Our Cattail Adventure- Spring Cattail Outdoor Hour Challenge
I already hinted about our cattail spot….the one that was cut down and cleaned out. We were a little disappointed but not discouraged. We have two others places to check but one has so much water right now because we have had heavy rains. Eight inches from Thursday to this morning….crazy wet! The boys were upset about the cattails being cut down but there is hope if you look at the photo below.
We are going to watch this spot to see if those little baby cattails will fill in the creek area like they were before. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to have another batch of cattails to observe. If you haven’t seen Creation Wiki yet, give this LINK a try to read more about cattails.
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| Watercolor pencils, background semi-moist watercolor, Prismacolor Pen |
On another note…
We came across something that was interesting. Our retaining wall had started to fall over and Mr. A helped me fix it but in the process we realized the problem was caused by a system of vole tunnels directly underneath the cement blocks. The wall is right near the birdfeeder (find the green in the photo and then you will see the post) and the voles are tunneling up underneath…in fact there was a hole earlier in the year that came up directly under the hanging feeder and the spilled seed just went down the hole, a very convenient set-up for the vole. Not sure how to solve the problem but we got the wall back up and we will see how long it lasts.
How about a couple pretty images to end this entry?
We have had quite a variety of birds at our feeders during the month of March…lots of Lesser goldfinches, even in the cold snowy weather we had last week.I am keeping a list of our birds observed for the month to post on Heather’s Tweet and See.
They are one of my favorite feeder birds right now and I cannot stop taking photos of them.
We are going to have an on-going study of cattails again this year because I think we can glean some new information for our nature journals.One thing we will research is how they reproduce and how the seeds are spread…..which we sort of know a little about already but we want to have some concrete facts to include in a future journal entry.
Hope you have a chance to check out your cattails soon!
What a fun entry! You give me hope for finding cattails. I think I’d mentioned that we too just knew we had a patch of them in a nearby retention pond. But they were cut down when we went to look last. I do hope you get to watch a new patch grow.
And that vole is pretty smart indeed. Just belly on up to the buffet! Love your beautiful gold finch photos. They just perch so pretty.
I wish we could see grass. I’ve not seen grass since we moved here to Alberta and the snow is still over the fire hydrants in many areas. It doesn’t feel much like spring here. I want to do more nature study and have found out that there are areas that we can go and feel safe. I’m interested in learning about the different animals and plants here and comparing them to those back where we use to live in Ontario. Thanks for inspiring me through your blog entries. 🙂
I love the cattail journal entry (was it done with the watercolor pencils?) and the photos of the birds! We’re hoping to get outside today to explore some cattails in our area.
Spring is coming!
Janiece-I made a note under the image of the notebook with the supplies I used to make the journal.
Hi Barb,
I love the fact that even after being cut down the cattail shoots are already coming up. Nature is such a strong force. God sure is amazing!!
I’ve been so into helping the children with their nature journals that I never thought of doing one myself… This is right up my alley! I can’t wait, I think I am more excited than the children and they are pretty excited! 😉
Your cattail entry was beautiful!!!
beautiful water color and such neat penmanship. Your children will treasure these so much!
This weather, this weather… we are 20 degress below average for the last few weeks. As soon as it breaks, we will be out the door and studying cattails!
carissa
It will be interesting to see if more cattails emerge from the ones that were cut down.
Our horses ate the cattails in the pond when it dried up this past spring. However, with the HUGE amount of snow we received this past winter, the pond is bigger and deeper than it has been in years.
Perhaps the cattails will grow back this year, and we’ll have something to observe right here at the farm!
Enjoyed reading about your clever little vole. Sounds like the one we have here. They’re such resourceful – and smart! – little animals.
Voles!
Such a great shot!
I’m going to have to be diligent about getting out to our cattails this weekend!!!