bluebirds 4
Lesser Goldfinches 4

You can see more images of our backyard birds in this post: December Bird List with Two New Birds .

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.

You can also follow them on Facebook .
You can download their FREE Homeschool Guide to Project Feederwatch.
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.

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Barb — 4 Comments

Reminder: Great Backyard Bird Count!

Junco, Norther Flicker, and Nuttall’s Woodpecker

Here is your great big reminder that the Great Backyard Bird Count starts this Friday, February 17, 2012! I am anxious to count birds with my family and to compare our results with last year. I am wondering if our unusual winter weather will effect our numbers and species.

YouTubeVideo Explanation

Here are some links:
What is the GBBC?
How to Participate.

I encourage you to participate this year!

Feeder friends…

You may want to complete the Winter Bird Challenge as part of the GBBC.
Some extra goodies for you: Spell Outloud’s Bird Writing Center Ideas

Posted on January 17, 2012January 14, 2022 by Barb — 3 Comments

Winter Feeder Birds – Our Sierra Foothills Friends

We spend a lot of time observing feeder birds as part of Project Feederwatch so this week’s focus on winter feeder birds is a perfect way to dig a little deeper. We have developed quite a list of backyard birds as part of this project. You can see our list here: Handbook of Nature Study – December Bird List. We have never seen a chickadee at our feeder but we still did the research as part of this Winter Bird Study Challenge.

We stared our nature study time focused on Chickadees as suggested in the More Nature Study Book 2 challenge. We pulled out the field guides and looked up to see what kind of chickadees we may see in our area.
My son also used Cornell’s All About Birds site to read more on the Mountain Chickadee which appears to be the only chickadee we may possibly observe. He completed the advanced notebook page from the ebook using information from the website.

We have heard the Mountain Chickadee on hikes up the mountain but have never actually seen one that I can remember. You can be sure we will keep our ears and eyes alert when we are out in that area again.

Since we didn’t get to observe a chickadee this week, I gave them the option to choose one of our feeder birds to learn a little more about and complete a notebook page recording their findings.

I chose the Mourning Dove which is a regular visitor to our front and backyard feeders. If I see one dove, I always look for the mate. They travel in pairs and seem to look out for each other as they bob along eating seed that has fallen from the platform feeders. I used a coloring page from Cornell’s Feeder Bird coloring book. I always feel so clumsy when I try to sketch a bird so having the simple outline to work from makes my journaling more enjoyable.

There is a past Outdoor Hour Challenge for brown birds including the mourning dove here: Outdoor Hour Challenge- Gray Birds: House Sparrow, House Wren, and Mourning Dove. Our entry for the challenge is found here: Brown Birds.

My son did my Project Feederwatch bird count with me today as part of this challenge. He looked up three additional birds in the field guide to complete his winter bird study.

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Barb — 5 Comments

Handbook of Nature Study – December Bird List with Two New Birds!

December Bird List –
Our Family’s On-Going Record of Our Bird Sighting
A Life Project

We have had a busy and full month watching birds in our yard and as part of our December travels. Project Feederwatch has become a natural part of our weekly routine and helps us take a few minutes two days a week to count birds that come to our feeders. First a few interesting photos and then this month’s bird list!

First off, our sweet and fabulous White-breasted nuthatch resident…or at least one of the three that entertain us everyday with their acrobatics on our backyard tree trunks. Ups and downs and lots of pecking are observed as we watch out the window. They also have a very distinct bird sound that they make and we are alerted to look up when we are outside and they are present. If you click the link above and click the Pacific song, you will hear what our nuthatch sounds like (there is an Eastern song as well).

I had to zoom this one in and crop it to show you this cute little guy and his expression.

Our beloved California Towhee in the feeder….usually he scratches around under the feeder but today he showed up for pictures. Isn’t he interesting with his pink-orange rump and pink-orange around the eye? There is always a pair in the yard and they don’t ever stray very far from each other. We learned that the colored patch under the tail is called the “crissum”.

Here is the other half of the pair….up on the branch, waiting for a turn in the feeder. (Males and females look alike.)

Since we started participating in Project Feederwatch, we have seen three of these Spotted Towhees in the yard. They are strikingly beautiful birds and since they are not year-round residents we try to enjoy them while they are here.

I love the way this bird friend is clinging to the twig and posing. You can see the dried up blackberries on the vine that we left from the summer garden. The birds are seen frequently stopping by for a purple snack.

The Western bluebird enjoys a little bath this time in our front yard. I still get excited when he comes to visit. They usually come in a small bunch and then leave all at the same time. Lovely.

Here is the very best shot of the Anna’s Hummingbird at our feeder that I could capture to share. The flash accidentally went off but that really shows his beautiful ruby/pink/iridescent color. We have one or two at a time in the feeder these days, usually a male and a female. There might be more than two since the feeder is emptied frequently even at this time of the year.

In Our Yard – mostly at the feeders

Spotted towhee
Dark-eyed junco
House sparrow
White-crowned sparrow
Mourning dove
Western bluebird
Mockingbird
Western scrub jay
American robin
White-breasted nuthatch
California towhee
House finches
Lesser goldfinches
Anna’s hummingbird
Oak titmouse
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Acorn woodpecker

Out and About:

American crow
Northern flicker
California quail
Steller’s jay
Wild turkeys
Brewer’s blackbird
Pigeons
White-tailed kite ***New to our life list
Red-tail hawk
Barn swallow
Bewick’s wren ***New to our life list
Downy woodpecker – hanging on a tall weed (more on that later)

I would love for other families to join ours in watching your feeder birds. It is super easy and you just need to devote a few minutes a week to getting to know your feeder birds one bird at a time. Email me with any questions you have about the program.

So which bird photo did you like the most? I think I like the California towhee in the feeder the best since it is one that I have been trying to snap for awhile now.

Category: Citizen Science