We LOVE Birds!!

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Birds: Hummingbirds and House Sparrow, House Wren, and Mourning Dove

We have had a fascinating and exciting couple of weeks watching birds in our neighborhood.

We hung up our hummingbird feeders . . .

. . . and the same day we were visited by a male Black Chinned Hummingbird. In the picture below he is sitting at the top of the green-leafed tree. It isn't a very good shot of him, but considering his speed, and the noise of my 3 older kids clamoring to get a look, I feel lucky to have been able to take this shot.

We have seen him every day since this first day. This morning he put on quite a show for my 2 year old and I- darting, zooming, chirping, wings humming as he flew over and over in a big U-shaped pattern, and then he took a moments to chase off a rival before visiting the feeders.

For this weeks challenge we read from the Handbook of Nature Study and the Burgess Bird Book. I had the kids color pictures of the Song Sparrow.

Nyah-

Austin (who didn't feel like coloring)-

We have been watching Mourning Doves feed in our backyard. This is where seeds from the feeder on our deck drop into the grass. We also learned about Mourning Doves a couple weeks ago when we first spotted them in our yard.

I decided to move our feeder this week after surprising a neighborhood cat on our deck several mornings in a row. She was somewhat hidden by the plants and patiently waiting for an unsuspecting bird. Now the feeder is in a place where there isn't any cover for the cat.

Out on a nature walk Our mystery bird- This past Saturday my son and I were in the backyard doing yard work when we noticed a lot of bird noises, specifically baby birds chirping for their parents. After a little investigating we discovered where the noise was coming from- our neighbor's house. The birds have their nests in a small opening between the roof and the decorative block of wood, just below where the bird is sitting in this picture.

This video shows a parent bird going into the nest with a bug in its beak.

We can tell many of the houses in our neighborhood are being used for bird nests- comings and going of parents, lots of frantic baby bird calling, and bird pooh decorate these houses. I felt like a bird-nerd when one of my neighbors (in a friendly sort of way) accused me of attracting the birds to our neighborhood, and all I could think was that it seems to have more to do with an ideal nest location, especially after observing the parents collecting bugs (and not seeds) for themselves and their babies.

But I am having a hard time identifying these birds! They are black, with a green iridescent color to their wings. Their under-bodies are black/dark brown. They have a yellow beak, a little shorter than their head and used for catching bugs. They do not eat at our bird feeders, but we have seen them carrying bugs back to their nests. They are similar in size and shape to Robins. Some of the incorrect search results I have gotten at WhatBird is the purple martin (no purple, yellow beak), the barn sparrow (under-body too dark, yellow beak), and the cowbird (yellow beak, beak not a cone shape, greenish color, not as big). Any ideas?

UPDATE: Thanks to Barb for helping me out! The birds we have been watching are European Starlings, with their breeding feathers. Some of my searches at WhatBird came up with the European Starling, but the pictures show their nonbreeding look, which kept throwing me off! The All About Birds website has pictures of both looks.

The highlight of our birding adventures - Observing 2 adult owls while on our nature walk. You can click on the picture to get a better look at these beautiful birds.

I was pointing out a couple black-billed magpies in the background, and my 6 year old daughter said, "The owl?" and I of course said "No, they aren't owls, they are magpies" and went on talking about them, before my son joined his sister in pointing out the owl, and I realized that they were talking about something completely different. At first I thought it was just part of the tree, and it wasn't until one moved, and the second one fluttered up beside it that I realized it wasn't a tree branch at all, and there really was an owl! In my defense it is time to update my contact prescription. I believe these are Great Horned Owls.

Daisy

Wednesday Flower Study - Daisy

The Field Daisy

I'm a pretty little thing,

Always coming with the spring;

In the meadows green I'm found,

Peeping just above the ground,

And my stalk is cover'd flat

With a white and yellow hat.

Little Mary, when you pass

Lightly o'er the tender grass,

Skip about, but do not tread

On my bright but lowly head,

For I always seem to say,

"Surely winter's gone away."

Ann Taylor

Austin-

Nyah-
We are seeing plenty of these beautiful, happy flowers on our walks.

Flower People!!

We recently read a picture book that is a family favorite- Cinderlilly: A Floral Fairy Tale by David Ellwand. This book is a retelling of Cinderella using people made out of flower parts, and one reason it is a favorite is because we like to make our own flower people! The author of the book used a computer to create his pictures, but I think we had lots of more fun making ours with the real thing!

My daughter enjoyed picking the flowers, especially when I said she could pick any that she wanted, and not just the ones that were wilting.

The ones on red are my daughters and the ones on black are my sons.

My Favorite!

My Favorite!

In other family floral news, our Christmas cactus is blooming again- a wonderful surprise!

And we are getting ready to plant in our yard!! YEAH!!

Farewell Jackson Pollock! Hello Monet!

We are moving on to a new Artist, so I thought I would share some of the resources we have used for our Jackson Pollock study. The point of our Artist Studies is to be able to recognize the artist's work, but I like to add in some biographical information appropriate for kids

youtube is awesome!! I wanted to show my kids how Jackson Pollock painted- prowling around a huge canvas on the floor, flicking brushes and splattering paint everywhere- but of course I didn't want them watching a complete documentary about him (due to his personal life- not appropriate information for them). Youtube, of course, had several great, short clips of him that were exactly what I wanted. Just search "Jackson Pollock."

The library also had a couple great books about him:

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Jackson Pollock by Mike Venezia

Action Jackson by Jan Greenburg and Sandra Jordan


Personally, I loved the widget on my sidebar that let you use your computer mouse to make a Jackon-like painting. I spent way to much time channeling my inner-Pollock.

At Barnes & Noble I found a Taschen Portfolio of Jackson Pollock's paintings for only $5- a great deal! Using magnetic tape I would post one on our fridge for my kids and I to study. We had some great discussions about the paintings during lunch!

We will be studying my favorite artist next- Claude Monet!!

Flowers!

For all my complaints about how stinky crabapple blossoms are, they really are breathtaking when in bloom. This street not far from our home caught our eyes on a recent outing.

While on a walk we spotted this butterfly/moth (we haven't had a chance to identify it yet!) getting a drink.

We spent a couple days doing some planting- Managing the hose, otherwise known as spraying everything possible including little sisters, is a favorite job, though not for the little sister.

We picked up some annuals and planted them in these fun tubs for our deck

Beautiful results-

My kids "weeded" a beautiful dandelion bouquet from the neighbor's yard for me.

My kids had been anxiously awaiting the first flowers from some bulbs we planted a couple weeks ago. Each day they would head outside to check the flower's progress. So it was a bit shocking for them when their 11 month old sister suddenly plucked the one closest to blooming- it got to bloom in a cup

Fortunately, it was only a few more days before there were plenty of flowers blooming.

For our flower study this week I let the kids pick any flower in our yard to draw-

Austin- Pansy

Nyah- Tulips

Birds- Goldfinch, Meadowlark, and more!

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Birds #4 Goldfinches & Meadowlarks

We took advantage of the extra week for this challenge to also study a bird we have spotted, and especially heard, in our neighborhood- the Mourning Dove.

We use the All About Birds website to learn more about each bird, and to listen to their calls and watch video of them. I also read parts from the Handbook of Nature Study and The Burgess Bird Book. We don't have the other guide books being used by Handbook of Nature Study, but our studies work wonderfully without them. We do have a 1970's edition of American Birds and a more recent edition of National Audobon Society Pocket Guide (West) which I lay out for the kids to look at while they are coloring. Some days my kids like to draw their own birds, and other days they like to use the coloring pages.

Nyah's GoldfinchAustin's Goldfinch
Working on their Meadowlark pictures- I spied a Meadowlark while driving the other day and it was exciting to be able to identify it!

Working on their Mourning Dove pictures

I love the call of the Mourning Dove! It brings back many happy memories of early mornings and summer evenings in my parents backyard with my kids. Even my son recognized their call from spending time at my parents!

I am really LOVING these bird challenges! At the park this past week I overheard a woman complaining that there aren't have any "good" birds around here, and I couldn't help thinking how sad it is that she feels that way! So far we have only spotted very "common" birds- house finches, robins, mourning doves- at our feeder, but I LOVE watching them! They are fascinating! I love going out early in the morning and listening. I love seeing them sitting on the eaves of the houses- a single bird or couple per house, each calling their hearts out as the sun comes up each morning. I love to hear their calls throughout the day as I make meals, do school stuff, fold laundry, and read with my kids. I love that my 2 year old will sit quietly, watching birds at our feeder, enchanted by all they do. I love watching my older kids quietly sitting by the back door, eating lunch with the birds. I love it when a male and female house finch will sit at our feeder for a time eating and chirping to each other, and quickly flying away together when we come to close. I love that I see the birds everywhere I go, and that I want to learn more about them if we haven't studied them yet.

What a blessing these birds are!!

Dandelions

Wednesday Flower Study ~ Dandelions

"Professor Bailey once said that dandelions in his lawn were a great trouble to him until he learned to love them, and then the sight of them gave him keenest pleasure." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg.531)

I certainly felt the same way yesterday when I poked my head out the back door and immediately caught sight of these sunny heads! Yesterday was a bright, sunny, and windy day, and today is cloudy and rainy-- What a cheerful welcome to Spring the dandelion gives us!!

"The edges of the leaf are notched in a peculiar way, so that the lobes were, by some one, supposed to look like lions' teeth in profile; thus the plant was called in France 'dents-de-lion' (teeth of the lion), and we have made from this the name dandelion." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg. 532)

"The hollow stalk of the blossom-head from time immemorial has been a joy to children. I may be made into a trombone, which will give to the enterprising teacher an opportunity for a lesson in the physics of sound, since by varying the length the pitch is varied." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg. 532)

Well, we decided to give this a try, and after picking some flowers, we plucked off the heads, but we didn't get any sounds when we blew into one end. I guess there must be more to making them a trombone than I imagined.
When I said they tasted weird, my son said it was because of the white stuff coming out of the end. I told him its called milk, and he asked, "Is this like the milk we drink?" Yuck, the idea of dandelion milk makes me shudder!! Here is a poem I found about Dandelion Milk.

Just this morning I was reading Happy Birthday Kit out loud to the kids, which is a story of a 9 year old girl during the Great Depression, and they became so excited to hear about the main character collecting dandelion greens for salad.Nyah's Notebook Page

Austin's Notebook Page (he didn't want to color today)

Yesterday the kids helped me plant some Caladium tubers in these tubs so they will be ready to plant in the yard in a few weeks.

And we checked on our other flowers in the front-- getting taller!!