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Posted on March 14, 2011 by Barb — 3 Comments

Family Mammal Study – Unexpected Deer and Our Usual Squirrels

As part of preparing for our mammal study this week, I pulled our mammal field guide from our shelf to have for easy reference. I opened to the introductory pages and I would love to share a few thoughts from those pages with you in this post.

Most mammals are creatures of the darkness, only becoming active at night after dark and returning home again before dawn.
Most nocturnal mammals communicate by odor which humans cannot detect and with sounds which are frequently high pitched and low in volume.
Direct observation of most mammals is difficult except for a few species like chipmunks and squirrels.
The vocalizations of mammals have not been extensively explored and most make brief sounds called “call notes”.

We were walking along our usual trail having a great conversation when my son twirled me around to get me to look up on the hill. He had spotted a few young deer not too far from where we were. They were slowly moving along, not really paying too much attention to us.

California mule deer are very common in our area and we often see groups of 8-10 deer alongside the road or in grassy meadows. My husband actually hit a deer with his truck last month when he was coming home from work…minimal damage and the deer bounced back up and ran off into the woods. He was lucky. He once hit a deer and it totaled the vehicle.

We were planning on studying our backyard squirrels this week as part of our mammal study but we spent a little time reading up on the mule deer too. California mule deer are very graceful and agile mammals. They have lovely eyes but don’t let those innocent looking eyes fool you. They have been known to eat my garden down to the ground in one night.

There are three fox squirrels and one gray squirrel in our yard just about every day. They are in the bird feeders and up in the trees chattering at us and the dog pretty much all day long. I started off trying to keep them out of the feeders but it is an impossible task.

They are very acrobatic and can get to just about any of our feeders.

We spend time each day watching these very acrobatic mammals hop from limb to limb and then hang upside down to eat from the feeders.

Here is a coloring page for a Fox Squirrel. We found this website that has a recording of the sound the fox squirrel makes.

Again, I ended up including photos as part of my nature journal entry to show the differences between the Western gray squirrel and the Fox squirrel.

One of my sons told me that it used to be an “event” when the gray squirrel showed up in the yard but now we have so many squirrels that they are commonplace. We have started to think of them as rodent pests rather than welcome visitors.

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Barb — 6 Comments

Bird Stories for the Week: Hummingbird, Hawk in the Feeder, Raven, and Doves

Spring is a time for the birds. They seem to be everywhere and always making beautiful songs or calls to get each other’s attention. We have been keen to look out for new birds but the birds that came along this week were totally unexpected.

First, there was this Anna’s Hummingbird along our walking trail….he was giving his little squeaky sound which caught our attention. (If you click the link, there is a button to listen to what he sounds like.) I’m surprised that we were able to snap a good image of him before he sped off up the hill. I love that it is getting closer to hummingbird time in our yard….time to clean up the old feeder and get it hung on its hook.

Here is another bird that we heard before we saw him in our front yard. This Common Raven was up atop the utility pole across the street making a terrible racket. HERE is what he sounds like. There is a distinct difference between the sound of a crow and that of a raven. We have never had a raven here before at the house but I have seen them just up the road a bit so perhaps he was just passing through. (Sorry for the blurry photo but he didn’t let me get ready before he flew away.)

The mourning doves have made themselves a common visitor to the frontyard feeder. They show up in a pair and strut around under the feeder to clean up after the sparrows who spill seed. The doves took a break on the new retaining wall, perhaps they felt at home with the metal quail sculptures there along the edge. It was worthy of a photo.

Here is a close up of one of the doves in my front yard under the feeding station. They are typically found scratching around the base looking for a little nibble. The sound they make as they fly away is like a whirring, you can hear it on the Cornell page. (Scroll down and listen to the “wing whistle” clip.)

This one is hard to see but it is a Swainson’s hawk that is tormenting the birds in my yard. It has been here every day and is getting bolder and bolder. Mr. A saw him swoop down and get a sparrow and fly away. I have seen him making a move to the birds in the feeder and he actually perched on top of the feeding station one time. Today he landed on the ground near the feeder and looked right at me. Although I really think he is a beautiful, fascinating creature….I wish he would eat his lunch somewhere else.

“Their eyes are remarkably keen; they can see a moving creature from a great height, and can suddenly drop upon it like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Their wonderful eyes are far-sighted when they are circling in the sky, but as they drop, the focus of the eyes changes automatically with great rapidity, so that by the time they reach the earth they are nearsighted, a feat quite impoissible for our eyes unless aided by glassses or telescope.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 108 (section on hawks)

We had robins and cedar waxwings pass through again which is always interesting. There was also a honking V of Canada Geese that flew overhead this morning. So ends our bird week in review….

What have you seen this week? Leave me a comment with your most interesting bird observation this week. I love to learn about new birds.

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Barb — 14 Comments

2011 Winter Series OHC #10 Early Spring Flowers

Winter Series #10 Early Spring Flowers

Hardly seems possible that we will be finished with all our winter nature study after this week! I think completing the challenges makes the time go by faster for some reason. This has certainly been a memorable winter season as far as the weather for most of us and I think we did a great job taking advantage of the opportunities that came our way.

My favorite posts are the ones that share the unexpected joy of winter nature study. Thank you for sharing all your wonderful experiences with the Outdoor Hour Challenge.

If you missed last week’s list of spring challenges, here is a LINK.

If you are ready to read some more about the spring series of challenges, I completed a Squidoo page where they are all organized with additional links and ideas.

Spring Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges

Thank you to all the Winter Series and Winter Wednesday participants. We enjoyed reading all your entries and sharing your nature study.

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Barb — 7 Comments

OHC Winter Insects and Hike With a Waterfall

We had almost given up trying to fit in a winter insect study but it was such a perfect day today to get outdoors that we took advantage. I whipped up some sandwiches, we jumped in the car, and we had a little picnic before we took a hike on our close-by and most familiar trail.

What impressed me the most as we started to hike was the greenness all around us! The grasses, the mosses, and the ferns are what Crayola would call “spring green”. It felt good to get outside and hike…we saw a red-tailed hawk right above us and it was amazing! We heard robins and Western scrub jays as we went along, nice to hear the familiar spring sounds in the woods.

Then the sky and clouds captured my eye and the beauty made me stop to admire and try to get a good shot of just how beautiful the almost spring sky is in our neighborhood today. We had a hail storm around 5:30 AM today and then the storm passed and the clouds parted, revealing a bright blue sky.

So for our insect study I was hoping to find some oak galls or leaf miners and I was successful in finding one of those things.

Leaf miners are talked about in the Handbook of Nature Study starting on page 329 (Lesson 77).
“Among the most familiar of these are the serpentine miners, so called because the figure formed by the eating out of the green pulp of the leaf curves like a serpent…..The serpent-like marking and the blister-like blothces which we often see on leaves are made by the larve of insects which complete their growth by feeding upon the inner living substance of the leaf.”

We saw evidence of other insects all around the trail when we stopped to look closely.

As I was taking these photos, I happened to see this guy. I have absolutely no idea what kind of insect it is but was great to observe him this afternoon, a sign of life in these woods.

The next leg of the hike had some surprises in store for us. Like these very first of the season Shooting Stars!

And these colorful and cheery buttercups…added bonus….some small fly-like insect.

I have been down this trail a hundred times and I haven’t ever noticed how nicely this manzanita is shaped. It must be pretty old because it is taller than most of the manzanita in this area and looks more like a tree than a bush. See the nice oak on the left all covered with spring moss?

On the way back up the trail we stopped to admire the waterfall and I was excited to see the early spring saxifrage beginning to sprout. Soon it will be blooming and I will know it is spring.

Kona had to get in the water while she waited for me to finish my photo taking. She moved some rocks around in the water with her nose and got a drink.

Here is the waterfall from the trail. This is looking up and there is a section below where we are so the sound of rushing water is heard from the parking place all the way down to where we turn around and come back up. It is one of those very relaxing and comforting sounds that we enjoy on this hike.

Here is a red insect I spotted while I was crouched down taking photos of the saxifrage. I don’t know what it is but it had wings and eventually flew away.

I think that wraps up our hike and our insects for our study. We are going to try to identify the red insect in the photo above and add it to our nature journals this week. What a great day outdoors! I think I have been color deprived because just seeing the few wildflowers, the greens of the grasses and mosses, and the colorful insect has brightened my mood. I think we all feel better.

Update:
I updated my last entry with a photo from last summer….we were at the redwood forest in Northern California. Click over and scroll down to see how small we are in comparison to the base of the tree!

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Barb — 8 Comments

Magnificent Redwoods – Closer Look and a Nature Journal Entry

There are three kinds of redwood trees: Coast redwoods, Dawn redwoods, and Giant sequoias. I have two of the three in my neighborhood. We have a sequoia in our backyard and there is a small grove of redwoods planted across the street at the school. We stopped last week to take a closer look at the redwood while we were out on a walk.

The bark of the redwood is spongy and in the photo above you can see how you can peel the bark in strand-like fibers. This tree is such an amazing creation and our family has found delight in learning the details of the life-cycle of this tree.

Here is an excerpt from the Save the Redwoods League website:
“The coast redwood is one of the world’s fastest growing conifers. In contrast to the tree’s size, redwood cones are very small — only about an inch long. Each cone contains 14 to 24 tiny seeds: It would take well over 100,000 seeds to weigh a pound! In good conditions, redwood seedlings grow rapidly, sometimes more than a foot annually. Young trees also sprout from their parent’s roots, taking advantage of the energy and nutrient reserves contained within the established, shallow root system.”

Isn’t this just amazing to see? I grew up with a Coast Redwood in my backyard but I don’t ever remember noticing this part of the growth cycle before. I love the way a more regular nature study has opened our eyes to the wonderful things right in our own neighborhood. Trees seem to become just part of the landscape unless we slow down for a closer look. I feel like a poet sometimes when we are looking at trees….words just seem to spill out. You cannot stand under one of these mammoth trees and not have a whole string of adjectives come to mind.

We are going to do some more research on the way the redwood will regenerate and I am sure this study will continue when we take our camping trip to coast of Northern California later this summer, a trip we have taken before but we are all eager to do again. A whole forest of redwoods is an experience to treasure.

Here I am last summer (2010) at Humbolt Redwoods in Northern California.
Does that give you an idea of how tall these trees are in real life?

I am trying to be more disciplined about adding to my nature journal regularly. It isn’t so much that I don’t want to take the time but rather that I always spend way more time than expected doing research, reading field guides, and then getting lost in joy of the actual journaling time. Even the simple task of sketching a small twig from the redwood into my nature journal brought into focus some special attributes that a casual glance could not reveal. I have been enjoying adding some photos to my entries and find that the combination of sketching, writing, and adding a photo brings me a great sense of satisfaction.

We have had a really busy week so the small square activity and our mammal study have been postponed. Guess who we will be learning about for our winter mammal study? Mr. Fox Squirrel!

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Barb — 7 Comments

2011 Winter Series OHC #9 and Winter Wednesday #9 – Mammals in Winter Nature Study

Our Resident Pair of Fox Squirrels in Our Backyard

This week you are going to spend some time focusing on mammals.

OHC Winter Series #9 Mammals

Winter Wednesday #9 Mammals

Link for you to check out: Hibernation
This pdf can be printed out and shared with your children.

Ideas for you to try:
1. Keep a record of animal tracks you have observed in the snow or mud. Record your findings in your nature journal along with a drawing, the date, the weather, the time of day, and the type of animal if you have identified it at this time.
2. Compare a dog’s and a cat’s footprints in the snow or mud.
3. Research an animal that hibernates and record what you learn in your nature notebook. You can also sketch your animal and what its tracks look like.

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Barb — 7 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival and Spring Nature Study 2011 Plans

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Spring 2011 Plans

For all of you who have emailed me asking about what the plan is for our spring nature, I finally came to some concrete decisions. I decided I did not have time in my schedule to create a new set of challenges so we will be completing some of the challenges from last year along with our spring observations of our Queen Anne’s Lace.

If you purchased my Spring Series ebook in 2010, you are all set to go. If you would like to work from the challenges on the blog, they are on the tab at the top. If you would like to have all the challenges and the notebook pages on hand, you can purchase the ebook from this LINK.

Schedule for Spring 2011

March 18, 2011: Signs of Spring (Bonus challenge with notebook page.)
March 25, 2011: Spring Cattail Observations
April 1, 2011: Spring Queen Anne’s Lace Observations (This will be a new challenge, including a notebook page.)
April 8, 2011: Spring Weather Observations
April 15, 2011: Spring Tree Observations
April 22, 2011: Spring Bird Study
April 29, 2011: Spring Wildflower/Dandelion Study

Please note that there are five more studies (apple tree, cats, snakes, earthworms, ants) included in the ebook that we will not be completing as part of the 2011 Spring Series. You are free to complete those challenges and post a link in the original challenge listed on the Spring tab at the top of my blog.

Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival

I apologize for the simplicity of the links this time around. I hope you take the time to check the entries out and leave behind some nice supportive comments. 🙂

Winter Bird Study- Great Backyard Bird Count

Tricia – Hodgepodge Mom
Anne – Harvest Moon by Hand
Casey – Bumpin’ Along The Road Less Traveled
Angie – Petra School
Dorina –Out Side Blue
Heather – Kingdom Arrows
Phyllis – All Thing Beautiful

Winter Evergreens, Conifers, and Tree Study

Winter Cattails, Weeds, and Queen Anne’s Lace

Heather – Kingdom Arrows
Tricia – Hodgepodge Mom
Angie – Petra School Cattails and Weeds
Shirley Anne – Bugs, Beetles, and Barefoot Days

Salt Study

Anne – Harvest Moon by Hand
Heather – Kingdom Arrows

Winter Insects

Kattie – 2 Ladybugs and a Lizard

Winter Weather, Sky, and Snow

Tricia – Hodgepodge Mom Sky and Weather
Heather – Kingdom Arrows
Anne – About a Bug
Shirley Anne – Bugs, Beetles, and Barefoot Days

Getting Started Challenges

Anne at Harvest Moon by Hand – #1, #2, and #3

Thank you for all your participation. It has been an excellent month of nature study!

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Barb — 9 Comments

My Fine Feathered Friends and Those With Bushy Tails

It’s been a week for the birds…..

Who are you looking at?

Camera shy…or is this his better side?

Me and My Gal!

Who you callin’ yellow?

Playing Statue.

Puffed Up With Pride….King of the Tree…Lord of the Flock.

Snacking on the Pink Stuff.

Now on to the furry friends…

Gray squirrel, gray squirrel, swish your bushy tail.

Late for the fun…snow storm slowed me down…just a little.

“Where have you seen a squirrel? Does the squirrel trot along or leap when running on the ground? Does it run straight ahead or stop at intervals for observations? How does it look? How does it act when looking to see of the coast is clear?” Handbook of Nature Study, page 236.

If you have a squirrel to observe, I highly recommend looking at Lesson 57 in the Handbook of Nature Study. There are quite a number of questions to answer and to record in your nature journal. In this section Anna Botsford Comstock also gives the account of “Furry” their pet squirrel in journal style that you might like to read for fun to your children.

Hope you enjoyed taking a look at my friends.

As part of Tweet and See, here is our list of February 2011 birds observed for the month:

Mourning dove
Acorn woodpecker
Nuttall’s woodpecker
Northern flicker
Oak titmouse
White-breasted nuthatch
American robin
Cedar waxwing
Spotted towhee
California towhee
White-crowned sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
House finch
House sparrow
Canada goose
Western scrub jay
Anna hummingbird
Lesser goldfinch
Red-shouldered hawk
American crow
Brewer’s blackbird
Turkey vulture
Rock pigeon
California quail

Posted on February 25, 2011January 10, 2022 by Barb — 12 Comments

2011 Winter Series #8 One Small Square and Winter Wednesday #7 Winter Insects

***Winter Series #8 One Small Square-Winter
(You can also read my Squidoo Lens: Square Foot Nature Study.)

***Winter Wednesday #7 Winter Insect Study
A couple of extra links for winter insects:
Where Do Insects Go In Winter?
Where Have All The Bugs Gone?

If you are currently experiencing lots of snow (like we are), perhaps today is not the day to do this challenge. Pick one of the other challenges from the winter series: Filter snow, melt snow, look for animal tracks, observe some birds, or notice tree silhouettes.

There are plenty of challenges that you could try or do again this week if you can’t do the small square or get outside to look for insects. I look forward to reading about your family’s nature study this week. I am so enjoying glimpsing into your winter world and all of the bird study entries from last weekend.

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Posted on February 22, 2011 by Barb — 6 Comments

Nature Loving in February-It’s For the Birds

“To the nature-lover February is the winter month of special charm. The forests on the snowy hills take on many lovely tints varying from dull to dark blue and from lilac purple to amethyst. The snow is toned with purple shadows and the skies in the morning are dull blue at the horizon and rosy and misty above until the blue of the upper skies is reached. Let us enjoy every day of February whatever the weather and then will our spirit be strong for blustering March.”
Anna Botsford Comstock, The Nature Study Review.

Yes, we really do get snow here in our part of California…..not much and it doesn’t stick around too long but this was the second of our snowstorms of the season and we are expecting a much bigger storm over the upcoming weekend (predicting 4-8 inches). We will get to enjoy some winter nature study and winter walks in our own neighborhood.

For now our focus outdoors is observing birds as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count but now that the counting time has passed we will continue to enjoy our feathered friends.

I already shared our first list of birds spotted on Friday and pretty much our list didn’t change for Sunday and Monday except to add Lesser goldfinches and Canada geese. I love sharing my snow day with the birds.

I think part of the charm of participating in the GBBC is that we get to see what other homeschooling families observe along with their list of common birds. Apparently this is something that has held its charm for over a century. I read this excerpt in the Nature Study Review….copyright 1917. It was titled, “A List of Birds That Easterners Would Like To See”.

“The editor is recipient of the following record from Miss Barbara Marx, eleven years old, and a member of this bird class.”

“I am enclosing the list of birds we have observed. We means the fifth and sixth grades of the Catilleja School of Palo Alto, California. The other morning Miss Hayes, our teacher, divided us up into groups so that we wouldn’t frighten the birds away, and it was then we the owl, cedar waxwing and woodpecker. The only peculiarity we have found worthy of note is that the towhee scratches with both feet at once.

White Crowned Sparrow, Gold Crowned Sparrow, Oregon Robin, California Robin, California Towhee, Willow Goldfinch, Bush-tit, California Jay, Crested Jay, Anna Hummingbird, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Bluebird, Woodpecker, Barn Owl, Cedar Waxwing”

It warmed my heart when I read that little letter. I realized that watching birds was an activity that children enjoyed a century ago and today we still enjoy taking a few minutes to observe the many birds we have in our own neighborhoods. Let’s hope that in another hundred years children are still taking time to learn about the birds in their world….whatever that world may look like.

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