Cedar Waxwing

We were shocked the other day by a flock of birds in our back yard . We had never seen them before- Look closely and see all of them in the tree, there must have been twenty. They just flitted about and looked so happy bouncing from branch to branch. We immediately grabbed our camera to take pictures and then just watched them to see what they did before they took flight like a collective cloud of yellow and green.


Later, we looked through our copy of Peterson's Field guide and found our bird- it is a Cedar Waxwing They are Winter visitors from up north. We discovered that they are sometimes called Cherry birds since they like to eat cherries and other types of berries as well. Our Burgess Bird Book describes them as birds who are valuable to an apple orchard because they feast on worms that would otherwise consume the apples.
Look at the tuft on it's head- so much like a cardinal. They have a yellow breast and olive feathers as a coat. The tip of it's short tail is trimmed in a yellow and red stripe and it's eye is trimmed in a velvet black- beautiful.

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.

Bird of the Day- Vireo's

Today's Bird study was on vireo's. Here are the three kinds of vireo's we learned about:

Red eyed vireo:
These birds are characterized by red eyes, an olive coat, white breast, grey cap, and a black strip across it's eye, and a white strip above it. These song birds will sing all day rarely without a break, they are private birds making their nest among the tree tops. They can be found here in Texas during the summer- so we'll be on the lookout!




Listen here

Next is the Warbling Vireo:
This bird is a bit plainer than the red-eyed, but the coat is a lighter olive and it's breast is more cream colored with the exception of the slight color and the red eyes ~ other than that, they are very similar:


Listen here

Lastly among the cousins, is the yellow throated vireo (also very similar with exception of color):


Listen here

Homemade Bird Suet Recipe

Just want to keep it real here. One of the things I find most challenging about Ambleside is nature. We appreciate it, but there is not much to love here in our neighborhood. But we are not faint of heart- we try. Yesterday, my little stinker helped me make some bird suet and maybe we can attract some birds into our yard. We chopped down the trees a family of lovely birds lived in, so I think we might only get the scavengers- but we can still find something to appreciate, right?

Homemade Suet Recipe

1 cup lard- melted

1cup crunchy peanut butter- melted

1 cup sugar

3 cups oats

1 cup cornmeal (not packaged as a mix- the real thing)

1 cup raisins

1 cup peanuts- unsalted in the shell (optional)

2 cups birdseed

Mix all dry ingredients. Add melted ingredients. Freeze until stiff. Add to bird feeders or suet containers.