Posts

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Barb — 4 Comments

Western Scrub Jays and Steller’s Jay: Our Outdoor Hour Study

For the most part these are pesky birds, chasing other little birds out of our feeders. They also are very noisy and their voice is more like a squawk than a song. 🙂

We often put out peanuts on our deck railing for them in the winter and they rally around and gather them up and store them in little holes in the garden. They do the same thing with walnuts and acorns so often times we find little walnut trees and oaks growing in our potted plants and in our flower beds.

They can be carnivorous as well. We had a dead skink in our backyard last year that we were observing and before we knew it, a scrub-jay swooped down and flew away with it. We saw him sitting on top of our neighbors roof pecking away at its snack. (I referenced the link to the entry that tells that story below.)

Last spring we had a nest of baby scrub-jays that we could observe from a bedroom window. We watched the babies as they hatched and then as they started to stick up their open beaks for mama and daddy to put something into it to eat. They were quite helpless. Here is an entry with a couple of photos: Scrub-jay nest. My son was able to get the above close-up of the baby Scrub-jay as it perched in the bushes in our front yard. Click the photo to get a good look at the baby feathers on his belly.

We have watched mama Scrub-jay teach her baby to fly in our front yard. It was painful to watch but the baby did eventually fly away after much coaxing from mama and papa. Here is the baby when it was learning to fly. It could sort of flap from the tree to the bush but then it was afraid to go anywhere else. The mama would fly back and forth in an attempt to demonstrate how to fly.

Look at that beak! We know why he has such a big pointy beak….he uses it to eat and peck and dig.

Here is a scrub-jay in the Mojave dessert. We were having a picnic and he flew down and grabbed my son’s sandwich roll and then he flew away with it….he stopped here and was pecking at the bread.

We also live where there are Steller’s jays and they are much more majestic in appearance than the scrub-jays. They have a crest on their heads and are a deeper, richer blue overall. They too are little pests. You can not have a picnic without one trying to grab something from your plate. They can be quite aggressive. They are very common in Yosemite National Park and you know the minute you open your picnic basket that they will come flying it to check out your selection.

Here is a video I shared before of a white-headed woodpecker in the forest. That is interesting enough but for this entry you might want to watch and see at about 1:00 the Steller’s jay that joins our picnic. I had put a couple of Cheez-its on the ground for him and he perches in the tree and cocks his head to look at us. Listen to the sound of his wings as he flies down to the ground to pick up the cracker. This is typical Steller’s jay behavior at a picnic. Bold and brave.

We do have Western bluebirds in our yard occasionally but not enough to really good a good look at them. We have observed their nesting and protecting behavior one time when we were out on a country road and there were some nesting boxes along the fence. It was spectacular to observe and their colors were brilliantly blue.

Scrub-jays are some of our favorite bird nature study subjects…..

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Barb — 1 Comment

Spring Wildflowers-Part 6

Here is a Gray Mule Ear blooming on a really sunny slope. We have been watching this particular plant for almost a month now and last night….we saw this cheerful bloom.

The whole sunny slope has come alive with wildflowers. The bees and butterflies are making an appearance as well. We actually saw a Tiger swallowtail this past week right in this flowering area. The white flower is popcorn flower.

This is Buck brush and it is now blooming all along the trail. It has a sweetish smell…it is a little too much for me and always reminds me that allergy time is upon us. This is not really a wildflower but rather a blooming bush.

This is what the bush looks like…this is sort of a scrawny one so I will try to get another photo of it the next time we walk.

This pinkish/purple flowered plant is lining the trail as well. It is along the edges of the path and it is really blooming right now. I don’t know what it is except that it is sort of shaped like clover but not really. Very pretty.

Definitely *not* a wildflower…..poison oak! It is very easy to spot right now because the new growth is bright red. We realize now just how much poison oak there is on this hike.

I am partial to purple wildflowers and this one (vetch) is decorating the hillsides right now….so pretty.

Spring is here!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Barb — 8 Comments

Spring Wildflowers Part 5 and How I Use My Field Guide

Lisa-Anne at the Berry Patch is hosting a “Spring Where You Are” photo challenge. She asked if I would share one of my spring wildflower posts……always willing to oblige a photo challenge. 🙂

My wildflower field guide has been mighty busy lately. I am using the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers along with two other more specialized guides to my region. The Audubon book has color photos and is much easier to use than the others but they all have helped me with identifying various things over the last few weeks. I mention the guides because I have had some families asking me what particular field guides I am using.

I start off with the Audubon which is organized by color and shape of the flower. If I find the flower then I usually confirm by looking it up on Google images and then following the links to read more about the flower. I will then pull out my Handbook of Nature Study to see if that flower is included in that book.

The boys are learning quickly how to use a field guide and they help me with seeing details that I might miss when we are observing a flower.

This batch of flowers is rather large. As the weeks go by, the number of flowers blooming is increasing tenfold. We also took a new fork in the trail and found some new plants and flowers to observe.

We came across some really large miner’s lettuce along the trail. Now that would make a great salad! I have tried eating a long time ago at summer camp and it is much like the texture of spinach and it doesn’t have the bitter taste that so many other wild greens have that I have eaten. My dad has a patch at his house and I just may pick some and try it again with the family.

New to us and very excited that I found an identification for it…..hairy lacepod or fringed pod which is an annual herb. This one was not in the wildflower field guide. I did learn that it is in the mustard family.

This is vetch that is really blooming all over the place right now. If you click on this photo, you will see some ants at the top of the plant. I am not sure what they are doing but it made for an interesting photo.

Here is another new one from today’s hike. Fringed Indian pink or California Indian Pink…even though it is bright red. This is what I had in the last post and it was just a bud. Now you can see what a great flower it is. This is really the only one we saw blooming so far so we look forward to seeing it along the trail more in the next few weeks.

Here is another shot of the mystery plant from the last post. It is amazingly interesting to examine. I did some research and found something very similar and it was called crane’s bill but the size of this plant is way too big. I have narrowed it down to being something in the geranium family so if you have any ideas…please leave a comment.

As a sidenote, I found this explanation of the purpose of the pointy things on the plant. The bottom of the spike is where the seeds are and the spike helps spread the seeds when it is time. Here is how one very non-technical person explained it….I love the explanation even if it is in layman’s terms:

“The “cranesbill” for which the plants are named describes the shape of the spikes extending from the fruiting bodies left behind when flowers fade. The seeds are formed in the puffy part at the bottom of the fruiting body. The problem is that the whole assembly was manufactured to serve as a catapult – when ripe, the seeds are flung out of their dry hull using the spring force of connective tissue that runs along the spikey bit (this is not a botanically correct description, by the way).”

This flower is just starting to bloom on the trail side. Miniature lupine. In real life, it is more purple but my little camera has a tendency to turn purple things blue. I will take more photos of this as it starts to bloom more.

Here is a really interesting grass. I have spent some time looking through plant and wildflower books lately and I have become interested in how many different kinds of native grasses there are in our area. This one caught my eye and we spent some time examining it up close.

Another mystery flower for today. this one is growing on a vine in a shady spot alongside the trail. What would my wildflower posts be if they didn’t include a “mystery flower”?

Edit 4/8/09: This is the flower of a wild cucumber. We saw the fruits starting to form and that made it much easier to identify.

Anyway, that is it for this batch of spring wildflowers. I already have a few more lined up for next time.

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Barb — 6 Comments

Tulips in the Garden: Wednesday Flower Study #3=Fresh Faces

Do you remember last fall when I was busy planting bulbs and sharing the process? I am now reaping the benefits of our labor….in the form of gorgeous tulips.

Breathtaking flowers that are amazing in color and shape. It makes me want to plant more!

We took the opportunity to do a little nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.

“There are a great many varieties of tulips, and their brilliant colors make our gardens gorgeous in early spring….Water-coloring drawings may be used as helps in studying the tulip. The red varieties are best for beginning the study, and then follow with the other colors; note differences.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 553 and 555

We looked at all the parts of the tulip and here is a good shot of the pollen on the inside of the petals. We also looked at tulips just opening and noted the shapes. We looked at the sepals and petals, the buds, and the open flower. We are going to wait until the petals fall off and then observe the seed pod. The HNS suggests dissecting the seed pod and making observations then.

We sketched and painted in our nature journals to remember our first bloom of tulips in this part of the garden. Previously, someone asked me about painting directly into the journal and it has never been a problem for us. We just leave the page open for a little while and it dries very nicely. I do not paint on back to back sides though.

So my best advice is to paint only on one side and let it sit long enough to dry.

One last tulip photo….

Creamy, dreamy white tulip.

Lurking in our garden at all times is the fearless Cocoa. This is her “Ferdinand the Bull” imitation….resting among the chickweed and the alyssum. Photo taken by my middle son….thanks Mr. A.

So that concludes our tulip study for this week. We now have three flowers completed and are on track to study poppies next week.

Now it is your turn. Pick a flower from the Handbook of Nature Study or from your garden and make your own flower study. You do not need to pick tulips….pick something you have in your area. Here is the first entry in this series to explain more about Wednesday Flower Study day.

https://naturestudyhomeschool.com/2009/07/new-outdoor-hour-challenge-ebook-garden_27.html

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

House Finch: A Frequent Flyer Around Our Feeder

Female House Finch or is it a female purple finch?

The House finch is what you would call a “regular” in our yard. You will see one or two just about every day perched at the feeder and enjoying a fine meal.

The Backyard Bird Book said this about House finches, “These lively red and brown birds may become the most frequent visitors to your bird feeder.”

We had some trouble at first determining whether we had a House finch, a Purple finch, or a Cassin’s finch. It took us some time but we finally determined that we had House finches with regularity, Purple finches at certain times of the year, and an occasional Cassin’s finch. (see the link below to view their photos)

I still have trouble and the photos in this entry could be of purple finches. (I know that many of you think I am the expert but I am truly learning right alongside you.)

How do you tell the difference? They are all on the same page of our field guide and the Peterson’s Field Guide to Western Birds shows the field marks to look for on page 343. The males have very distinct coloration differences and once you know what to look for, you can easily distinguish the three birds from each other. This clear indication of the field marks is what I really like about the Peterson Field Guides.

Here is a link to a very clear description and photos to tell the three very similar birds apart:
Tricky Bird IDs-House Finch, Purple Finch, and Cassin’s Finch (Cornell Birds)

Here is another website that has the song of the House finch:
Learning Bird Songs: House Finch

This photo really shows the color of the finches that we have in our feeder. Some day I will get a good photo of one of this beautiful birds.

Another mystery to us was this orange finch.

We discovered that there is a variation in the house finch where sometimes it is orange like this one that comes daily to our feeders.

“House Finch coloring varies widely, and research shows that most of the variation is caused by diet. All male House Finches have the same potential for yellow, orange, or red coloration.”
Project Feeder Watch

Other birds we observed this week:

2 gorgeous red-tailed hawks soaring over my dad’s house
Canadian geese flying over our house
Crows
Western scrub-jays who were building their nests and are very vocal right now
Titmouse
Dark-eyed juncos
Wild turkeys-whole flock in the road with one male showing his big, fluffy tail
Robins singing in our tree-my middle son said that they woke him up yesterday morning with their very long song
Some kind of yellowish brown finch in the bushes alongside our trail
Turkey vultures soaring in the afternoon sun
Cedar Waxwings-about two dozen in the tree at once
Mourning doves-a pair of them my son spotted in the lawn and then under the feeder
California towhees

It has been a busy birding week around our place. When we take our afternoon walks now we can hear lots of different birds…it is as if a whole world is awakening around us. I love it.

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Barb — 1 Comment

Early Spring Wildflowers Part 4

Here is the latest post in my quest to identify all the wildflowers that bloom along our hiking trail…little did I know how hard it would be. 🙂

Sigh. So pretty.

This flower is starting to bloom on the hillside on our daily hiking trail. Sunny spots and open areas are popping up with these delicate lavender colored flowers.

I have scoured our field guides but with no success.

Edit: We identified it this evening!!! It is a Blue Dick or Dichelostemma capitatum
or here is another description.

I see it in many spots in our county so I know it is something native. These photos were taken the first day I observed it and now it has four parts blooming on the end of the stem. The leaves are thin and pointed and close to the ground.

Another surprise flower that will be blooming soon. I don’t have any idea what it is so it will be a wonderful gift to see what is in store with this flower.
Edit: I now know this is a California Indian Pink.

Wow! Look at those pointy things on this plant! Here is another photo.

See the purple flowers there….those are on the ends of the pointy parts. (The white flowers are something else.) I feel so humbled by all the flowers and plants that I have never learned about before. What an amazing Creator we have that has all these interesting things for us to learn about.

Now, I know this is not a wildflower but this insect came flying by as I was taking photos and it startled me. It was really big and what an interesting shape.

The body looks like a yellow brain and the wings were really long with a green spot on the edge. Anyone have any idea what it is?
Edit: My hubby and I spent a few minutes with our field guide and then Google images and we identified this insect: Green Stigma Hangingfly.

This flower is blooming *everywhere* alongside the trail. So delicate and pretty and I love the color of this one. Still working on identifying it though.

This is definitely a work in progress.

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Dog Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge-Mammals

Outdoor Hour Challenge #51 took us some time to complete for some reason. The boys didn’t think that they needed to learn much about our dog but after we got going, we really enjoyed some of the ideas that Anna Botsford Comstock suggested in the accompanying lesson.

We watched the PBS video on wolves in Yellowstone and we were so interested to see how the circle of life goes round and round even within one national park. I think someone else mentioned that they had a hard time knowing which side to be on when you saw a skirmish. I totally agree with that…..like with the wolves, the elk, and the coyotes. Each one had its family and its physical needs and without eating each other, none would survive. It gave us lots to think about.

Now to our crazy dog study….my boys were so funny working through the lesson on dogs in the Handbook of Nature Study. I couldn’t believe how much they could answer without even getting up and looking at the dog or the cat. The comparison between the two in the lesson ideas worked out great because it made us stop and really think about the differences between canines and felines.

Sleeping dogs are great to take photos of since they don’t move around. She really doesn’t like us to take photos of her very much and trying to get photos of her body parts was impossible. I felt like we needed to wrestle her to the ground but my son decided that having a little “scooby snack” in his hand did the trick.

I think I shared this photo before but this is a priceless photo of our dog showing her teeth. I don’t remember exactly what we were doing that made her give us a “smile” but it makes me laugh every time I see this picture.

Her ears are also very expressive in real life and we can tell if she is listening by the way she has them positioned. Sometimes when she runs her ears turn inside out and it looks so cute.

Even though we didn’t have much success getting photos, we did have a great time examining the things that the Handbook of Nature Study suggested we look at during a good dog study. Kona uses her nose to sniff just about everything when we go for our walk and we have even named one spot on the trail “Smelly Rocks” because she can’t bear to pass by without giving them a good sniff. There is also one particular bush alongside the path that gets her interest every time as well. This photo is sort of a “all the better to smell you with” kind of photo…..her nose looks really long and her nostrils very large.

If you haven’t completed this particular Outdoor Hour Challenge yet, I encourage you to do so with your own dog. You will learn a lot!

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Barb — 10 Comments

Wednesday Flower Study #2-What Are You Going to Study This Week?

This week we studied the dandelion. This cheerful flower/weed is found all over our yard and our neighbor has a whole crop of dandelions for us to study.

Here are some interesting facts we found out about the dandelion.

*In the sunflower family-No wonder I think they are happy little flowers.
*Grows from 2″ to 20″ tall.
*It has a hollow stalk.
*Common name comes from “dent de lion” which is French for “lion’s tooth”, referring to the teeth on the leaves.
*The flowers open and close.

You must read the introductory pages to the dandelion study starting on page 531 of the Handbook of Nature Study. Anna Botsford Comstock writes in such a narrative style that you will enjoy reading the information and I am sure you will remember much of it to share with your children.

“Professor Baily once said that dandelions in his lawn were a great trouble to him until he learned to love them, and then the sight of them gave him keenest pleasure.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 531

I couldn’t agree more. I always hate it when my neighbors use the weed eater to remove the thousands of dandelions from their property. I would much rather look at the cheerful yellow flowers than a bare piece of ground.

The Handbook of Nature Study has a great list of activities in the lesson for the dandelion.

Here are a few that we complete:
3. Sketch or describe a dandelion leaf.
4. Take a blossom not yet open. Note the bracts that cover the unopened flower head.
7. Note what hour the dandelions on the lawn close and at what hour they open on pleasant days.

We were able to work on all three of these ideas in our study today.

Here are the bracts covering the petals before the bloom opens.

Really short dandelion that practically is blooming flat on the ground…interesting how some are tall and some are not.

You can really see the “lion’s teeth” in this photo. 🙂

Another garden flower/weed is now recorded in our nature journals.

I think next week we will work on the tulips in our yard that are just starting to really bloom.

If you would like to join us, see the instructions in this entry: Wednesday Flower Study.

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Barb — 4 Comments

Robins in Our Nature Journals-Finally!

These are some feathers we found on our front lawn under a big tree. We are not sure what kind of bird feathers they are but they were very, very soft. We spent our Outdoor Hour listening to birds and trying to spot them. Our feeders have slowed down a bit in the last few weeks with the changing weather. The most predominant birds in our backyard feeders are Western scrub jays and House sparrows at this time of year.

My son was telling me about the flock of robins that were perched in the tree outside his window yesterday after our snowstorm. He thought there must have been dozens of them.

We have a resident robin that sits in the very top of our tree outside the front window and he sings and sings and sings very early in the morning…starting just about this time of year.

Here is what our robin sounds like in the morning:
Robin at Learn Bird Songs

We read through the information in the Handbook of Nature Study and found most of it was new to us. How could we be so uninformed about a bird we practically see very day?

“Moreover, a robin notebook, if well kept, is a treasure for any child; and the close observation necessary for this lesson trains the pupils to note in a comprehending way the habits of other birds. It is the very best preparation for bird study of the right sort.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 57

This statement in the introduction to robins made me stop and think about all of our bird studies. The point is well made that birding is more than just learning to identify birds. Careful study of any particular bird helps us to learn so much about *all* birds and it gives us skills we can use with all birds. We took special interest in the schedule of robin study in the lesson given for robins. This is another example of how to expand nature study to really get the most out of it. My boys were not particularly interested in studying robins so I think we will skip the in-depth study but we will apply the principles to a bird that does interest them.

This week some of us decided to use the coloring page from Cornell to complete in our nature journal and Mr. B (youngest son) decided to just free-hand draw a robin to include in his binder. I like to use the coloring page and then add my own interesting facts as well.

We will be moving on to the House finch later in the week and I will share that study when we are finished.

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Early Spring Wildflowers (Part 3)

Popcorn flower
(found in the meadow, sunny location)

“There should be from first to last a steady growth in the intelligence of the child as to the places where certain plants grow. He finds hepaticas and trilliums in the woods, daisies and buttercups in the sunny fields, mullein on the dry hillsides, cattails in the swamp, and water lilies floating on the pond. This may all be taught by simply asking the pupils questions relating to the soil and the special conditions of the locality where they found the flowers they bring to school. ”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 458

We are adding a few new flowers to our list of early spring wildflowers along our walking trail. I am also updating a few photos to ones taken with my older camera with the better macro lens.