One of my favorite winter nature study activities is to take a hike and look for weeds left from the summer season. They are usually brown and stiff, sticking up out of the landscape even when there is a snow pack. Create a winter weed bouquet for your nature table and use the two challenges below to go a little deeper in your seed study. Create some anticipation for the spring and summer season by talking about how plants are just waiting for the right conditions to spring forth new life again.
Weeds and Seeds Study – This challenge has a free printable notebook page for you to use as part of your seed study.
After reading through each challenge linked above, choose one or two things to keep in mind during your Outdoor Hour Challenge time. Enjoy your fifteen minutes outdoors as you look for weeds and seeds. Make sure to show interest in any item your child finds to observe or bring home to your nature table.
I’m either really late with this month’s entry or really early for next month’s entry…oh well. This month has flown by in a good way filled with lots of rainy days but a few opportunities for some outdoor time as well. Read below about our brush with a tornado!!!
We took a rather spur of the moment trip to Nevada to refresh our minds and it was picture postcard perfect as we drove up and over the Sierra Nevada. The roads were clear but the mountains were beautifully covered in a layer of snow. We were cold the whole weekend long with temperatures dipping down to 9 degrees…really cold for this California girl. We bundled up and took some walks, shopped in this incredibly large outdoor store (Scheel’s), and ate lots of delicious food. It was a perfect combination of indoor and outdoor fun.
This is my January photo from my office window and it pretty much sums up our month…rainy! I have been keeping track of our rainfall totals and so far we have racked up 26 inches of rain since the first of October! We have also had a dusting of snow, two hail storms, and believe it or not…a tornado!
Yes, back on December 24, 2015 we had an alert on our phone to take cover because there was a tornado in our area. What??!! This was a first and we decided to take shelter in our basement but the tornado ended up going in a different direction and only came within about 5 miles of our house. I have to say that it was exciting and sort of scary at the same time. In our world, we don’t usually worry about a tornado!
There were some sunny afternoons this month that allowed a few long walks with the husband and our faithful Labrador. This was a muddy hike to the river but we very much enjoyed the warm sunshine and seeing some green for the first time in a very long time. This past few years have not allowed our usual grass crops to green up very much and I am so looking forward to see our beloved California foothills covered in green grass and colorful wildflowers. I’m ready now!
I’m adding a little something different this month as part of my Outdoor Mom’s Journal, a book review. The first book I have read as part of my Nature Book Project is Discover Nature Close to Home by Elizabeth P. Lawlor. This is a fantastic book with a long list of topics that you may find very near your home: maples, pines, seeds, squirrels, starlings, goldenrod, galls, lichens, vines, chipmunks, spiders, centipedes, fungi, ants, and earthworms. This is such a practical guide to nature study that focuses on things close to home. I love the variety of topics, the straightforward information, and specific activity ideas.
Whether your family spends a few minutes a week outside or hours at a time, share what is going on in your world. I hope you have enjoyed your October nature adventures.
How Do You Join?
Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.
During our outdoor time this week we went….
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting….
I added nature journal pages about….
I am reading…
I am dreaming about…
A photo I would like to share…
Throwback to Yosemite National Park January 2014…..the winter trip when it was cold but not much snow. I have seen photos of Yosemite in the last week and they have a ton more snow this year.
I will be posting my Outdoor Mom’s Journal entry once a month. Look for it during the first week of the month each month.
Read the identification page on All About Birds for the European starling. Advanced students may wish to also read the Life History page, especially the “Cool Facts” section. Make sure to view the images on the Identification page and note the field marks for the starling.
Great Information: Discover Nature Close to Home (one of my Nature Book Project selections) – see pages 59-66. This is my affiliate link.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Take a bird walk and note any birds you observe during your fifteen minutes. During the autumn and winter, starlings have their speckled plumage and look like they have white spots. If it is the spring and summer, notice their iridescent sheen. If you happen to spot a flock of starlings, try to count them!
If you don’t see any starlings this week, make sure to take a few minutes to make careful observations of any bird found during your outdoor time. Talk about the color, shape, size, beaks, feet, or wings of the bird with your children. Give them some words to use and have them make a journal entry once you are back inside. Keep it simple and fun.
Follow-Up Activity
Create a nature journal entry for the starling. Use the notebook page in the January 2016 Handbook of Nature Study newsletter if you have access to a membership here on the website. Or, you can create a simple entry with a sketch and some notes.
Advanced study: Learn about how birds sleep! This is something that I am interested in learning more about and here is a great starting point: Where do birds sleep? Write a short summary of what you learned in your nature journal.
I highly recommend the NotebookPages.com North American Birds set for your nature study notebooks. Please note I am an affiliate and have used this product in the past and loved it.
Here you go…my Nature Book Project List for 2016. I enjoy having a plan for reading nature related books and this year is a mix of books from my shelf and a few new ones as well. As part of this project, I have created a printable nature book project planner page so you can choose your own custom list of nature books. Print it out for some suggested categories. Please note that the book links below are affiliate links. I own all of these books
This week we will be revisiting two different Outdoor Hour Challenges from the archives – Pine Tree Nature Study and Pine Cone Nature Study. Both of the challenges suggested for this week can be completed in any season and both contain a free printable of some sort to record your pine and cone study. There are links to the ebooks where each challenge is found so Ultimate Naturalist Members can download the corresponding ebooks with custom notebooking pages if desired.
NOTE: Members here on the Handbook of Nature Study have a new printable in the library: Pine Cone Investigation. Make sure to download and use this notebook page with your older students.
“Their foliage is evergreen but is shed gradually. The pollen-bearing and the seed-producing flowers are separate on the tree. The seeds are winged and are developed in cones.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 674
After reading through each challenge linked above, choose one or two things to keep in mind during your Outdoor Hour Challenge time. Enjoy your fifteen minutes outdoors as you look for pines and cones and make sure to show interest in any item your child finds to observe or bring home to your nature table.
It’s that time of year when I am publishing my annual nature study goals for all to see. This provides me with the incentive to progressively work on my goals and to keep myself accountable at the same time. There are no surprises on this year’s list because the simple goals are actually the ones that end up being the most meaningful and reachable. For those that have been readers here for the past few years, you will see a few repeats of goals that have gone unfulfilled and this year I am determined to be better at planning a way to reach my goals.
A friend of our family says to “plan your work and then work your plan”. There is wisdom in that thinking.
Nature Study Goals 2016
Complete 2 out of 4 Outdoor Hour Challenges each month posted on Fridays. I think this is ambitious goal. I will be including our experiences in my monthly nature study recap posts.
Research and learn about four birds. Learn the call, field marks, and create a nature journal.
Focus on learning my local wildflowers. Create some sort of record of each flower. I have not decided what form this record will look like but once I get started I am hoping it will come together.
Take Yosemite photos from the Yosemite photography book- Since this was a fail last year, I am going to aim to take three photos during each trip in 2016.
Visit a new national park. (You can see a list of my national parks entries below.) We are thinking Bryce Canyon, Olympic, or Rocky Mountain depending on which way we head out from California.
Visit two new state parks.
Identify three rocks from my original challenge. This has been more difficult to accomplish than originally anticipated but with a more concentrated effort I think we can really make this happen.
Read 10 nature related books!
I always love to read your goals so leave me a comment with your goals or a link to your blog if you post an entry there. Thank you for always being so supportive of my goals as the year rolls by.
Please read the following explanation outlining how to get this month’s newsletter.
The newsletter link is not in this email but will come separately. There may be a delay in your receiving the email so please don’t email me until the second day of the month if you haven’t received the link on the first. For some reason, some email providers take longer to receive the newsletter email.
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This month’s newsletter link will be available only during the month of January so be sure to download it before 1/31/16.
Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:
Bird related resources and articles with a contribution from Shirley Vels of Under an English Sky.
Starling bird study and notebook page
Bird Tally List printable
Resources for your Nature Library: I have started to build a nature library store on Amazon that will feature by category my favorite nature study books and resources. Take a look and see if there is anything you would like to put on your wish list for your family’s nature study library: Handbook of Nature Study Nature Library Suggestions on Amazon.com.Note this is my affiliate store to items I personally recommend and have read or seen in person.
Please note that Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level members have access to members only printables each month in addition to the newsletter printables. You will need to log into your account and then go to the “Other Releases” section.
Need help getting started with your nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study? Check out the fresh “Getting Started” page here on the website!
I am thoroughly enjoying my Project Feederwatch counting this year…we added a few new feeders that are closer to my viewing window and that makes counting super easy. Even watching our “ordinary” birds gives me such pleasure. Here are some images from my counting days of my fine feathered friends.
Finches!
Loving our mockingbird and watching him visit every morning to a particular tree and then to a blackberry vine in the corner of our yard…always sitting at the top.
I caught this sparrow with his mouth full of seed. Love his feet too!
This is one of the woodpeckers that visit our feeders and trees just about every day now. They aren’t very big but they are beautiful birds.
Here is my list of birds that have come to visit during the months of November and December.
November and December Bird Lists
White-crowned sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
House finch
White-breasted nuthatch
Western scrub jay
Anna’s hummingbird
Spotted towhee
Northern mockingbird
Evening grosbeak
American robin
Mourning dove
Nuttall’s woodpecker
Lesser goldfinch
Titmouse
Northern flicker
European starlings
California towhee
Bewick’s wren
Fox sparrow
What birds did you see this month?
These are affiliate links to products I have used and love.
I am sharing our family’s nature photos for the month of December after enjoying the November entry so much. With my grown children so far away and all of our busy lives, this is a simple way we can connect and share our love for the outdoors in a simple way despite the distance. I hope you enjoy the McCoy family December nature photos!
This is my husband’s entry for the month. He really enjoyed the refreshing trip to the ocean and taking a really long walk on the sand.
My daughter Amanda shared this photo on Instagram earlier this month with the hashtag, “I am my mother’s daughter.” Yes indeed. She has a new feeder outside her window and she is enjoying the birds that are visiting. In fact, she says the feeder can be emptied in one day they love it so much! Guess I better send her a gift card for some birdseed.
This is one of my favorite images from the month. I took this through the window of the squirrel eating under my birdfeeder. He was posing so nicely and looking right at my camera. Don’t you just love his little paws?
One last image from my son in New York. They have had unusually warm weather this month…quite the opposite of last year. I love the misty morning view from his street.
Hope you enjoyed a wonderful December and created some of your own family memories too!
– this one has been postponed, so no formal entry as of yet
– this one has also been postponed until a future date
