Nature Study Challenge- Birds

This time around, we are getting more comfortable with our nature studies, so I thought we could join the Handbook for Nature Study Blog for their continuous challenge in nature. Although we have been studying birds already with Burgess' Bird Book in year one, we also use Anna Comstock's Handbook for Nature Study once a week to study a particular bit of nature.

(Observing nature and loving it is a new thing for me, but we are trying hard to fit it into our lives. So call us a nature beginner; nature study for dummies- that's us. Please don't laugh or hate me- we are genuinely trying hard to fall in love with nature- it takes time but it's coming one study at a time.)

This weeks challenge was to learn about migratory patterns in birds. We discovered that we have Winter "visitors", Summer "visitors", and we have Permanent Residents. We learned about the paths birds have taken for centuries and happily enough, we are smack dab in the way- that means we need to keep our eyes open during the spring! We are going to get some little visitors and we had better be aware of them.

For today, I had my children make some bird suet and also fill our bird feeders before sitting outside for 10 minutes very quietly and observe what birds they see. We noticed several birds we have seen all year. Pigeons, black birds (I think they are crows), house sparrows, a blue jay and a woodpecker.

Next, we made a note whether or not we have noticed them all year or are they just here for a brief time. We all agreed- all of the birds we saw with the exception of the Jay we have seen all year. They are permanent residents.

The Jay is our project. We are going to make a note as to whether or not he lives here throughout the year or not.

(Our next lesson will be on Hens. We are going to the Rodeo today. We have our journals and we have some notes about what our observations need to be. See you tomorrow with more of our studies!)

If you look close you can see the blue jay among the cedar foliage.

We've got a study in black birds to do, it seems. These are two different kinds of birds- one is a bit browner and smaller than the other. Our little house sparrows have stuck around all year long- little faithful friends.

Please correct us if we are wrong, but we're pretty sure this is a pigeon. You can see the woodpecker poking his head out among the branches.

Our woodpecker- he didn't leave! We thought he had left us, but a little bird suet in our bird feeder proved he is still around.