Showing posts with label Nature Walk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nature Walk. Show all posts
Monday, October 8, 2012
Nature Club ~ McLane Creek
Last week our Nature Club met up at McLane Creek nature trail for a day of exploring and seeking out signs of fall. We spent time enjoying the trail as we moved along beaver ponds, creeks, evergreen forest, fields and deciduous forests. They had a wonderful place to head off trail a little while and explore along a creek with many fallen trees that offered great climbing. The kids had a wonderful day and Holly got in some good nature journal work!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Niqually Delta
About a week ago I took the kids down to Nisqually Delta park, just them and myself... it was really nice! Typically we do many of these outings with a larger group and I have to say that I loved enjoying this day with just my two kiddos. They were on their very best behavior, very engaged, cooperative, inquisitive and joyful!
The park was rather quiet as the weather was not the most promising. We lucked out and enjoed the few hours in between rains squalls, in fact the sun came to visit us. With the park being quiet it offered ample opportunity to find animals we don't normally find such as racoon, mice, rabbits, snakes, frogs and turtles. The forest was filled with song from more birds than we could count... it was amazing!
We took many opportunities to just sit, watch and listen versus rushing along the boardwalk... we slowed down! Slowing down truly ensured we found all of these amazing sightings, watch bird behaviours, listened to bird songs and located the matching birds, watched raccoons forage and rabbits nibble. It was amaizing! All of this really inspired Holly to nature journal - and both Hudson and I joined in.
It was a beautiful day!!
The park was rather quiet as the weather was not the most promising. We lucked out and enjoed the few hours in between rains squalls, in fact the sun came to visit us. With the park being quiet it offered ample opportunity to find animals we don't normally find such as racoon, mice, rabbits, snakes, frogs and turtles. The forest was filled with song from more birds than we could count... it was amazing!
We took many opportunities to just sit, watch and listen versus rushing along the boardwalk... we slowed down! Slowing down truly ensured we found all of these amazing sightings, watch bird behaviours, listened to bird songs and located the matching birds, watched raccoons forage and rabbits nibble. It was amaizing! All of this really inspired Holly to nature journal - and both Hudson and I joined in.
It was a beautiful day!!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Nature Club ~ Botany Scavenger Hunt
Last week we met up with our Nature Club friends and enjoyed a wonderful Botany Scavenger Hunt at a local park. This park offers some great nature trails that you can either enjoy lightly or really take off for a good, solid hike -- right in the middle of town. It is a great treasure in my community!
The Botany Scavenger hunt was found at this sight, Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop, there are several great links and project ideas at this site. I printed them and laminated them for forest use. We did some basic review of taking a finer look at the plant world around us, how to be kind in the woods, looked at the scavenger hunt while trying to match a few items I had preselected and then broke up into to teams to hunt.
Our team headed on up and immediately found a large array of different plants. Many different leaf style, seed pods, flowers and more! They would gently select items and bring them back to the chart in which they would work together to identify the style. It was a great teamwork experience as well as learning to take a much finer look at the world around them. We collected items and brought them back to nature journal and inspect closer.
This was a wonderful activity, one we will replicate again soon!
The Botany Scavenger hunt was found at this sight, Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop, there are several great links and project ideas at this site. I printed them and laminated them for forest use. We did some basic review of taking a finer look at the plant world around us, how to be kind in the woods, looked at the scavenger hunt while trying to match a few items I had preselected and then broke up into to teams to hunt.
Our team headed on up and immediately found a large array of different plants. Many different leaf style, seed pods, flowers and more! They would gently select items and bring them back to the chart in which they would work together to identify the style. It was a great teamwork experience as well as learning to take a much finer look at the world around them. We collected items and brought them back to nature journal and inspect closer.
This was a wonderful activity, one we will replicate again soon!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Nature Club ~ Wintering Birds
For the next several weeks we'll be taking a look at wintering birds with our Nature Club friends and on our own. Today Holly & I hosted an activity in a neighboring community to do a nature walk and search for birds - wintering or migrating. The weather was pretty chilly and drizzly but we managed just fine and really enjoyed the fall season colors, seeds, mushrooms and fungi. It was rather beautiful out!
While we saw and heard very little from our feathered friends we still discussed how birds keep themselves warm enough during the wintering months. Holly learned that birds can grow extra feathers as part of a late fall molt to have a thicker protection, their legs and feet are covered with specialized scales that help keep the warmth in and they can fill up on extra fat preserves. As well, they fluff their feathers to create air pockets and tuck their bills, heads and feet. On sunny days they sun to warm their backs, fluffing their feathers to let the heat get to their skin. They can shiver to raise their metabolism and they roost to take advantage of group heat. As well, they enter tarpor where they reduce their metabolism when it is cooler requiring less food because they are burning fewer calories. Birds are amazing creatures!!!
We also talked about how we can help wintering birds by offering good habitats in our yards with bushes, trees, shrubs and brush piles. A food source that is consistent, water and salt crystals (let salt dissolve in water and evaporate to create salt crystals). We then talked about types of food -- seed, black oil sunflower seeds, thistle, fruits, peanuts, peanut butter, etc.. When we were all done the kids created a couple of small bird feeders to take home and add to their yard. They had a lot of fun with this activity and hopefully they will find them easy enough to create more later and keep their yards stocked well!
Holly is looking forward to more on birds this month and an upcoming field trip to the Nisqually Delta - it has been a while since we've been there, it's about time we visit once again!
While we saw and heard very little from our feathered friends we still discussed how birds keep themselves warm enough during the wintering months. Holly learned that birds can grow extra feathers as part of a late fall molt to have a thicker protection, their legs and feet are covered with specialized scales that help keep the warmth in and they can fill up on extra fat preserves. As well, they fluff their feathers to create air pockets and tuck their bills, heads and feet. On sunny days they sun to warm their backs, fluffing their feathers to let the heat get to their skin. They can shiver to raise their metabolism and they roost to take advantage of group heat. As well, they enter tarpor where they reduce their metabolism when it is cooler requiring less food because they are burning fewer calories. Birds are amazing creatures!!!
We also talked about how we can help wintering birds by offering good habitats in our yards with bushes, trees, shrubs and brush piles. A food source that is consistent, water and salt crystals (let salt dissolve in water and evaporate to create salt crystals). We then talked about types of food -- seed, black oil sunflower seeds, thistle, fruits, peanuts, peanut butter, etc.. When we were all done the kids created a couple of small bird feeders to take home and add to their yard. They had a lot of fun with this activity and hopefully they will find them easy enough to create more later and keep their yards stocked well!
Holly is looking forward to more on birds this month and an upcoming field trip to the Nisqually Delta - it has been a while since we've been there, it's about time we visit once again!
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