Family Outdoor Hour Challenge Archives

Posted on July 12, 2011May 1, 2023 by Barb — 6 Comments

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly – Our July Newsletter Insect Study

Swallowtail at Yosemite National Park 2006

Since we just studied and observed our honeybees, we decided to learn more about another common backyard insect that we see all the time in our butterfly garden….the Western tiger swallowtail. There are some amazing images on this webpage. There is also quite a bit of information on Enchanted Learning.

We often see swallowtails on our butterfly bushes.

This rather large butterfly is a frequent visitor to our backyard habitat. One afternoon this past week I watched as two swallowtails dipped and swirled around the garden. They are so pretty but they don’t stay put very long at all.

We pulled out the Handbook of Nature Study and read the section on Black swallowtail butterflies to get sort of an overview of this insect. (Lesson 70) Here is a little excerpt:

“This graceful butterfly is a very good friend to the flowers, being a most efficient pollen-carrier. It haunts the gardens and sips nectar from all the blossom cups held out for its refreshment; and it is found throughout almost all parts of the United States. The grace of its appearance is much enhanced by the “swallowtails,” two projections from the hind margins of the hind wings.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 301

We got out our insect field guide and found out some more interesting facts:
Its caterpillars feed on alder, poplar, willow.
Habitat: Mixed and deciduous forests, open ares, even in urban areas.
Wingspan 3 1/2″ to 4 3/8″
Yellow wings, single “tail”

This Saturday, July 16th, is the day that the Great Sunflower Project is requesting that we observe our bees. Read more about how you can participate HERE. I look forward to hearing about your bees as part of the July Newsletter challenge. You can also observe your sunflowers at the same time!

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Barb — 6 Comments

Our June Bird Study: Lesser Goldfinches Eat My Sunflowers

6 27 11 Sunflower Leaves - Eaten by Finches

Sunflowers in our garden (self-seeded). Tasty snack for the goldfinches.

Bird Study for the June Newsletter Challenge

We have a beautiful songbird in our backyard that sings to us as we garden. He often is seen in our finch feeder but he also has another part of his diet that is interesting. The Lesser goldfinch eats our sunflower’s leaves! They must be so very light because they can land on the leaves and they hardly dip under the weight. They nibble the green parts of the leaves and leave holes and skeleton leaves on the plants.

I found this video on YouTube.com that shows what we observed in our garden.

Lesser goldfinch eating sunflower leaves

5 11 11 Garden birds Goldfinch in the Birdbath

I caught this Lesser goldfinch in our birdbath….bathing and singing.

There is a lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 10) and a previous Outdoor Hour Challenge (Yellow Birds) for the goldfinch which includes this link: Get Gorgeous Goldfinches! The article gives you tips for attracting and then feeding your own goldfinches. If you would like to hear the goldfinches song, you can listen at AllAboutBirds.com.

We used a photo and the notebook page from the June Newsletter.

We read on AllAboutBirds.com that the Lesser goldfinch sometimes makes its nest in among grapevines to shade the nest from the sun. We think our finches are nesting in our grapevines that are near our back birdfeeder. I never thought to look there.

We love these little birds and even though they cause a little mischief in the sunflower patch, we hope they stick around for awhile.

This is the last of our June Newsletter Challenges. We were able to complete all four this time.
Here are links to the other three:
Garden Critter: Honeybee
Tree: Sitka Spruce
Crop Plant: Corn

Now for our Tweet and See list for June 2011
Backyard and Neighborhood:

Turkey vultures
Steller’s jay
Oak titmouse
Lesser goldfinch
Anna’s hummingbirds
California quail
Western scrub jays
Mourning doves
Acorn woodpecker
Common raven
Wild turkeys
Cooper’s hawk
White-breasted nuthatch
California towhee
Spotted towhee
House finches
American crows

Trip to Oregon-There were more birds that I didn’t know so I can’t list:

Osprey
Brown pelican
Song sparrow
American crows
Turkey vultures
American robins
White-crowned sparrows
Western gull
California quail
Black oysercatcher
Winter wren

Happy Birding!

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Barb — 2 Comments

Hedge Bindweed – Handbook of Nature Study

We have hedge bindweed growing under our birdfeeder. I am guessing the seed came for our seed mix and now it is establishing itself under the feeder. It is such a pretty pink flower that I am tempted to let it grow but I am a little concerned that it will spread into other parts of the yard.

We looked it up in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 129)and here are some points we gleaned:

When the bindweed doesn’t find something to support it up in the air, it will grow in a mat on the ground. Anna Botsford Comstock says that it makes an “exquisite pattern”.
She says that it winds itself in a clockwise manner as it twines around its support. We had to go look.
The leaves are arrow-shaped, glossy and perfect.
The flower bud is twisted….another great thing to observe!
She wrote that the pollen is white and looks like pearls under a microscope. We took a look at this too.

She suggests two things, one we did right away and one we will be doing as an on-going project.

Watercolor for the nature journal

Compare the hedge bindweed to the morning glory. We have a pot of morning glories started on the front deck so as the vine appears and we see how it attaches to the railing we can make some comparisons.

This was another quick and easy nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.

I also found the notebook page from NotebookingPages.com’s Weeds and Wildflowers set to be handy to quickly jot down the points we observed in our study.

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Barb — 3 Comments

May Mammal Nature Study: Bats…Revisited (+Who gets the Watercolors?)

Sunset – time for mosquitoes and almost time for bats.

We have been on the lookout for a mammal subject for our May nature study. I included it in the May Newsletter suggested study because I was really hoping to see our fox friend in our yard this month. I have been wanting to do some research on him, but he has only left some scat behind and we haven’t actually seen him.

What would we study for our May mammal?

Well, remember a few weeks ago we had a bat visitor inside the house? My husband suggested that we learn about bats. Sigh. I don’t really like bats and we already had done a quick study with OHC #49. I wasn’t convinced until night before last. We were sitting outside eating dinner for the very first time this year…our normal spring/summer routine….and the mosquitoes were driving us crazy! There is an abundance of these pesky little critters right now and I commented that we needed to do something about them. My husband mentioned that we should encourage the bats because they eat lots of mosquitoes and they would help keep the population down.

Aha! A positive reason to study the bats!

We spent some time at dusk sitting outside to wait for the bats and they didn’t disappoint us. They came in and swooped at head level, zooming around the yard with amazing agility. We did some reading in the HNS and online the next day and here are some of the points we gleaned about our flying mammal friends.

Members of the family Chiroptera, meaning winged hand.
Only real flying mammal.
Most North American bats are insectivores, eating about 1,200 insects an hour or approximately 6,000 insects a night.
You can attract bats in several ways- build a bat house and/or leave a light on so the insects cluster, making a dinner spot for the bats.
We found this website informative for our local area: Northern California Bats

May Newsletter journal idea – Fill In The Circle (bat drawn by Mr. A)

I have had a few readers ask me what kind of nature journal I use to watercolor in and I will give you a link to an entry where I discuss my choice: Autumn Series #1. Well there you go…our May mammal study finished and just in time to start thinking about all our June nature study subjects. Our family is really loving the new format of the Outdoor Hour Challenge and the freedom it has given us to pursue a variety of subjects as they have come up in our daily life.

Don’t forget to send in your nature study entries by 5/30/11 for the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. You can submit your entries HERE.

The winner of the giveaway from last week’s watercolor sketch entry is Corrine from Boston!
(I used a random number generator to pick the winner.) Corrine chose the Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box! Congrats!

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Barb — 1 Comment

Garden Flowers: Geraniums are the Perfect Beginner’s Flower Study

Up until now, I have not appreciated the geranium. I usually don’t pick geraniums for my garden but after reading that hummingbirds were attracted to red flowers I decided to give them a try. I picked the reddest variety I could find at Home Depot, brought it home, and potted it right under my hummingbird feeder.

When we were deciding on a garden flower to study this month as part of the suggestions in the Outdoor Hour Challenge May Newsletter, I skimmed the list of garden flowers in the Handbook of Nature Study. One flower we have not observed closely and added to our nature journal is the geranium. I turned over to the pages to read about this common flower and I was dazzled by all that we could learn by taking a few minutes to follow the suggested lesson activities. (Lesson 163 in the Handbook of Nature Study)

1. We observed the leaves, touching them and enjoying the fuzzy texture. Mr. B said that they were thick and stiff and I would agree with that. What a great shape the leaves are and I decided right away that was going to be the focus of my nature journal entry.

2. We looked at the petals as suggested in the lesson, noticing that all the five petals are not the same shape and size. Anna Botsford Comstock says that this flower is the perfect beginners flower since you can observe and name all the parts easily.

“The geranium’s blossom is so simple that it is of special value as a subject for a beginning lesson in teaching the parts of a flower; and its leaves and stems may likewise be used for the first lessons in plant structure.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 585

3. We read about the nectar tube and took a closer look at it after reading how the structure works.

“No other flower shows a prettier plan for guiding insects to the hidden sweets, and in none is there a more obvious and easily seen well of nectar. It extends almost the whole length of the flower stalk…”
Handbook of Nature Study page 586

This lesson was only a few minutes long on a sunny morning out on our back deck but what a lot of information we now have about this common garden plant. I love learning more about my own backyard.

We used the geranium notebook pages from NotebookingPages.com’s Wildflowers, Weeds, and Garden Flowers set….use my discount code (discount5) and get them for $7.95. If you own a Treasury Membership, you already have access to eight different designs for each of the wildflowers, weeds, and flowers included in this set (over 45 plants). Each person can pick a different design for their nature journal entry. I used the coloring page and the lined page with boxes for sketching and a photo. I was thinking that the coloring page is something you could make yourself using the Fill In The Circle idea from the May Newsletter.

Here are a few more photos of flowers on the back deck.

Can you tell I am going for lots of color this year?

Lantana for the bees and butterflies.

Petunias (Lesson 162 in the Handbook of Nature Study)

Pansies (Lesson 152 in the Handbook of Nature Study)

Gerbera daisies

You can grow a lot of different flowers in pots even if you only have a small space. I encourage you to give it a try and then complete some of the garden flower challenges listed on the right sidebar of my blog (OHC #12 through #19) Keep your study simple by choosing just a few of the ideas in each lesson, building on what you already know.

I hope you are taking advantage of the warmer, drier May weather to get out into your own backyard. I look forward to seeing your nature study adventures as you submit them to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Don’t forget to include some of the nature journal ideas from the May Newsletter: Fill In The Circles, add some poetry, and use the Know Your Own Backyard notebook page.

You can submit your blog entries for May HERE.

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Barb — 6 Comments

Spring Robin and Wildflower Hikes – Robin Nature Study

We took a walk to look for birds as part of the Spring Bird Observation Challenge from last week. It had been raining earlier in the day but we took off for our hike as soon as the clouds parted a little. The walking trail had lots of earthworms wiggling across which is why we saw A LOT of robins. The robins were singing and then hopping along side the trail as we hiked.

I think I was too distracted to capture a good photo but you can see him up there on the branch of the pine.

He did make it into our nature journals though….big fat red belly and all. There is lots of information in the Handbook of Nature Study for the robin. I encourage you to use this information as the basis of a great spring study of birds. There is an official Outdoor Hour Challenge for robins: Red Birds.

Here is an additional printable brochure on American Robins that is excellent: American Robins.

We were lucky to catch this wildflower blooming…

Yellow star tulip.

Part of the trail is lined with Scotch broom….yellow boughs make a beautiful setting. I know it is considered a “noxious” weed and invasive but I will enjoy it as I walk the trail this spring.

On another section of the trail the Sierra peas are in bloom giving the grass dots of purple and pink.

The California poppies are really blooming now and this section of the trail full of them.I am working on a new blog entry featuring poppies that I will post soon.

We recognized this flower from last year…Blue eyed grass which isn’t a grass at all but it is in the iris family.

Here is our list for April:

Canada goose -on the move, although we have some that stay year-round in a marshy area at the edge of town
Mourning doves (always a pair)
Anna’s hummingbirds
White-crowned sparrows
White-breasted nuthatch
Acorn woodpecker
California towhee
House sparrows
Brewer’s blackbirds
American crow
Turkey vultures
Red-wing blackbirds
Western scrub jays
Common ravens
Cedar waxwings (saw these yesterday) – heard their high pitch whistle
Oak titmouse
American robins -counted 47 one day
California quail – flock of them
Yellow billed magpie – on a day trip, distinctive sound
Blue heron – on another day trip
Steller’s jays
Cooper’s hawk – we hear this sound a lot in our yard (nest call/alarm call)
Red-tail hawk
Rock pigeons

I think the most interesting thing about our list is the absence of some of our “regular” feeder birds. It appears that some of them have moved on: House finches, Lesser goldfinches, Spotted towhees, Dark eyed juncos.

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Barb — 6 Comments

Our Spring Tree Has Leaves: White Birch Limbs and Leaves

This post is part of our on-going series of Year-Long Tree Studies, Spring Challenge. You can see our previous studies here: Autumn and Winter. If you haven’t started your own family’s Year-Long Tree Study, I encourage you to jump in now and start with a spring observation. I guarantee you will learn a lot!

“A person who has not had an intimate, friendly acquaintance with some special tree has missed something from life.”
Anna Botsford Comstock, A Study of a Tree

It has been with eagerness that we watched our white birch tree for signs of new leaves. This past week they seemed to appear overnight, gracefully blowing in the breezes that have come in the afternoon hours. Here is a video (you may need to click over to the blog to view it) that shows how the limbs are so fluid and dance in the wind. It isn’t very long…about half a minute.

We decided to focus on the limbs of the tree and see how they make that movement in the wind. It might have something to do with the shape and arrangement of the limbs. The limbs bend down towards the ground and are not stiff like the oak tree growing just a few feet away.

They sort of spiral up the trunk….isn’t it pretty?

It could have something to do with the leaves as well so we took a look at the arrangement and shape as part of our spring study. The leaves point down and the petiole is long and slender. The leaves catch the slightest breeze just like the sail on a sailboat. They shake and sway and remind me of Robert Frost’s poem, Birches. We decided to include a part of the poem in our nature journal.

I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

(Excerpt)

“Catkins form on the trees in summer, remaining tight, smooth, and closed throughout the winter. They begin to expand in early spring, with most flowering before the leaves appear, or at least before the leaves get too large. As catkins rely on wind to spread their pollen, this arrangement prevents the leaves from interfering with fertilization. After the female flowers are fertilized, the male catkins wither and drop.”
Read more at Suite101: Catkins in Spring.

So another season is beginning for our tree and we will look forward to observing it closely as the days tick by. There is always something new to learn and think about in this great nature study project.

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Barb — 4 Comments

Spring Weather Observations 2011: Clouds and Sky and Green

The sky has been amazingly beautiful this past week. Although the temperatures are still a little cold, we have enjoyed bright sunshine every day except for last Friday when it snowed! Just a little. Today it hit 60 degrees on the thermometer with breezes from the south….just enough to stir up the pollen and drive me indoors. I really needed to get this Spring Weather Observation Challenge posted anyway.

We were able to do a little hiking this week in the afternoons where we noticed the buttercups are in full bloom. The hounds tongue and the shooting stars are still going strong as well.

Other things we noticed this week:

First mosquito
First hummingbird at the feeder
Dandelions!
Apple tree blossoming
Tulips blooming
Dew in the mornings and not frost
Longer daylight hours after dinner
Robins singing

Look at the color of that apple blossom bud! This is on our tree that we planted last year so I am excited to see it growing. I need to research whether it is better to let the apples form on a new tree or if I should take the blossoms off for a year or two to allow the tree to grow. I am new to apple trees.

So is anyone else already suffering from spring allergies? It has hit me fast and hard this year so whatever is pollinating right now is killing me. With sniffling nose and itchy eyes, I spent three days in the yard working on clean-up, pruning, and getting garden boxes ready.

They are looking better than they did when I shared our garden progress a couple of weeks ago. We are adding pea gravel around the boxes as a way to keep the weeds down. We have a stockpile of gravel in another area of the garden so we are just moving it by wheelbarrow from one side of the yard to the other. More on the garden next week when I have my plans done and a few more things to share.

Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Barb — 4 Comments

Didn’t Find Queen Anne’s Lace? Were You Still Successful?

After much observation, we think that these are Queen Anne’s Lace leaves growing in the other grasses.

The theme of this last week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge was a real challenge for many of you. Even in our family we had to think hard about where we might see some Queen Anne’s Lace growing at this time of the year. We looked in two different spots and although we found the brown, dried, hard stalks from last year, we were never sure we were looking at new Queen Anne’s Lace sprouts.

Were we still successful?

The real question should be…. Did we enjoy ourselves and did we learn something?

Absolutely.

Mule’s Ears and Blue Dicks are starting to bloom!

First of all the goal of *any* Outdoor Hour Challenge is to get outside and we did that with flying colors. The afternoon turned warm and we decided to take a long walk to look for our target plant.

The first California poppies we have seen this year!

Second, we had to really look closely to find our patch and then to look around to see if we could identify the Queen Anne’s Lace by its leaves. They were rather hard to spot but in the process of trying to correctly identify the Queen Anne’s Lace we were able to compare the leaves to several other near-by plants. This close observation would have never happened if we were not trying to complete the challenge. In fact, we had to take two walks to double check the leaves since after a little initial research we decided the first time we were looking at California poppy leaves and not Queen Anne’s Lace. We will still not be totally sure that what we photographed is Queen Anne’s Lace until we go back when it is blooming….something to look forward to in a few months.

Finally, this was the last of the year-long studies of this plant and it was satisfying to know that we had followed this plant through a complete calendar year, four seasons. We learned also that this plant is a biennial which gave us a little more understanding of it’s life cycle. It gave us a more full picture of the natural history of this wildflower and a better understanding of its place in our habitat. See last summer’s entry HERE.

We are looking forward to seeing the happy white clusters of flowers with their red spot in the center soon. Last summer we nicknamed the season the “Season of the Queen Anne’s Lace” because there was a bumper crop. It will be interesting to see how it fairs this year after such wild winter and now spring weather.

My best advice to any of you who don’t think you have Queen Anne’s Lace to observe this season, find something else to focus on this week and I would welcome your link in Mr. Linky. Here is a wonderful look at a family that did just that: Kristen at Broom and Crown.

Today we had more snow…hard to believe but it was just a dusting and now the sun is out and it is melting. My poor garden doesn’t know what to think!

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Barb — 7 Comments

Spring Cattail Nature Study and Voles…Oh My!

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.

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!

Tag: Family Outdoor Hour Challenge