I woke up this morning and realized that I did not schedule a winter study for our year-long Queen Anne’s Lace activity. So guess what? I will make it a bonus challenge with a free notebook page for all of you who are participating in this year-long activity.
We started way back last summer finding our own little patches of Queen Anne’s Lace to watch for a complete year. You can read about that challenge HERE.
Then in the autumn many of us returned to our patch of Queen Anne’s Lace and did some observations and nature journal entries. You can read about that challenge HERE.
Now it is the middle of winter and time to return to our Queen Anne’s Lace to make some new observations.
1. Read the section in the Handbook of Nature Study on Queen Anne’s Lace if you have not done so before. This is found starting on page 542 or it is the last subject in the “weeds” section if you have a different version that I do.
2. Return to your patch of Queen Anne’s Lace to make some wintery observations. Look at the shape of the plant, the feel of the stem, the look of the flower clusters and observe the seeds. We have some Queen Anne’s Lace plants that we want to remove so we will be pulling it up by the roots. We will take the opportunity to observe the tap root. (Please do not remove any plant by its roots unless you have permission from the property owner or it is in your own garden.)
3. Complete a nature journal entry with a sketch or watercolor of your Queen Anne’s Lace. You can also use the provided notebook page.
***The salt experiments are a fun way to learn about an everyday subject that all of us have in our homes. You might find the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study an interesting read as part of this challenge.
***Winter weeds are one of my favorite winter nature study subjects. If you would like to participate, here are a few suggestions from the challenge
1. Collect a variety of seeds from weeds in your local area and sketch them in your nature journal.
2. Gather a few varieties of weeds and display them in a vase.
3. Pick a weed you know you have and print out a coloring page for your nature journal.
My daughter has graciously made available her Salt Study Lapbook pdf to go along with this challenge. Please click over to her blog at Hearts and Trees to read more about it!
This week has been full of nature study….the informal kind that happens as we go about our everyday life. My boys are a big part of the experience and they discover things in our world that I miss. Their eyes seem to be open to so much around them, while my head is full of schedules and tasks that need to be done. I really must make a conscious effort to clear my head more when we are outdoors.
First of all, before I get into the pines and cones, I have to share a rare visitor to our backyard. This Northern flicker was up on the tree and Mr. A spotted it and brought it to my attention. Not the first time we have ever had a flicker in the yard but it has been a long time since we observed this interesting bird. They eat bugs and insects from the grass below the tree but they are considered woodpeckers. They also have a red flash on their wings when they fly.
Our focus on cones and needles this week was highlighted by two events.
The first happened last week when we had a huge windstorm with lots of gusts. The wind brought down small branches and cones on the trail where we walk and we were able to get a good look at both. These are not from a pine but a fir tree, Douglas fir. I love what it says in our field guide about the Douglas fir cone. It says, “mouse tail bracts grow between scales”. Sure enough…there they are.
The second event was a walk on our walking trail where we were trying to notice something interesting about pines. Here is a spot on the trail where there are two different pines growing side by side.
Notice the two different colors of needles.
They both have bundles of three and are about the same length. We are pretty sure after much study of our field guides and online sources that one is a Gray pine and the other is a Ponderosa pine. We are going to take our field guide back with us later today and see if we can nail the identification down positively.
What a great week we have had looking for cones and pines! I know that many of you are experiencing cold snowy weather but here in our woods we are enjoying abundant sunshine and no precipitation.
Guess what I spotted yesterday in my garden? The first daffodil of the year is starting to bloom! Crazy, crazy weather for us too!
Look at that beak! We were surprised when we looked out the window a few days ago and we saw three woodpeckers in our backyard. They were large birds and very colorful. They looked a little different than our “normal” woodpeckers so we had to look them up to identify them for sure.
We decided it is an Acorn woodpecker.
This beautiful bird is welcome in our yard at any time.
Here is a link to All About Birds for the Acorn Woodpecker.
We found a coloring page that will help us draw this bird in our nature journals.
We decided that we wanted to do a nature journal entry for the manzanita that grows alongside the walking trail. We did a little research and found that there are 106 species of manzanita in the world. I found a page that shows manzanita for Northern California with beautiful photos and descriptions.
It will soon be blooming and the buds are all starting to form. I read in my field guide that it is one of the earliest blooming plants in our area. The flowers are a pretty shape and after they start blooming I will make another journal entry to record those. This time I drew the leaf and a very stylized version of the whole plant.
I couldn’t get the color of the bark just right….in real life they are such a smooth dark red color.
We need to record this plant as well…miner’s lettuce. The official name is Claytonia perfoliata but the nickname comes from the Gold Rush days when the gold miner’s would eat this plant to get their vitamin C. It is a great plant that makes a great addition to a salad.
During the winter season the nature study subjects are smaller in number so we thought we should take advantage of the opportunities that we do have to put something new in our journals.
Here is fun short video on Miner’s Lettuce...how to identify and harvest.
Please feel free to complete one or both of the challenges as you have the opportunity. We would all enjoy seeing your entries and even if it is at a later date, please come back to this entry and add your link.
Evergreens on the Lake’s Edge
Don’t forget to check the Winter Wednesday Squidoo page for more information for #4 and #5 challenges to go along with this week’s study.
I forgot to mention last week with the winter weather challenge that my daughter has a Weather Lapbook Kit that you can purchase if you want to spend some extra time learning about your weather. Check it out on her blog Hearts and Trees.
We all have weather…..no doubt about it. Our family seems to notice the weather everyday and we often talk about how cold or how dry or how windy it is in comparison to last year or to the previous season. Sort of related this week, two family members came to me at separate times to tell me that the days are definitely getting longer. I had actually noticed it in the mornings and this morning in particular I realized that I did not need to turn the back lights on when I took the dog outside. The sky was just tinged with blue and the only luminary that I saw was Venus…nice and bright!
Weather Chart from the Autumn Series Ebook
We started this week keeping a daily record of our temperatures, sometimes several times a day just to see the variation. We compared this to our autumn study record that we kept in November 2010. There is virtually no difference except for perhaps we had more rain in November. We are going to keep going with our chart and see when we have a change in our weather.
Our tree silhouette study goes pretty much all winter so I had to try to come up with a new aspect to offer to the boys this week. We decided to note tree buds and to bring in some twigs from the forsythia bush to see if we can force some blooms.
Our sweet gum tree is already making some changes…the buds look like this right now.
Our birch is looking pretty much the same, it is in a shadier and cooler part of the yard.
The forsythia twigs are all gathered in a vase, sitting in the front window. I will let you know when and if they blossom.
Hope you had a great week of winter nature study and are getting outdoors a little each week to discover some interesting things in your part of the world.
We are so ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count and this month we thought we would join Heather over on her blog Kingdom Arrows for a new bird meme.
We live at about 2000 feet in elevation, in North-Central California, foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Our yard has pine and oak trees as the natural habitat, supplemented with a variety of bird attracting features like sheltering bushes near feeders, birdbaths at both ends of the yard, and seed bearing plants.
Weather this month has been unusually warm, very little rain, and absolutely no snow.
Here is our list for our yard– I have starred the most common birds at our feeders:
Dark-eyed juncos***
House sparrows***
Spotted towhees
California towhees
Western scrub jays***
White-breasted nuthatches***
Mourning doves
Lesser goldfinches***
Downy woodpeckers
Nuttall’s woodpeckers
American crows
Oak titmouse***
House finches***
Purple finches***
White-crowned sparrows***
Hummingbird—not sure of identification. We are thinking it was migratory.
Northern mockingbird
In our travels-
Mallard ducks
Common mergansers
Red-tail hawks
Cooper’s hawk
Red-breasted nuthatches
Steller’s jays
Red-winged blackbirds
Rock pigeons
Western bluebirds
We have been out looking for bald eagles but so far we have not scored a sighting. Our friend did last week so we are not going to give up!
Jamie joins the carnival this edition with their Cattails in Winter entry. What a treat to have an entry from their family because she always takes such beautiful photos!
Amy and her children share their Winter Cattail Entry. She writes, “It was a bit snowy and chilly this morning, but that did not hinder us from diving right into today’s winter challenge.” I love this attitude!
Heather submitted their family’s Winter Study of Cattails. They are really excited about starting this year-long study….great job finding some cattails to observe even in the snow.
World of Color
Tricia contributes this entry for the carnival: Winter World of Color. I love the blue berries!
Monica from Discover Their Gifts writes about their Winter Wednesday Color Walk. She has a clever idea to add to the color activity and don’t miss their journal entry.
Karen and her children write about their Winter Wednesday Color Walk. Even thought she says they didn’t find many colors, I think they had a great time trying!
Angie from Petra School (Pebblekeeper) shares their family’s Winter Color Scavenger Hunt. If you want some winter color, check out their dazzling entry.
Makita shares their Winter Nature Scavenger Hunt with carnival readers. You may be able to adapt her idea to your local area.
Winter Night Sky
Amy from The Teachable Heart writes about their Winter Night Sky and she includes ten things her children found interesting. If you have preschoolers, Amy always shares some great ideas for adapting the challenges to younger children.
Angie from Petra School shares their Winter Wednesday January Recap post with many of their activities. I want you to make sure to see her sky photos and see how she took some images through her telescope. Great entry Angie.
Nicole submits a beautiful entry, God was in the mood to brag. I am glad her eyes were open to the opportunity!
Winter Tree and Tree Silhouettes
Angie in GA shares their Tree Silhouettes entry for the carnival. Her boys found some extra treasures to observe during their hike.
DorinaLouise from Out Side Blue shares their very special birch tree study as part of this challenge. Please note that they live in a big city and they are finding opportunities for nature study.
Jessy from Our Side of the Mountain submits their Winter Wednesday-Conifers entry for you all to read. They did an excellent study and she shares some great resources that might help you in your pine tree studies.
Heather shares on her blog Kingdom Arrows about their Winter Tree Study. They picked one of my favorite trees to start their year-long tree study.
Winter Snow
Lorus and her kids completed the snow observations and they share their great photos and story on Because of Our Children.
Amy from The Teachable Heart shows their family’s experiences with Winter Snow . Another wonderful, resourceful entry from their family.
Amy and her family were able to take a snow day walk and she shares their wonderful experiences on her blog Hope is the Word. Here girls saw lots of colors too!
More Georgia snow in Angie’s entry: Outdoor Hour Nature Close to Home: Snow. Wonderful snow activity images and I think they had fun and learned something too!
Other Challenges
Quinn’s Family has an on-going study of Moths. They share their entry, Outdoor Hour Moths Part 2. From the expressions on her children’s faces, I think they are really enjoying their study!
Outdoor Hour Challenge #5 Focus Study – Nicole from Journey to Excellence shares one of their series of entries on their focus area of birds. I linked to their owl study and if you are looking for some ideas for your own bird study, I recommend that you take a look.
Bethany from Little Homeschool Blessings submitted their delightful Winter Squirrel Study. She includes a some extra resources and ideas.
That completes this edition of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. I wanted to mention that if you would like to be on the OHC Blog Carnival email reminder list, I will add your name if you send me an email to let me know you wish to be reminded near the end of the month to send in your carnival submissions. I have been keeping a running list of those that are participating but if you would like me to add your name, just send an email to harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.
Thank you to all who participated in the challenges in January and a special thank you to those that then sent in entries for the carnival.
I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.
~Henry David Thoreau
By now you are more than likely tired of seeing my snowshoe photos but since the season is full of opportunities to hike out there in the snowy goodness, I will continue to share some of the best shots and stories from our wanderings.
This trip was a sisters trip and my big sis and I spent part of our weekend out in the sunshine hiking/wandering, taking photos, talking, sharing aches and pains, and nourishing our love of beautiful landscapes. We heard Steller’s jays and nuthatches as we “tramped” through the woods.The creek sounds were always in the background and every now and then the quack of a mallard was heard over the crunching of our shoes.
This particular place is known for being a bear and eagle habitat. Although I have seen bears here in the summer and fall, I have never seen an actual bear or signs of bear in the winter. There are plenty of other animal tracks around but never any bear tracks. My sister was still a little uneasy but we did not see a bear on this trip, thank goodness, or she would have never let me forget about it.
There has been no fresh snow in awhile but there were places where we really did need the snowshoes. The weather was warm and I ended up just with a fleece jacket, no gloves, and my light knit hat. My sister was trying out a new set of snowshoes which were much smaller and lighter than mine. She said they were very easy to get used to and we felt good about being out for a long walk….not totally by ourselves in the woods but still alone enough to feel peaceful and refreshed.
We wandered through the woods and only once did we need to take our snowshoes off and jump across the creek. Yes, I said jump. I didn’t feel very graceful as I made the leap across into the snowbank but there was no one else around to see me….
The aspens make such a visual treat with their beautiful trunks.
Yes, the limbs of the bare bushes are that pinky-red in real life. Amazing color along the creek for a winter scene. I was so surprised that my point and shoot was able to capture the exact look of this winter creek.
Does it get any better than this? With a little effort my sister and I made it out to the end of the creek where it spills into the lake. The snow had all melted on this side of the water and we took off our snowshoes and stood in awe of the mountains, the snow, the reflections, the sky, the peacefulness of this place. I felt like I was in some beautiful outdoor cathedral and I sent my thanks to our Grand Creator for the gift of this afternoon.
There is my sister taking some photos of her own. We share a love for the outdoors and photography and she is an amazing nature photographer. All too soon we realized the day was coming to a close and we needed to make the hike back to the car. We were tired but it was a good kind of tired.
I hope to get up to the snow at least one more time, probably with my boys if we can fit in the time.
I am not the only one that has snowshoes. Don’t miss reading another mom’s experience with her snowshoes…it will warm your heart: Pink Snowshoes by Richelle at Educating Mother.
