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.
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.
“Correlation of nature-study and drawing should give excellent results to both subjects. The nature-study should afford objects in which the pupil is genuinely interested; the drawing should aid in focusing the observation and making it accurate. Drawing should be encouraged primarily for the purpose of discovering what the child really sees. As the child sees more, and with greater accuracy, the drawings improve. So the drawings become the approximate measure of the progress of the pupil. Do not measure the drawings merely as drawings, or from the artist’s point of view. We are likely to dwell so much on the mere product of the child’s work that we forge the child. Too early in the school life do we begin to make pupils mere artists and literators. First the child should be encouraged to express himself; then he may be taught to draw and to compose.”
Liberty Hyde Bailey The Nature Study Idea pg 225
Don’t forget to send in your Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries for the Blog Carnival. The deadline is June 29, 2011 and I will post the carnival on 6/30/11. If you have trouble entering, please feel free to email me your link but try to use the form first. Several of you are receiving errors when you submit and I have no idea what the issue or how to fix it.
Jedediah Smith Redwoods – Boy Scout Tree Trail June 2011
Our camping trip to the Oregon Coast was glorious. The weather was perfect without even a sprinkle or a cold day! We enjoyed sunshine, sand, and trees all up and down the southern coast of Oregon. Although I could fill a complete post with our adventures, I want to focus on our tree study that was completed right in our campsite.
We were prepared with some notebook pages and a field guide so this was not only an easy study, it was informative and interesting. The campground had a brochure that discussed the common plants and trees to be found so it was our starting point. We read through the brochure and decided to focus our tree study on the Sitka Spruce. Turns out our campsite was surrounded by them!
We looked up the identifying marks of the spruce as well as looked at the images of the needles, the cone, and the trunk. We discovered that the Sitka Spruce is found along the fog belt of the coast of North America.
They are not quite as tall as the Coast Redwoods we experienced most of the week but they are still very tall trees. The photo above is my husband showing how large the base of this Coast Redwood is on one of our hikes. These trees make you feel small and insignificant. We would hike along and one of these ancient ones would come into view and it would make you stop dead in your tracks. Breathtaking.
Even though the Sitka Spruce is not in the HNS, we looked up the information for the Norway Spruce and used the suggestions in Lesson 186 to learn more about spruces in general. We observed the needles, the cones, the bark, the shape of the tree, the roots like buttresses, and the way the limbs droop.
NotebookingPages.com – Nature Study Set. I like to embellish mine a bit with colored pencils.
Somehow I misplaced the photos I took for our study so now I am glad that we did the sketches on the notebook pages for our journals. We enjoyed our simple vacation nature study….one of many we did on this trip.
Here are some other things we observed and read about: harbor seals, trillium, fuchsia, gumboot chiton (sea creature in the tidepools), Winter wrens, huckleberries, and owls. There is a story to every nature study we did and if I had time I would relate them all but for this entry I will stick to our tree study.
Here is the best shot I have of the Sitka Spruces around our campsite. We could have spent our week focusing on the many plants, birds, and trees of this place and not run out of interesting things to think about. Eating and sleeping under the spruces made our study even more meaningful.
Okay, do you love my new tent? It is 6 1/2 feet tall and even my really tall husband and boys can stand up inside it without rubbing their heads on the ceiling. I love the hinged door too! This was our first outing with it and I think it is going to serve us for a long time.
Just a pretty shot I took one night while we were out for a sunset walk…the moon was incredible the whole time we were camping, a natural nightlight.
So there you go…our vacation tree study. Wish every tree study could be this up close and personal.
Well maybe not that up close….my boys have decided Planking is rather a fun activity.
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.
Our choice for the Garden Critter study this month is the honeybee. We have been building a bee, butterfly, and bird habitat in our yard this year and it seemed fitting that we take a few minutes to read in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 99) about this welcome guest to our garden.
We have planted many bee attractive plants and every day, rain or shine, they come to visit. Their favorite spot in the yard is the center square filled with lavender. If you sit close by, you can hear the buzzing of wings and you can watch their activity among the flowers.
Water for the Bees – Lavender and Baby Lemon Queen Sunflowers
We read recently online that bees need water as part of their habitat. We found a shallow pie pan, filled it with an assortment of local rocks we had on hand, and then filled it with water. The rain has kept it filled but now that the weather is looking like it will remain dry, I will just replenish the water when I water the garden. Here is a really informative article about Planting a Bee Garden.
This is what we are aiming for…image from two summers ago in our sunflowers. Can you believe that pollen?
We will be taking part in the Great Sunflower Project later in the summer. I highly recommend this nature activity which is fun and simple to do as a family. Click below for more information.
Don’t forget to post and then submit your June Newsletter nature studies to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Here is THE LINK. If you need to find the link quickly, it is at the top of my blog in a couple of places for easy access.
Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
The difference between a good outdoor experience and a great outdoor experience with an opportunity for nature study is sometimes just a matter of preparation. Summer nature study is a perfect fit for most families with the weather being more enjoyable and with longer days to enjoy. Whether you are visiting a new city, exploring your own city, or taking a road trip, including nature study in your plans can make your time more fun and interesting. Our family tries to include some element of outdoor time to each traveling experience.
California Tiger Lily
Four steps to preparing for nature study as you travel this summer.
1. Do a little research ahead of time for the habitat you will be visiting. Determine what you will encounter on your trip that might make for interesting nature study. I linked some ideas below along with some simple nature study books to get you started. Make sure to use your local library to find more books to prepare your family before your trip so you have some things to look forward to seeing in real life. For example, if you are going to be visiting an ocean beach, learn what plants, birds, and animals make their home there. You can also use the Handbook of Nature Study to read about things you think you might encounter during your summer travels.
2. Find resources such as field guides or other nature related books to read or bring along with you. I suggest a good bird field guide, a wildflower field guide, and perhaps a tree field guide as a basic set of resources to have with you. Check your library for books you can borrow and take with you. I have complied two lists of suggested field guides: Field Guides for Beginners and Field Guides for Families To prepare, you should page through the field guides before you leave on your trip to be familiar with the layout of the book and perhaps to glean a few things ahead of time to be looking for as you go outdoors.
Nature Journals done on the trail do not need to be fancy.
3. Bring along your nature journal or some pre-printed notebook pages. During down time it is nice to have supplies on hand to make a nature journal entry to record your nature study as you travel. Basic art supplies like markers or colored pencils are easy to pack. I also like watercolor pencils for nature journal entries. Keep it simple and light. Digital cameras are a lot of fun for children to use as they document their own view of the trip. Encourage your children to take photos of things that they observe for future reference in identifying or including in their nature journals.
My suggestions for nature journal supplies and then nature journal ideas can be found here: Nature Journals-Ideas and Tips.
In preparing for your trip, you could also look up a few of the Outdoor Hour Challenges before you travel, the first five challenges can be applied to any habitat. If you have the first Getting Started Challenges 1-10 ebook, you can have that loaded on your laptop and reference it as you travel.
My boys love to climb and this time they discovered banana slugs and salamanders.
4. I also like to look up nature centers or nature trails in the areas we visit.A good nature center visit can take an hour or two and can provide a spark to capture the interest of everyone in the family. The staff is usually knowledgeable about the local habitat, giving you advice on where to go and what to see. They also can help identify anything you have observed but can’t put a name to as you try to make your journal entries. Most nature centers have bookstores that can provide additional resources to follow-up your nature study time. I found this list of Nature Centers in the United States. (This list does not look complete but it will get you started.)
We are preparing for a camping trip of our own and I have used the suggestions above to gather ideas and resources ahead of time. You know we will share our results when we return from our coastal trip where we are hoping to find tidepools to explore, sandy beaches to walk, and redwood forests to hike in. We have some time before we set out so we will be thumbing through our field guides and looking up some additional information and redwood forests while we wait.
Hope you have the chance to spend some time outdoors this summer with your family AND include a little nature study.
This post is going to be a part of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival for nature study. You can submit your own entryHERE and the deadline is 6/13/11.
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.
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!
We have a new feeder bird! I changed up our seed in the feeder and I started to catch a glimpse of a new colorful bird coming to visit. I could hear a new song in the backyard trees as well and I knew it sounded a bit familiar. It finally occurred to me that this was the same song that I heard earlier in the month on our hike to the natural bridge. It was the Black-headed grosbeak!
Sure enough….there are three that come to our feeders now.
They are such beautiful birds and I know now why they are called songbirds.
My field guide says this, “Song, rising and falling passages, resembles a robin’s song but more fluent and mellow.” This is the perfect description of their song. You can hear it in the video in THIS ENTRY or at this link on AllAboutBirds.
NotebookingPages.com has a great free resource for those of us who live on the West Coast…free bird notebook pages for the following birds: Red-tail hawk, Western scrub jay, Spotted towhee, House finch, Black-headed grosbeak, and Black-capped chickadee!
Here is your link: Free Bird Notebooking Pages
I took advantage of the free page for the Black-headed grosbeak and used it for my nature journal.
What a thrill to add a new bird to our backyard bird list….we started off the month of May thinking that our Tweet and See list was going to be sparse. Boy were we wrong! We not only have a large number of birds but a new one to report as well.
Another great week of nature study….another topic from the May Newsletter completed. We have our mammal still left to find but we may just revisit a wildflower instead if we can’t come up with a good mammal to study using the Handbook of Nature Study. Remember to submit your entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival to share your links just like you would for Mr. Linky.
You can really do any topic for your entry….I am hoping that you pick at least one thing from your own backyard and that you give the nature journal idea a try.
Don’t forget to use my discount code:
Use discount code = discount5 to save $5 on your $10+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com
Use discount code = discount10 to save $10 on your $20+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com
The California poppies are late this year but right on time for our May Outdoor Hour Challenge for wildflowers. (See the May Newsletter for all the May topics to choose from.) We have both wild and cultivated poppies in our yard, hoping that the ones we planted with seed will self-seed for next year’s crop.
As the state flower of California, you could expect that there would be lots to see in the spring and this year there are many.
There is a section of our walking trail that has a large garden of poppies in various stages of development. One of the interesting things that we have noticed about poppies are the way the petals unfold when it is ready to bloom. The “cap” comes off and reveals the flower underneath. After the flower blooms the petals fall and a pod is revealed that looks sort of like a bean pod. Here is look at it close up.
We took the idea from Lesson 155 in the Handbook of Nature Study (#7) and looked closer at the pod. We cut the seed pod open lengthwise to examine the seeds with a lens. We observed the ribs and how the seeds were attached inside.
Here is a close-up through the magnifying lens of the seeds inside the pod….amazing! All of us were fascinated with the way the seeds are in the pod like you see in a pea pod. We are going to continue watching the pods as they dry up to see exactly when they become black because we know the seeds we planted were not green but black.
Here is Mr. B’s sketch of the dissected poppy pod.
Mr. B and I worked on notebook pages for our nature journals using the California Poppy pages from NotebookingPages.com. I highly recommend the Wildflower, Weeds, and Garden Flowers set because it has every flower listed in the Handbook of Nature Study…perfect companion to your nature study. If you own the Treasury Membership it is included so take a look for it in your files.
Fill In The Circle Tutorial
Many of you asked to have me give you more step-by-step tutorials on how I put my nature journal pages together. Here is one for the Fill In The Circle idea that is found in the May Newsletter. (All supplies are shown in the Amazon widget at the bottom of this blog entry – you may need to click over to the blog to see them.)
I started off with a large pencil circle for my poppy sketch. I also used pencil lines for the poem stanza that I wanted to include in this journal entry. I don’t always draw lines so it is up to you whether you need them or not.
I added watercolor pencil to the poppy and then made a larger box with pen around the two pages I am working on. I like the “window frame” look to tie two pages together. I copied the poem onto the page using a black pen. I used Prang Semi-Moist watercolors to paint the yellow background….sort of a wash technique using just a little color. I decided I wanted some funky bubble letters so I added those next.
I printed one poppy photo to include on the left page and used watercolors to paint the bubble letters. I added the date to the bottom corner. You can use this idea with any topic you want to include in your nature journal. I would love to see your results so post them in your entry and then submit it to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
What a wet month we had! Snow too! Our normal April is perhaps a little rainy but mostly sunny afternoons to work out in the garden. We have adjusted our planting schedule and we are hoping to get out there soon to put things in the ground.
April was full of spring nature study and the carnival will show how wonderful you are all doing at keeping your nature study going from season to season. I have included in this entry some images from our family’s nature journals from past years…some quite a long time ago. I hope to give you a variety of ideas to add some new life into your nature journals.
Nature Journals can be personal and humorous as well as informative. This was written after researching bees….I think the notebook page is from the set that goes with Apologia’s Flying Creatures.
Spring Queen Anne’s Lace Observations
You don’t want to miss seeing this entry from Angie at Petra School. She and her son completed the Spring Observations of Queen Anne’s Lace. I love how her son’s personality comes out in his journals. I have watched my sons use humor and personal voice in their journals and these are the best entries to look back on years later. (I also never correct spelling in their nature journals.)
They didn’t find Queen Anne’s Lace but they did find bluebells! Read Shirley Ann’s entry to the carnival sharing their English countryside hike and spring weather: Nature’s Treasures in April. Don’t you just want to go and take the hike with them….old stone cottage and all!
Tricia took the challenge to go back to their spot for Queen Anne’s Lace. You can read about it in their entry, The Spring Time Hunt for Queen Anne’s Lace. I commented on her entry that I thought that this spring challenge was not so much to see the plant growing but to remind ourselves of the changes and stages that plants go through as they make their life cycle. This entry is full of great images…don’t miss it.
Using magazine images with captions is an easy way to make a colorful nature journal entry. This was when we were concentrating on learning more about our forest habitat. We subscribed to National Wildlife magazine and kept them as a source of images for nature study and art.
Spring Weather
Jessy from Our Side of the Mountain shares their weather/clouds study with the carnival. Check out their entry Spring Weather and Clouds to see their homemade sundial, a great collection of weather related books, and some lovely images of clouds. Enjoyed seeing your study!
Want to see some more spectacular clouds? Angie from Petra School submits this entry, Exposure to Space, Rockets, and Weather to the carnival. The other wonderful thing about this entry is how Angie shares their nature journals progress….amazing both in skill and content. I love seeing how nature journals can transform our children into writers and artists. I appreciate your entry Angie.
Tornado Watch! I don’t think I ever imagined this scenario as I prepared this Outdoor Hour but Tricia and her family incorporated a real live tornado watch into their Spring Weather Observation Challenge. Read their account of the day and also read each child’s spring weather observations and thoughts. Thank you for sharing your crazy weather…so glad it all turned out fine.
Amy and her little ones share their Nature Study – Spring Weather post with carnival readers.With just a little preparation they had a full study, including learning about wind direction. Her children are learning to be so observant!
This is officially their Signs of Spring entry but I thought it would go nicely in the Spring Weather category. Ann from Harvest Moon by Hand has submitted their family’s Signs of Spring entry and I am surprised at how much snow and ice they still have even after April 1st. I love how their family adapts their challenges to fit their local habitat…don’t miss seeing their pheasant feathers! Thanks for sharing your entry with the carnival.
Makita shares on her blog, Academia Celestia,all about their trip to Northern California and their spring adventure in her carnival entry, Of Ticks and Trees. They discovered wildflowers and a couple really interesting things to learn about. I will let you read all about it over on her blog. Don’t miss seeing their nature journals.
As they learned to draw with a little 3-D perspective, I saw it transfer into their nature journals.
Spring Tree Observations
Everyone can have their own tree to observe! This is what Ann and her girls are going to do this year as they start their Year-Long Tree Study. Read about their trees in their entry on Harvest Moon by Hand. They are doing so an awesome job on their nature journals…click over to take a peek.
It’s a new year and Tricia’s family shares their new Year-Long Tree Study subjects with blog carnival readers.They have two new tree friends to observe throughout the seasons and they got a good start with some observations for the nature journals.
Phyllis share two entries done by her son James as part of their Spring Tree Study. Don’t miss seeing both his photo essays – Spring Trees Through The Eyes of A 10 Year Old: Part 1 and Part 2. I loved seeing how nature study has awakened a love for the beauty in nature in one of our young participants. Thanks James! Wait, there is one more update: Part 3.
Dover Coloring Books make great additions to the nature journal. The boys would use colored pencils and then cut the images out to adhere onto the nature journal pages. I saw them learn better how to draw birds from observing the blackline drawings in the coloring books.
Spring Bird Observations
Angie from Petra School has decided that the fifteen minutes outdoors has become an obsession. I like to think of it as a really good habit since it is beneficial to you and to your family. The time taken outdoors is refreshing and as Angie shows in this entry, can lead to family passions. Please read her entry, Going Birdy.
Tricia, Hodgepodge Mom, share their family Spring Bird Observation entry with the carnival.There are so many great things about their bird study but my favorite is seeing the bluebirds getting ready to nest! Wonderful resources and great follow-up make this one entry not to miss. Thanks Hodgepodge Family!
Amy from The Teachable Heart has put together their young family’s bird entry for the carnival. They worked on learning some new bird calls for their backyard birds. Make sure to view their journal entries. I always enjoy reading how their family adapts the challenges to their little ones.
This entry was in response to learning how our local pond habitat supports different kinds of life. I love the way my son represents the different elements…plus the lettering is fun!
Spring Cattails
Ann and her girls share their cattail adventure in their entry Year-Long Cattail Study on Harvest Moon by Hand. They did an excellent study with a dissection, sketching and recording their thoughts in their nature journals. Thank you so much for sharing your cattails….now to see what happens in the summer!
Cattails and eggs! Angie and her sons found a great subject while on a quest for cattails. In their Spring Cattails entry they share their thoughts on how this year’s cattails compare to last year’s. I love seeing how these year-long studies help us to learn so much more about our local habitats. I really enjoyed this entry and I know carnival readers will too.
As the boys have learned more details about our nature study subjects, I try to get them to use accurate vocabulary in their nature journals. I would write the words on a piece of scratch paper for them to copy onto the page.
Hope you enjoyed the carnival and were inspired to get outdoors this month and join all of us in our nature study adventures. I look forward to seeing all the May entries. Here is where you can submit your entries: Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
! Congrats!
