Winter may not seem the best time to start a small square study but it’s not impossible. Someone asked in the original challenge how to complete this study when there’s a lot of snow on the ground and here is my response:
“I know when we have snow we shovel a path from the door to the street. Perhaps extend that path a little out into an area where there is dirt underneath. I would also try to get to an area that’s under a tree, since up next to the tree there’s usually a little space between the snow and the tree trunk.”
One family commented this after completing the Winter Small Square Study:
“We had an hour that we needed to be out of the house, and this seemed like an easy way to dive back into outdoor hour challenges after hibernating most of the winter. Thanks for changing my attitude (once again) about getting outside. This is do-able!”
Make sure to click the link above to read the entire Outdoor Hour Challenge with helpful links, nature study ideas, and suggested follow-up activities.
Please note this challenge is found in the Winter Series ebook, included in the Ultimate Naturalist Library membership. Log into your membership and scroll down to the ebook download link.
Included in the ebook, there’s a custom notebook page for this challenge.
Have you ever seen the One Small Square books from Donald Silver? I own the whole series and we’ve used them numerous times in our nature study. My boys loved the illustrations and I appreciated the simple activities suggested in each book. Check them out at your local public library or online at Amazon.
We started a yearlong study of cattails back in September and now’s the time to start thinking about making some winter observations of this interesting plant. We have a patch growing out along a pond near our home and we will be trekking over to take a look as soon as we have a sunny, warm day. We’ve had quite a bit of snow and the pond should be frozen so that should make it interesting.
Make sure to click the link below to read the entire Outdoor Hour Challenge with helpful links, nature study ideas, and suggested follow-up activities.
Please note this challenge is found in the Winter Series ebook found in the Ultimate Naturalist Library membership. Log into your membership and scroll down to the ebook download link. Included in the ebook, there is a custom notebook page for this challenge.
As the new year begins and I start to think about what direction I want my nature study to take me, it’s clear to me that I still have so much to learn about my new home here in Central Oregon. So, why not continue to soak in the things in my local habitat once again?
I want to keep in mind that learning about the ordinary and everyday things in my habitat allows me to notice the extraordinary or unusual things that appear.
Plus, a new goal for me this year is to show that no matter where you live or what your age is, you can always find something of interest to learn about close to home. Nature study doesn’t need to be a big commitment of time or involve a lot of travel. The best and most meaningful nature study topics are those that your family comes into contact with during your everyday activities.
We can use fresh eyes and an open heart to make this the best year of nature study ever!
Nature Study Goals 2019
1. Use the Outdoor Hour Challenge topics to stimulate my interest in my local habitat and help to build my skills as a naturalist.
Use the information in the Outdoor Hour Challenge and the lesson suggestions in the Handbook of Nature Study as they apply in my area or find something closely related to learn about and record in my nature journal.
2. Keep a detailed record of my nature observations.
Daily journal and a 5-year journal – Start a new daily journal and useThe Naturalist’s Notebookduring 2019.
Field notebook – Carry a small notebook with me at all times to make notes of important things.
Personal nature journal– I will continue using my spiral bound sketchbook for my detailed nature journal.
I just keep envisioning myself outside hiking and exploring again with no pain. Overall, that is my biggest goal for 2019!
3. Hiking and Kayaking
Use local maps and books to find places to get outside and hike on a regular basis. I’m thinking of marking a twenty mile radius from my house on the map to see if I can really get to know my local area.
Kayak during the warmer seasons, completing two new local kayak trips already requested by my husband.
4. Read nature related books this year.
Narrow down my list to four official books but also use books to learn about things that I become interested in during my travels. I haven’t picked a list of books like I’ve done in the past; rather I’m on the lookout for particular topics.
This year isn’t as ambitious as many years in the past. I have a lot of writing I want to accomplish, so I’m trying to temper my goals with the limitation that there are only so many hours in the day. Plus, I’m still on the path to recovery from my hip surgery and that will be the focus during the first quarter of the year as I regain my strength and flexibility.
If you would like to join me by making your own nature study goals, I’ve included a free printable goal planning page below. Use it to make a few goals for you and your family. Keep it simple and then create a plan for accomplishing your goals. Make steps now to help create a fantastic year of getting outside and learning more about your local habitat!
You can join as an Ultimate Naturalist Library member and immediately have access to hundreds of nature study ideas and printables. The library is growing every month and there are plans for publishing 4 new ebooks in 2019! If you join now, you’ll have access to those ebooks as soon as they publish!
Click the graphic above to see the complete benefits of a membership. Join and make 2019 the best year of nature study ever for your family!
Use the discount code NATURE5 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership!
This is the second in a series of willow studies that will guide you through a complete year of observing a local willow. The Autumn Willow Study featured the changing color of the foliage and the willow’s shape. Now, in the winter season, we will look at its twigs and buds.
Start Here: Willow Nature Study – Handbook of Nature Study Lesson 179 (pages 651-655)
Pay particular attention to suggestions #2 and #12 in Lesson 179 for specific winter-related willow study ideas.
You may also wish to look for galls on your willow. They are shaped like little wooden roses and are created by an insect during the summer.
Activity: Tie a string on a twig attached to your willow. Observe and record in your nature journal the twig’s changes for a few months. You can see our autumn willow study here in this entry: Beginning a Year Long Willow Study.
Both Ultimate and Journey level members here on the Handbook of Nature Study have access to a new winter willow notebooking page for recording your winter observations. Look for it in your printable library.
If you want to become a member here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you can click the Join Us button for more details. Benefits include those shown above including access to ebooks, notebooking pages, archived newsletters, and new ebooks and printables published during your membership.
Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:
Bark Patterns * Winter Willow Study * Shivering
I’m excited to share 3 new notebooking pages with members here on the Handbook of Nature Study! These will spice up your January nature study sessions as you look at some winter-related topics.
(See the end of this post for more information on how you can become a member.)
Bark Patterns Notebook Page: With most trees stripped bare of leaves before spring, right now is a great time to get a good look at the wonderful variations of pattern, color and texture that form the trunks and branches of local urban trees. With a little practice, you’ll be able to easily identify many local tree species by name just by looking at their bark. Here is a website you may wish to look at: Tree Bark and Twig Guide.
Winter Willow Study Notebook Page: Twigs and Buds: We will be continuing our seasonal willow study in January and this notebook page is perfect for recording your willow observations! You can see the Autumn Willow Nature Study for more willow study ideas.
Shivering Notebook Page: Have you ever wanted to learn more about why animals shiver? This notebook page will get you started and then give you a place to write down all the interesting things you learn.
Note: If you have any subjects you would like me to create nature notebook pages for, please let me know in a comment here on the blog or in an email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
Use the discount code NATURE5 for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership!
I was thinking about completing another year of intense nature themed reading in 2019. But, in light of making my Nature Goals for 2019 (soon to be posted); I could see that I would easily be overwhelmed with a big list of books on top of everything else I’m hoping to accomplish.
So, I cut the number of books to four and I’m going to be a little more flexible about which particular books I’ll be reading. I have only one specific book chosen so far but I’ll be doing a little more research into the other three selections as the year unfolds.
Please note this entry includes Amazon affiliate links to books I plan on purchasing and reading in 2019.
New Field Guide – I’ve had my eye on a particular field guide that features the birds of Oregon.
Travel – We have in mind a trip to Maine in the fall with our daughter. I hope to visit Acadia National Park, so maybe a book on that particular area as a way to plan our adventure.
Misc. topics to be determined – nature poetry, drawing skills, book on training dogs, classic Muir?
As usual, I’ll be reading and sharing all of the books here on the blog as the year progresses.
If you have any suggestions for nature related books for me to consider reading this year, you can leave me a comment or shoot me an email.
Previous Years Nature Book Project Entries
The last time I did a Nature Book Project was in 2016 and here’s the link if you want to see that list of books: Nature Book Project 2016.
I did a Nature Book Project in 2015 as well and if you’d like to see those books listed out, here’s that entry: Nature Book Project 2015.
As part of this project, I created a printable nature book project planner page so you can choose your own custom list of nature books. Print it out and use the suggested categories to inspire some book ideas. Please note that the book links below are affiliate links.
4th Quarter Updates – Including Our Amazing North American Beaver
The winter season is upon us as well as the end of another calendar year. I won’t lie. I am so ready for the change. Since the middle of October, I have been sitting and gazing out the window for the most part. After a bilateral hip replacement, for weeks I couldn’t even get in my car because my legs hardly bent.
Thankfully, the view out my window is never boring and it’s constantly changing, providing endless delight with its animals, birds, clouds, and landscape view of the mountains. But, I watch my husband as he hikes to the river each day with our dog and I’m so ready to be out there with them! I’m learning patience.
Now, as I’m writing this update, I’m a little more mobile and starting to use a cane. The trouble is the weather has descended upon us and many days the snow and icy pavement make it a challenge to walk even with help.
Being confined indoors and doing a lot of sitting was conducive to making plans and thinking of future nature study projects. I made lists of new printable notebook pages for 2019 and planned out six new ebooks full of exciting nature study topics. I’m also reading lots of nature related books and field guides. My own nature journal has received a lot of attention as I keep notes of animals we capture on our critter cam and I catch up on things I’ve wanted to learn about from previous adventures. In the end, I’m making good use of my down time as I recover from this major surgery.
Dreaming of the new trails I will explore with new hips and no pain.
Now for the results of my 4th quarter goals-
Finish up the year in my Nature Observer Guided Journal.
Successfully stuck with this journal all year! I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this project. This pre-planned journal provided just the motivation I needed to keep a regular, almost daily, record of our nature experiences. It has inspired me to continue this routine and even improve on it with some ideas I thought of as I worked through the suggested activities.
This is the nature journal I used for the 2018 year and LOVED it! Please know this is an Amazon affiliate link to a book I purchased and used and love and highly recommend.
Accomplished this! Counting birds is just a given in our weekly routine. 10 species so far, 50 total birds counted. Walk as much as possible, allowing for healing from my hip surgery.
Accomplished! I’m back at my daily walking, even if it’s just down the driveway to look at the trees and birds. I’ve made it out the back gate a couple times, but the frozen snow and ground are a little bit difficult for me still. It will be a joy to walk freely and I’m starting to see the end of this challenging recovery.
Read at least two nature related books from my personal library.
Accomplished! I’ve been reading so much! I pulled lots more books off my own book shelves and ordered up loads of books from my local public library. I rarely get the chance to just sit and read so what a pleasure it has been to stick my nose in a book.
The most exciting nature find of the year happened during this last quarter of 2018. We finally captured a video of the beaver we’ve been chasing since last year. We used my critter cam and put it down by the river where we noticed they were gnawing on a tree. Then, after it was down on the ground, we were able to position the camera between the river and the tree. At last! We not only saw one beaver but two working together to take the limbs off the tree and then drag them down into the water. What an awesome experience!
It’s been a wonderful year of nature study for me personally. As always, I’m looking forward to setting and working on new goals in 2019.
Would you like to join me? I’ve created a planning sheet for you to use as you create your nature study goals. Please feel free to print and share as much as you like. If you post your goals somewhere on the internet, send me the link and I will pop over and read your thoughts!
It’s been another month of spending time inside recovering from my hip replacement surgery. There’s been a lot of time gazing out the window at the view and my birdfeeders. In addition, I’ve done quite a bit of reading about my favorite nature topics. There’s just so much to learn!
We spotted the first of our elk herd a week or so ago but haven’t seen them since. It’s always just at daybreak when they move behind our fence so we have to be up and watching or we miss them.
Plus we have been watching and waiting for our beaver to make his appearance. It all started with my husband noticing a tree down by the river that had been gnawed almost the whole way through. We set up our critter cam to see if we could capture the beaver at work but we missed it! We didn’t have the camera in place on the night they finished off the tree.
In the meantime, we’ve been trying to get a video of the beaver taking the limbs off the tree but so far we’re unsuccessful. We won’t be giving up!
Here are my pages from the last month for your inspiration.
This wildflower is a common sight on our walks to the river and in our yard too. We have a bit in our rock garden and some even growing in our lawn.
We tried to transplant a few of the silverweed plants to our new landscaping berm and next year we’ll see if they moved successfully.
Note the link above is my amazon.com affiliate link.
One of the most common birds in our birdfeeders is the chickadee. I realized we live in an area that has both the black-capped chickadee and the mountain chickadee. As I worked on my bird sketching skills, I created a page with a few facts and field notes for the two species.
I find that sketching subjects and writing a few pertinent facts down in my journal helps me to remember it better.
We started the new season of Project Feederwatch! I love this activity and look forward to each week’s counting days. If you aren’t familiar with the project, you count birds that come to your feeders for two days in a row basically once a week. You can watch the feeder for just a few minutes or as long as you have available. This super easy citizen science project helped me gain confidence in recognizing all the birds that come to our feeders by taking it one bird at a time. I highly recommend this for bird loving families with a birdfeeder in your yard!
In addition to my regular nature journal, I work daily in my Nature Observer journal. This is the perfect way to note all the simple every day thoughts and observations which over time give a fuller picture of your local habitat.
Don’t forget that I’m sharing a nature journal page each week on my Instagram account if you want to see the pages as they unfold. Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.And, if you want to create a page and share it on your Instagram for me to see, use the hashtag #OHCnaturejournal.
Nothing could be easier than creating a field notebook list for your nature journal!
This week’s challenge will help you make a list of nature study topics you observed during your outdoor time but aren’t quite ready to study in depth. As you work through this activity, you’re training your family to be more alert and giving them skills that actual naturalists use to learn more about their own habitats.
Soon, the weather and conditions may keep you indoors and this list of topics will give you inspiration to keep nature study going indoors.
Nature Study When the Weather is Too Cold or Wet to be Outdoors – Pull Out Your Field Notebook List!
Skim down your field notebook list of topics, choose one to topic to study, and then get out your Handbook of Nature Study and/or a field guide. Do a little research on your chosen topic and then create a nature journal page showing what you learned.
Archive Outdoor Hour Challenge – Click the link above to see the original challenge. Make sure to read the introductory pages in the Handbook of Nature Study to freshen up your nature study attitude!
The Field Notebook List is a tool you can use in planning your future nature study lessons!
Additional Suggestion:
Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 13-15 (The Field Notebook). In this section Anna Botsford Comstock helps us with a detailed description of her idea of a field notebook or nature journal. She also states that if done properly “they represent what cannot be bought or sold, personal experience in the happy world of out-of-doors”. Make note of any suggestions you want to implement with your children.
You can print and use the field notebook page included in the free autumn notebook page download above.
Make sure to click the link below to read the entire Outdoor Hour Challenge with helpful links, nature study ideas, printable notebooking pages, and suggested follow-up activities.
This Outdoor Hour Challenge is part of the 2018-2019 Plan here on the Handbook of Nature Study. We’ll be using the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock to discover new things about the world around us. Join us each Friday for a different nature study topic. Make sure to subscribe to this blog to receive the weekly challenge right in your email box.
If you want to become a member here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you can click the Join Us button for more details. Benefits include those shown above including access to ebooks, notebooking pages, archived newsletters, and new ebooks and printables published during your membership.
My view from the edge of the forest looks out onto both live and dead trees. This natural cycle of life and death is fascinating and a terrific nature study for families who want to see how there is value to a dead tree long after the last leaf has fallen from its branches.
At first glance, a dead tree is just that, a lifeless object that may or may not be attractive from a human standpoint. Our family heats our home with firewood so from a completely practical and human standpoint, the dead tree is valuable as a source of life-giving heat. But, upon closer reflection and my own personal observation, I’ve started to see how a seemingly lifeless tree is far from being lifeless. These trees are actually highly beneficial to enriching a forest habitat, supporting new life and sheltering a variety of other species of creatures and plants.
Taking a closer look, I see now that a dead tree is an important piece of the complex life cycle of my local habitat.
We’ve observed the nuthatches making their nests in the cavities of a dead tree’s trunk. They create a small opening to squeeze into and make a nest deep inside the protective walls of the tree’s bark and trunk. Doing some research, we discovered that about 85 species of birds in North America nest in dying or dead trees.
Behind our house, there’s a tree stump from a long gone tree. It’s toppled over at this point but if you look closely during the summer months, you can see where the ground squirrels go into their tunnel from under the protective shelter of this dead tree stump. We’ve seen them use the stump as an observation spot after they climb up on top of it and then stand on their hind legs as they survey the land.
We have a particular standing dead tree behind our house that nearly always has a bird perched up high in its gnarly branches. I’m sure from up there they have a clear view for hunting their dinner. Or, they can just sit up there and sun themselves.
There’s a downed tree behind our house that we like to sit on and observe the sky and mountains. As we sit, we note there are many insects, including ants that are using the trunk for their home. There are birds that shelter in its branches, and small rodents that are hiding under the trunk. We’ve seen a coyote digging under the trunk and then pouncing on something before moving along. I assume he found a small rodent meal.
Look at the tree trunk and you may see lichen, mushrooms, spider webs, ferns, and new trees growing.
Last autumn we left one of our burn piles with many dead limbs and dead tree branches as a place for critters to shelter over the winter. As anticipated, we spotted birds, squirrels, and elk attracted to the pile.
Our observations have led us to rethink our view of leaving dead trees, snags, and downed limbs as a natural resource for the varied wildlife we coexist with.
Of course, these are away from our house at a safe distance because we do want a defensible space if a fire comes through. They’re at least 100 feet from our house and we have a green space between the dead trees and our backyard. We’ve cleaned up the lower limbs from the trees nearer to the house to give us a clearer view of the landscape. I like to think there’s a safe buffer but we still take into account the importance of saving some of the dying trees for the sake of creating a healthy habitat.
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