Did you hear that? Rattle, tat, tat, tat! Run, look out the window, there’s a sapsucker visiting again. I hear their tap or their call and I try to sneak a peek. There is such joy in seeing this colorful woodpecker each year, a reward for the effort put into learning about him and all the other birds that come to visit.
Sapsucker in our yard this past April 2020.
Your family can learn about this interesting and beautiful woodpecker with this Outdoor Hour Challenge.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Topics in this ebook include:
Swallows and swifts
Catfish
Jewelweed
Prickly lettuce
Cockroach
Field horsetail
Catbird
Calcite, limestone, marble
Chicken
Turkey
Hedgehog fungi
Sapsucker
Brooks
You may want to look at the Learning about Birds ebooks for additional bird study ideas using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. There are two other woodpeckers featured in this book: downy woodpecker and hairy woodpecker.
Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:
1. Autumn Weed Notebook Page: This notebook page is a complement to any autumn weed or wildflower nature study. During the month of October, we will be studying jewelweed and prickly lettuce. If you don’t have either of those plants to study in real life, you can use this notebook page along with any weed or wildflower you want to focus on. You can get some autumn weed nature study ideas here: Autumn Weed Study.
2. Pond Nature Study Set-18 pages of notebooking pages included: As part of your family’s autumn nature study, you can start a year long pond study. Use the notebook pages in this set to follow up your pond time with a few of the more common subjects you may encounter. Topics include: dragonfly, damselfly, ducks, freshwater clams, mayfly, nutria, reeds, smartweed, water boatman, water snails, water spiders, water strider, whirligig beetles, aquatic insects, aquatic plants, pond fish, pond mammals, and tracks in the mud.
If you would like some pond study ideas, you can click over to see this study from my archives: Pond Study.
(See the end of this post for more information on how you can become a member.)
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
Members also have access to the Nature Planner pages in their library.
Print out this month’s page and use it to stimulate your weekly nature study time.
These are Amazon affiliate links to two books I have purchased and used with my family’s pond study.
I’m excited to be learning about the field horsetail this week for our nature study lesson. We have a patch of it that we’ve been observing on our street and along a favorite hiking trail. I hope to glean some new information about this interesting topic right alongside all of you.
It isn’t particularly pretty but it does have an interesting life cycle story. Use the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock (Lesson 196) along with the link to the original challenge below to learn more.
Please note that the original challenge and the ebook have the wrong page numbers for the Handbook of Nature Study. The correct pages are 706-709 or just look for Lesson #196.
If you have access to the ebook, there are two notebook pages to choose from for your nature journal.
Alternate study: Take your outdoor hour time and look for any autumn weeds you have, especially those with seeds. Contrast your weed with what you learned about the field horsetail.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Now that autumn is rolling on in and I’m winding down my garden season, I thought it was time for an update to my July entry on what was going on in my yard’s wildside. To get you up to speed, you can read the first entry in this wildside series here: Keeping A Wildside – Oregon Style.
Mostly, autumn is a time of mowing and cleaning up what’s left and reflecting on what I might do differently next year.
The whole idea of a wildside is to keep an area of your yard “wild” to see what grows there naturally. This provides a natural habitat for your native bees and birds to use for food and shelter. Allowing the plants to go to seed will keep your wildside growing from year to year.
I left a large patch of plants growing along the fence until I knew for certain what they were. It turns out they were prickly lettuce. They aren’t an especially pretty plant and I’m thinking next year I’ll pull them up when they sprout in the spring. (There will be a prickly lettuce nature study coming soon!)
My lovely mullein has sort of taken over the one side of our berm garden. I love mullein but we had so much of it that I went ahead and pulled it up by the roots to clear a space in the garden for some more yarrow. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of mullein for our family to enjoy along with the birds and bees.
The experience of allowing a wildside allows for me to change my mind about a particular plant once I identify it. I allow something to grow until I can see if it’s a native, if it’s beneficial to birds or birds or other animals, and if it isn’t something that’s going to completely take over the area. It’s a lot more work to allow things to grow before you decide if you need to weed them out, but I learn a little more each year and I’m getting much more proficient at knowing what should stay and what should go.
We mowed most everything down once it went to seed so we’re sure there will be a new crop of dandelions, yarrow, tansy mustard, purple dead nettle, and collomia once spring comes again.
We have one thing left to do this year before the weather turns too cold and the ground too hard to dig. We’ll be transplanting some native grasses from one side of our yard to fill in a bare spot. The grasses will help create more of a “wildside” on the side of my husband’s shop. Transplanting grasses is fairly easy and as long as you get a good root ball, they take off growing like nothing ever happened.
Observations
The ground squirrels are all back in their burrows until next spring. I’ll miss them periscoping up out of their holes to scurry along the tall grasses. Their holes are all still visible but there has been no sighting of them for weeks.
Our swallows and bluebirds are all gone from their nesting boxes and we’ve cleaned the nests out for the season. I find nests so interesting. Each species of bird has their own way of going about building a nest and with our attempt at keeping a wildside, I think it helps the birds have the right kind of nesting materials they need to successfully raise a clutch of eggs. You can see how the bird artists use the grasses, leaves, and twigs gleaned from our yard.
Good night wildside. We shall see you on the other side of winter!
From the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey Level Memberships
It’s always fun to take on a photo challenge and this printable will be something that everyone in your family can use. There are two different photo challenge lists: one for younger children, one a little more advanced.
Members can print their Autumn Photo Project printable by logging into their membership, scrolling down to the printables lists, and locating the Seasonal section. Print the page, cut the lists out, and adhere one right into your nature journal as a reminder!
If you would like to go on an autumn photo hunt and you still need to purchase a membership, do it today!
Use discount code FALLPHOTO for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership. Code expires 9/30/2020.
We did the Insect Photo Hunt in August and now we are going to work on the Autumn Photo Project in September and October.
This week is an insect hunt. Take time to prepare for your nature study by reading the lesson for cockroaches in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock. You may not find a cockroach but don’t be discouraged!
Look for any insects in your yard or neighborhood. Talk about what makes an insect an insect. (Find information on this in the Handbook of Nature Study in the introduction to insects section. In my copy of the HNS it’s found on pages 294-300.)
There are suggestions in this challenge for observing any insect you find during your Outdoor Hour Challenge time. Remember there are many insects listed under the Insect Tab on the website for many common insects you may encounter. Feel free to study a different insect this week if your children are interested in learning about their insect discovery. In addition, there is an Insect Photo Hunt activity printable available to everyone if you decide you want to try that challenge.
There are easy to use notebook pages in the ebook for members to use after their cockroach nature study.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
I highly recommend that members read this post for important information.
Sitting in my office looking out the window, I see the very first signs of the autumn coming. One thing about where I live in Central Oregon, summer is very short. It barely feels like we’re in the rhythm of summer and then the air turns crisp, the willows start to show color, the leaves rustling on the aspens have a different sound as they twirl in the afternoon breezes and the air just has that certain autumn feel to it if you pay close attention. It all rushes in too fast.
Unlike many of my readers, autumn is NOT my favorite season. I feel unsettled and restless.
With the turn of the calendar to September, I find myself thinking about what is to come as far as creating nature study ideas for the Outdoor Hour Challenge family of participants. 2020 has been a life changer for many of us and with those changes we sometimes see more clearly where we need to be on our personal journey. I’ve loved every minute of my work here on the Handbook of Nature Study, but I think change is in the air here as well. My thoughts are turning towards what comes next.
Don’t panic! The next year here on the blog will go on as usual but behind the scenes there will be a slowing down of writing new materials. Not a true “retirement”, but a slowing of the pace to allow room for exploring the next chapter in my life.
The Ultimate Naturalist Library
I feel like by the end of August 2021, I’ll have enough materials, printables, and activities in the Ultimate Naturalist Library to provide a complete nature study curriculum to most families for many, many years. Just think, I’ve covered the complete Handbook of Nature Study several times through with the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Way back in 2008 when I started this project, I could’ve never imagined how much we would accomplish here with the Outdoor Hour Challenge. In addition to using thecontents of the Handbook of Nature Study, there are additional topics that were of interest to my family and to participants like regional wildflowers, herbs, more birds, and different habitats. We worked our way through all of the seasons by closely observing many subjects together. The Outdoor Hour Challenge has helped families all around the world to develop a relationship with their own habitat and subjects.
Changes to the Outdoor Hour Challenge
I plan on adding to the Ultimate Naturalist Library for the next year (September 2020-August 2021). After that, I will be keeping the website up and active with weekly challenges from the archives.
What do I plan on releasing during the year from September 2020 to August 2021? I’ll be adding new printables to the library and eventually two new nature-related ebooks (topics to be determined).
Starting in September 2021, I will no longer be adding anything new to the library. Members will still have complete access to the library of Outdoor Hour Challenges and ebooks, newsletters, and printables for the foreseeable future. Your memberships will still be rich and full of all sorts of nature study ideas by gleaning from the library topics of interest to your family.
New Ebooks – Writing and Releasing in the 2020-2021 School Year
During the next year, I have time blocked out to write two final ebooks. I have so many ideas swirling around in my head but I thought it might be a good idea to ask you readers what topics you would like to cover with the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Here are a few of the ideas I have and you can add additional ideas if you have them:
Herbs – additional herb challenges
Wildflowers – one last wildflower ebook
Gardening for Kids ebook
General nature study ebook with more “how to” ideas and printables
Nature Journal ebook with simple ideas and examples drawn from past examples
A particular habitat that we haven’t already studied
Planning My Future
I’m not ready for a complete retirement from writing for the Outdoor Hour Challenge yet. It still feels relevant and valuable to keep sharing my love and passion for nature. But I want to take the time to see where the next path is going to lead me. I started off as a busy homeschooling mom of teenage boys who had a love for the outdoors. Now those boys are in their mid-twenties and I’m retired from homeschooling. We’ll be celebrating the first wedding of one of my four children. It’s a time of change.
Thanks for taking time to read my thoughts and PLEASE email me with any questions or comments. Send me your ebook ideas and then keep on going with your family’s nature study plan as we all work through the end of 2020 and face 2021, braced for what that will bring.
This week we’re going to learn about the catbird using lesson #24 in the Handbook of Nature Study. The pages and activities suggested will be a wonderful start to learning about this interesting bird. I had the opportunity to hear a catbird while on a trip to Florida many years ago and I’ve never forgotten the experience.
Don’t miss the links in the challenge where you can hear what a catbird sounds like too!
Note: The sample for the Autumn 2015 ebook includes the catbird challenge (link below). If you download it, you’ll have the notebook pages to go along with this study.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Topics in this ebook include:
Swallows and swifts
Catfish
Jewelweed
Prickly lettuce
Cockroach
Field horsetail
Catbird
Calcite, limestone, marble
Chicken
Turkey
Hedgehog fungi
Sapsucker
Brooks
Included in your membership will be the Learning About Birds ebook.
This week we kick off the autumn series of Outdoor Hour Challenges with a bird study! Use the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock (Lesson 28) to learn more about these beautiful flyers.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:
1. First Day of Autumn Grid Study and Nature Journal Toppers printable: I think we are all ready for a little change in the season! Using these printables in your nature journal will help jump start your nature journaling year.
2. Full Moon Planner 2020 notebook page: I have so enjoyed gazing at the full moons this summer. But, I seem to lack enthusiasm as soon as the evenings turn chilly. I wanted a way to remind myself to get outside and look at the moon in all the seasons so I created the planner page to help encourage our family to take note of each of the full moons over the next year. Please join me and I hope the helps you create a record of your moon observations.
(See the end of this post for more information on how you can become a member.)
Full Corn Moon is September 2, 2020!
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
Members also have access to the Nature Planner pages in their library.
Print out this month’s page and use it to stimulate your weekly nature study time.
View the original challenge here: Outdoor Hour Challenge – Sapsucker. 
