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.
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.
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
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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!
I started dreaming of spring bulbs blossoming way back in the fall. Although I didn’t feel like getting out and digging the holes and actually planting them, I knew that if we did there would be a springtime show of color.
Well here it comes!
Here is our Early Spring Flower entry for the last challenge of the Winter Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges.
Our fall planted daffodils are adding splashes of yellow to our front yard. You might remember we did a complete remodel of our landscaping last summer/fall and we are just now starting to see the new plants getting green again. It is amazing to look out my front window and see how things are shaping up.
We have had lots of vases inside filled with daffodils….the new ones have rather large blooms.We can all clearly identify all the parts because of previously studying daffodils, including dissecting them. They are still an amazing flower to observe and to marvel at when you think that they come from a dried up old bulb you stick in the ground months ahead of time. They seem to know just when to start growing.
Don’t you think they are even lovely from the back?
We have jonquils blooming in the yard as well which smell heavenly.
Another watercolor nature journal today….this one was fun because I used paint splotches at the end to sort of fill in the page. I would love to know from my readers whether my nature journal entries encourage you or discourage you from doing some of your own pages. Leave me a comment or send me an email….
I have enjoyed seeing your early spring flowers this week and it has recharged me to get going on the next series of spring challenges tomorrow. If you are still experiencing lots of snow and cold temperatures….be encouraged by those of us who are through to the other side of winter already.
As part of preparing for our mammal study this week, I pulled our mammal field guide from our shelf to have for easy reference. I opened to the introductory pages and I would love to share a few thoughts from those pages with you in this post.
Most mammals are creatures of the darkness, only becoming active at night after dark and returning home again before dawn.
Most nocturnal mammals communicate by odor which humans cannot detect and with sounds which are frequently high pitched and low in volume.
Direct observation of most mammals is difficult except for a few species like chipmunks and squirrels.
The vocalizations of mammals have not been extensively explored and most make brief sounds called “call notes”.
We were walking along our usual trail having a great conversation when my son twirled me around to get me to look up on the hill. He had spotted a few young deer not too far from where we were. They were slowly moving along, not really paying too much attention to us.
California mule deer are very common in our area and we often see groups of 8-10 deer alongside the road or in grassy meadows. My husband actually hit a deer with his truck last month when he was coming home from work…minimal damage and the deer bounced back up and ran off into the woods. He was lucky. He once hit a deer and it totaled the vehicle.
We were planning on studying our backyard squirrels this week as part of our mammal study but we spent a little time reading up on the mule deer too. California mule deer are very graceful and agile mammals. They have lovely eyes but don’t let those innocent looking eyes fool you. They have been known to eat my garden down to the ground in one night.
There are three fox squirrels and one gray squirrel in our yard just about every day. They are in the bird feeders and up in the trees chattering at us and the dog pretty much all day long. I started off trying to keep them out of the feeders but it is an impossible task.
They are very acrobatic and can get to just about any of our feeders.
We spend time each day watching these very acrobatic mammals hop from limb to limb and then hang upside down to eat from the feeders.
Here is a coloring page for a Fox Squirrel. We found this website that has a recording of the sound the fox squirrel makes.
Again, I ended up including photos as part of my nature journal entry to show the differences between the Western gray squirrel and the Fox squirrel.
One of my sons told me that it used to be an “event” when the gray squirrel showed up in the yard but now we have so many squirrels that they are commonplace. We have started to think of them as rodent pests rather than welcome visitors.
There are three kinds of redwood trees: Coast redwoods, Dawn redwoods, and Giant sequoias. I have two of the three in my neighborhood. We have a sequoia in our backyard and there is a small grove of redwoods planted across the street at the school. We stopped last week to take a closer look at the redwood while we were out on a walk.
The bark of the redwood is spongy and in the photo above you can see how you can peel the bark in strand-like fibers. This tree is such an amazing creation and our family has found delight in learning the details of the life-cycle of this tree.
Here is an excerpt from the Save the Redwoods League website:
“The coast redwood is one of the world’s fastest growing conifers. In contrast to the tree’s size, redwood cones are very small — only about an inch long. Each cone contains 14 to 24 tiny seeds: It would take well over 100,000 seeds to weigh a pound! In good conditions, redwood seedlings grow rapidly, sometimes more than a foot annually. Young trees also sprout from their parent’s roots, taking advantage of the energy and nutrient reserves contained within the established, shallow root system.”
Isn’t this just amazing to see? I grew up with a Coast Redwood in my backyard but I don’t ever remember noticing this part of the growth cycle before. I love the way a more regular nature study has opened our eyes to the wonderful things right in our own neighborhood. Trees seem to become just part of the landscape unless we slow down for a closer look. I feel like a poet sometimes when we are looking at trees….words just seem to spill out. You cannot stand under one of these mammoth trees and not have a whole string of adjectives come to mind.
We are going to do some more research on the way the redwood will regenerate and I am sure this study will continue when we take our camping trip to coast of Northern California later this summer, a trip we have taken before but we are all eager to do again. A whole forest of redwoods is an experience to treasure.
Here I am last summer (2010) at Humbolt Redwoods in Northern California.
Does that give you an idea of how tall these trees are in real life?
I am trying to be more disciplined about adding to my nature journal regularly. It isn’t so much that I don’t want to take the time but rather that I always spend way more time than expected doing research, reading field guides, and then getting lost in joy of the actual journaling time. Even the simple task of sketching a small twig from the redwood into my nature journal brought into focus some special attributes that a casual glance could not reveal. I have been enjoying adding some photos to my entries and find that the combination of sketching, writing, and adding a photo brings me a great sense of satisfaction.
We have had a really busy week so the small square activity and our mammal study have been postponed. Guess who we will be learning about for our winter mammal study? Mr. Fox Squirrel!
Our world is slowly turning green and it feels nice to walk along and see the plants starting to awake for spring. We had our eyes open for winter weeds and we found some new things and some familiar things to share.
The side of our walking trail is covered in this plant with the nicely shaped leaves. I am going to watch it as the season progresses to see exactly what it is.
The California poppies are starting to grow and I can hardly wait to see their happy orange little faces in a month or so. Isn’t it interesting how it can grow right there right on the rock? Not much soil here but there are plenty of poppies sprouting up for us to enjoy.
Here is what our mullein looks like right now….all brown and the tops are covered in lots of seeds.
The Handbook of Nature Study says, “Later the capsule divides partially in quarters, opening wide enough to shake out the tiny seeds with every wandering blast. The seed, when seen through a lens is very pretty; it looks like a section of a corncob, pitted and ribbed.” (page 538)
This is the most interesting of the dried weeds that we observed. I like the way the bottom of the stalk looks like it is the skirt of the plant.
I can’t remember what this looks like in the spring or the summer….Does it have flowers? What do they look like? Now is the best part of the nature study experience. We get to watch this spot as the seasons progress and then see if we can identify it with our field guide. There is always something to learn and I am glad our Creator made us to be curious and he filled the world with interesting things to occupy our minds productively. (If you are a Bible reader: Ecclesiastes 3:10-14.)
Here is what it looks like close-up.
The top looks like this with its thin branching arms.
Our Queen Anne’s Lace looks pretty much like it did in the autumn.We had planned to pull up a specimen to observe the roots but we have snow today! We will have to wait now until we can get outside to finish our study.
I couldn’t decide on what I wanted for a journal entry this week so started a bulleted list of weeds we observed. I will add a few more as the month goes on and we see some more. I had room so I made a list of random other subjects we have come across this past week…sometimes it is just nice to have a little reminder to look back on in the years to come.
I am getting ready to count birds now that the seasons are changing. We have so many birds at our feeders these days that it is going to be interesting to see the comparisons between last year and this year.
I also found this link very helpful in learning more about feeding our backyard birds.
You may wish to make a record of the birds your family observes in your nature journal. Our family likes to look back over the years and see how our lists compare.
Here are some ideas for recordkeeping:
A simple list is a great place to start. Record the date, the bird species, the location. You could keep a list for each day of the GBBC and then insert it into your nature journal or add to your life list. (There is a link to this particular bird log at the bottom of this page.)
I also keep a running list of birds on one of the free notebook pages from my friend Tina that she made for the Outdoor Hour Challenges.
A few years ago, our family made cards for each bird we observed. The pdf for the captions can be found HERE. You can see what they looked like HERE.
We also use the coloring pages from Cornell’s Backyard Feeder Coloring Book as a way to record birds we see in our backyard. I print out the table of contents and keep it for reference and as a reminder of what birds are available in the coloring book.
Both of my bird field guides have places for you to record the birds we have observed. It is a handy place to keep your record since you will normally have your field guide on hand.
In the Peterson guide there is a checklist in the back of the book. It looks like the newest edition of this book(which I don’t have) has a life list in the back of the book.
In the Audubon guide there is an index with circles to check off as you observe a bird.
I am eager to count birds this weekend and will probably be able to participate on two of the days with my family.
Also I am highly recommending that you purchase the Bird Bundle from NotebookingPages.com as a great supplement to your study of birds using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Note: These are affiliate links.
Use code discount5 to save $5 on any purchase $10 or more from the NotebookingPages.com Shop. (This does not include membership purchases.)
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: 
