Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival - Nature Journal Ideas Edition

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.

You can follow the Outdoor Hour Challenge on Facebook!


Stay tuned for tomorrow's update to the Outdoor Hour Challenge!

Monopoly - Vine St

Monopoly orange square. £200.

The Jewish quarter of the East end. My secret find here was a section of the original London wall closed in the basement of the Metropolitan University on the corner of Vine and Jury Streets. I'll bring you more after further research of this quarter for you. One of my treasures on this trail.

2011 Spring Series - Spring Wildflower Study - Dandelions

Our last official Outdoor Hour Challenge for the 2011 Spring Series has arrived. I can hardly believe it but we are going into the month of May next week! With May will come some changes to the Outdoor Hour Challenge, exciting changes for us all! I will be sharing my new ideas and directions for the Outdoor Hour Challenge on May 1, 2011.


In the meantime, take this week to enjoy hunting up some spring wildflowers and/or dandelions. This was one of the most popular challenges last spring and I look forward to seeing all of your current year dandelion studies in Mr. Linky.

Here is a link to the Spring Wildflower Study- Dandelions.
Please make sure to click over and read all about how your family can study this common plant and be educated on the many things we can learn from this weed/wildflower. 

Please come back and post your link on Mr. Linky after completing this challenge and writing your blog entry. You can also submit it to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival!

Schedule for Spring 2011

• March 18, 2011: Signs of Spring (Bonus challenge with notebook page.)
• March 25, 2011: Spring Cattail Observations
• April 1, 2011: Spring Queen Anne's Lace Observations (with free notebook page)
• April 8, 2011: Spring Weather Observations
• April 15, 2011: Spring Tree Observations
• April 22, 2011: Spring Bird Study
• April 29, 2011: Spring Wildflower/Dandelion Study

Monopoly - Marlborough St

Monopoly orange square. £180.

This square differs depending on which monopoly board you are following. We are following the Ordnance Survey map see GO. This takes us over to SW3. An area of public housing since the beginning of the 20th century.
This apartment covered in hand prints caught my eye. The woman who lives here has fostered children most of her adult life. Currently fostering her 20th child, in 19 years. These prints are those of all those children. The star of our tour don't you think?

Book Choice --- The Lion's Share

New York Times movie critic Bosley Crowther wrote a book called The Lion's Share that was published in April 1957. It was first to attempt a history of the great Loews and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Variety and the author's own paper gave Crowther positive reviews. He was long recognized as kingpin of film reviewers, having reached a peak of influence by 1957. BC is remembered for later missing the boat on Bonnie and Clyde and being eased off his desk as a result. Now if he's talked about, it's usually in terms of having been out-of-touch throughout much of a long (over twenty-five year) tenure. Crowther worked when critics mattered more. His signing a studio history was gilt-edged so far as credibility. What stories he'd tell in The Lion's Share would become standard text and source for authors to follow. Metro myths to die hardest began or were propagated by Crowther. Still, I enjoyed his book. Of course, better and more accurate ones have been done since. Sometimes though, it's worthwhile to visit movie history as it was understood when shovels first dug into Hollywood past. What Crowther did have was access to near everyone living at the time who'd been at MGM. 1957 was soon enough after a Golden Age for participants to look back fresh and lots more alert than what death or old age would later cancel out. For this alone, The Lion's Share is must reading.

The book was targeted to a mainstream. Dutton published and $5 was the hardcover's price. Crowther's manuscript was trimmed by 50,000 words to get The Lion's Share user-friendly. The author was known enough for a public outside industry to give a look, and that they did to reward of multiple printings over years to follow. Crowther's rather dry meticulousness (a Times review) went down smooth with consumers eager for straight Metro dope. Execs in that company found the book an intrusion, corporate battling a background to first sales of The Lion's Share. Crowther tracked Loew's from nickel origins to then-recent ouster of production chief Dore Schary. The latter was a cooperative interview and got sympathetic coverage in The Lion's Share, while earlier deposed Louis Mayer, still alive in 4/57, was beast and boor to Crowther's mind. Did the old man, then plotting (unsuccessfully) to take back his studio chair, give thought to suing for published slams? If so, I found no ink to confirm, and besides, Mayer had but months to live (August his exit), so maybe LB's concern was more to basics. Few would challenge the book's accuracy. Clark Gable was asked for reaction, and he said The Lion's Share reflected truth pretty much as he remembered. Enough doors opened to Crowther to make his a more-or-less authorized history. New York chief Nicholas Schenck sat down with him, as did Schary, David Selznick, numerous staff and luminaries who'd toiled for the Lion. Biggest help was Norma Shearer, retired and talkative for perhaps an only time after stepping off stardom's ladder. No wonder then that Irving Thalberg emerged most heroic of Metro minions, the most brilliant executive producer ever to work in Hollywood, according to Crowther.

The Lion's Share is strongest where it tells of founding Marcus Loew and how he built an empire up from storefronts. Weaving in/out of his story are dynamos who'd run rival firms. It's easy to forget how linked these people were starting out. Commonest thread among them was willingness to work 24/7 toward dominion of an emerging industry. Crowther goes easy on Adolph Zukor and Sam Goldwyn, both hale/hearty in '57, while passed-on William Fox is tabbed a notoriously savage lone wolf. Reviewers noted such restraint and decorum as Crowther applied in coverage of lions still roaring when his book was new. An author-updated (and unexpurgated) second edition would have been a welcome, possibly eye-opening read, as one can imagine what interview subjects had to say that Crowther dared not use at the time. Trouble with this book then, is the fact it does pull punches, aimed for light readership, thus no digging deep as we'd like into recesses of MGM. Still, it was heady backstage stuff in 1957, and a first truly revelatory peek behind scenes of a still-thriving studio concern.

I'd not take Crowther too much to task for untruths he repeated (or that originated with The Lion's Share). He was relying on what longtime personnel told him. Why would they lie after so many, even then, years? The Ben-Hur saga is related for probably a first time, emphasis on fact no lives were lost during its turbulent 20's shoot. Kevin Brownlow would revisit that topic in The Parade's Gone By eleven years later, some of his fresh interviews suggesting there were perhaps fatalities. There's a colorful recounting of MGM's struggle to get The Broadway Melody off starting lines. Early sound struggles are rich source here for triumph and tragedy. The John Gilbert "white voice" myth is hammered home persuasively. No wonder so many still believe that fable ... but who conveyed it to Crowther? Among those he interviewed was sound supervisor Douglas Shearer. Was this the culprit? There is odd reference to William Haines having had "a strangely high-pitched voice" as well, this complete balderdash as any of his starring talkies will attest, but how much access did Crowther have to these, and how much inclination to watch if he had? Trader Horn tales are told, including claim that Edwina Booth died within a few years of its 1930 release, thanks to illness contracted on African locations. It would be decades before we'd learn that Booth was very much alive and would in fact make it to venerable age eighty-six. All the forgoing was accepted as fact in 1957 thanks to Crowther's repute and fact he had palace keys. Historians have latterly set records straight, but that needn't diminish (by much) value of Bosley Crowther's pioneering work, still a worthwhile and entertaining read if one to approach cautiously.

Best books on MGM history? I'd nominate Scott Eyman's Lion Of Hollywood and Mark Vieira's Irving Thalberg. Both are tops for research/accuracy/enjoyment.

New event: Spices, Food and Trade

As partners in the History and Heritage Adult Learning Network, the Wellcome Library is delighted to bring you details of a new event coming up in May.

Dr Richard Aspin, Head of Research and Scholarship, will be discussing Spices, Food and Trade. The talk will illustrate the connection between the three, as represented through manuscripts, artworks and books drawn from the Library's extensive holdings. The talk is part of the Past Caring: A Celebration of Food in History programme, with events taking place in libraries and museums across London.

Spices, Food and Trade will take place on Saturday 14th May, between 2pm and 3pm. The talk is free, but places must be booked in advance. Simply email t.tillotson@wellcome.ac.uk to book a place. We look forward to seeing you there.

Experiments in Space Exploration: Secret Satellites, Belfast Exposed.

Review by Angela Darby

For the exhibition Secret Satellites curated by Karen Downey, the Belfast Exposed gallery has been divided into three distinct sections. The light filled foyer, a semi darkened space and a blacked out projection area. Across these three areas artworks by four artists reflect on the theme of space satellites. By definition, a satellite is any object that orbits another. Typically, the phrase space satellite is used to describe man-made satellites, artificial entities that orbit the earth. There are around 2,500 satellites in orbit around the Earth. They have been placed there at great expense to carry out a range of observational and communication activities. Some peer into the dark recesses of the universe as tools of astronomical research, some enable lightening speed contact between opposite sides of the globe whilst others may have both sinister and benign purposes. The GPS app on your phone owes its capability to the same set of satellites that deliver a cruise missile to its deadly destination.

In the foyer, two large framed photographs by the artist Trevor Paglen still the movements of satellites on their trajectory across the firmament. Two more photographs are hung behind these in the semi darkened area. In Four Geostationary Satellites Above the Sierra Nevada, deep blues instil snow-capped mountains with a muted quality whilst in Keyhole 12-3 (improved crystal) near Scorpio, high key oranges bleed across clouds presumably illuminated by sodium vapour lamps on city streets below. The images are formally beautiful, and immediately work on a purely aesthetic level. However the interpretative text accompanying the exhibition points out the sinister aspects of Paglen’s practice. His exploration concerns not just the darkness of space but also the hidden realms of US national security. The images are from an ongoing project The Other Night Sky which attempts to track photograph classified American satellites in Earth orbit. A total of 189 covert spacecraft we are informed. On his website Paglen goes into further detail as to how he was able to locate and intercept these secret objects. He explains that he draws inspiration from early astronomers such as Kepler and Galileo. Knowing how these observers were treated by the Catholic Church one can only hope that Paglen’s attempts at drawing attention to a new orbital reality does not lead to sanctions by the military elite.

At the entrance to the gallery’s semi-darkened area we encounter a cluster of low-tech models constructed from cardboard, polystyrene and plastic bottles. Small in scale and suspended from the ceiling, they are hand-made sculptural interpretations of satellites. The artist, Joanna Griffin organized and facilitated a workshop inside the gallery with a group of participants. Their contributions and outcomes form the basis of Griffin’s ongoing research project The Satellite Investigators. This physical, hands-on approach to extraterrestrial technology offers a lay perspective as opposed to a theoretical observation. If a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour then we should at least feel that we have a sense of ownership of it? To her credit, Griffin’s fascination with satellites and space has gained her acceptance and entry into the bastions of scientific exploration, working with scientists at Space Science Lab, UC Berkeley and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, the UK's largest university-based space science research group.

A lay perspective of universal physics is also revealed in Aisling O’Beirn’s scintillating Flash animation Some Structures Invisible to the Naked Eye. The film presents a rapid sequence of swirling drawings converging then splintering into brief pulsating black and white sharp lined marks. The artist attempts to expose ‘some of contemporary physics more quirky and abstract theories relating to space...’ Through this imaginative visual aid, O’Beirn’s animation uncovers and demystifies a part of the cryptic world that the rhetoric of science obscures. The lines of magnetic energy around the earth, the pulsing waves from Pulsar Stars and the flow of energy into black holes are also drawn, purposively small, in white chalk on a large expanse of blackboard walls. The figure 8 swirling in many of these pictograms suggests links to the mathematical representation of infinity and the mystic lemniscates of eternity. Like a contemporary alchemist O’Beirn transmutes base materials into contemplative forms on which to meditate on the eternal.

Simon Faithfull’s 25-minute film, Escape Vehicle No 6 also transports us to another plane both literally and metaphorically. We watch the artist release a weather balloon with a chair suspended below. A camera fixed to the balloon films the chair and sends its signal remotely to a receiver. As it rises, the chair lunges, swinging madly in response to the atmospheric pressures and air currents. We watch the earth recede and disappear into a fog bank, we re-emerge into a sun filled region above the clouds. It’s stunning. At 18 miles above the earth the balloon collapses in on its self, the chair works free from its bindings and disappears. The intermittent sounds of a bell toll and static which has accompanied the journey ceases and we are left in silence at the edge of space. The film lends itself to reflection on intellectual aspiration and physical limitation, a new telling of old myths that caution against the hubris of our times.

Secret Satellites reveals how visual art can invigorate material exhausted through scientific explanation. The decision by Belfast Exposed’s senior curator, Karen Downey to incorporate sculptural outcomes in addition to the lens based works was welcome and to be applauded. I left the gallery wondering in which part of the world Simon Faithfull’s chair had landed.

Secret Satellites, continues until 30 April. For more information please visit www.belfastexposed.org.

Image: Four Geostationary Satellites Above the Sierra Nevada (2007) © Trevor Paglen
Courtesy Galerie Thomas Zander, Köln and Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco

Monopoly - Bow Street

Monopoly Board orange square. £180.

Bow st runs along side the Royal opera House in Covent garden. An area steeped in history.
The first professional police forces originated here. In 1749 a group of just eight men known as the Bow St runners, a nickname they didn't like. They felt it a derogatory term. Working alongside the Bow St magistrates court they represented the first formalised and regulated policing. Finally disbanded in 1839.

Embroidery Design by Mabel B Keighley

Illustration: Mabel B Keighley. Applique embroidery panel, 1899.

In 1899 the National Competition of Schools of Art, an annual competition was held at the South Kensington Museum, the future Victoria and Albert Museum. It was held every summer and was a means in which many regional art colleges and schools could introduce their students work to the London public. It served a number of purposes including much needed publicity for the individual colleges concerned as well as the chance for students to gain a mention in specific publications such as The Studio magazine, which covered the event every year. However, perhaps more importantly, there was always the possibility of a commission or assignment with a company, which could well start a potentially long and fruitful career.

The first illustration for this article shows an applique embroidery by Mabel B Keighley which was shown at the summer exhibition for the last year of the nineteenth century. Keighley was a student at Plymouth Technical School, which had been accepting students since 1892. Her entry was thought striking enough to get a mention in The Studio magazine and therefore a welcome publicity coupe for both Plymouth and Keighley.

Although being very much a late nineteenth century design with elements of ornamental Art Nouveau styling, particularly in the woman's costume, the subject matter owes its allegiance and origin to William Morris. Keighley used a quote from Morris collection of poems under the title The Defence of Guenevere in which Guenevere admits to and then analyses her guilt. The quote which was used as a banner of sorts across the top of Keighley's embroidery, read as

Under the may she stoop'd to the crown, 

All was gold, there was nothing of brown;

And the horns blew up in the hall at noon,

Two red roses across the moon.

Guenevere and Lancelot obviously share a moment of pleasure and guilt, but this is perhaps not the crux of the decorative piece. It has much more to do with decoration, pattern and accomplishment. Unfortunately, it cannot be seen in colour although The Studio magazine does assure us that the embroidery was both 'rich and luminous in colour'.

Fortunately, for both Keighley and Plymouth, this was not the only moment that The Studio magazine found to praise the work of Keighley. Four years later The National Competition of Schools of Art came around again and Keighley's embroidered entry, which is the second illustration in this article, was praised by the magazine despite the fact that it considered entries in the needlework genre to be particularly bad, or at least nondescript for 1903.

Illustration: Mabel B Keighley. Applique embroidery hanging, 1903.

Although The Studio considered Keighley's 1903 applique embroidery entry, of which there were two, to be ambitious, which often denotes a less than satisfactory outcome, it also called her work 'praiseworthy' and therefore it can be considered that her work was both liked and admired by the magazine. This 1903 embroidered piece does show a progression in Keighley's creative journey with her work, appearing much paired down to the 1899 example, even appearing to have a distinct contemporary graphic quality. Although this was present in her earlier Guenevere example, particularly when considering the body of both Lancelot and his horse, the 1903 entry, although still inspired by the medieval and to some extent possibly even Morris, though not overtly so, the composition apart from the hem of the woman's dress, is bereft of any obvious decoration or ornament. Much of the piece is made up of simple lines and this makes all the more effective, particularly when considering some of the more interesting contemporary developments in the decorative arts of 1903.

Unfortunately, I have no further word of Keighley after 1903. I don't know if she carried on with her embroidery work after she left college, it would be a shame if she didn't as she showed true promise and was developing creatively into an accomplished and potentially experimental artist that could well have taken the medium of embroidery along an interesting and diverse path. If anyone does have information as to the life of Mabel B Keighley, I would love to hear from them.

Further reading links:

Hand Appliqué with Embroidery

The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery, Embellishment and Applique

Sophisticated Stitches: Designs for Quilting, Applique, Sashiko & Embroidery
Embroidered Flora & Fauna: Three-Dimensional Textured Embroidery
ART NOUVEAU EMBROIDERY
The Rise & Fall of Art Needlework  
Drawn to Stitch: Line, Drawing, and Mark-Making in Textile Art
The Art of Manipulating Fabric
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEEDLEWORK (Fully Illustrated)
Zen And the Art of Needlecraft Exploring the Links Between Needlecraft, Spirituality, And Creativity
The Art of Embroidery: Inspirational Stitches, Textures, and Surfaces
The Fine Art of Kimono Embroidery
The Art of Needle-Work, From the Earliest Ages, 3rd Ed. Including Some Notices of the Ancient Historical Tapestries
Royal School of Needlework Embroidery Techniques
Embellishing with Anything: Fiber Art Techniques for Quilts--ATCs, Postcards, Wallhangings & More
Exploring Elizabethan Embroidery (Elizabethan needlework)
In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers and Weavers in Art

Spring Robin and Wildflower Hikes - Robin Nature Study

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.



We were lucky to catch this wildflower blooming...



Yellow star tulip.



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.

We spent additional time this week reviewing our spring bird list and updating it for Tweet and See over on Heather's blog, Kingdom Arrows.

Here is our list for April:

1. Canada goose -on the move, although we have some that stay year-round in a marshy area at the edge of town
2. Mourning doves (always a pair)
3. Anna's hummingbirds
4. White-crowned sparrows
5. White-breasted nuthatch
6. Acorn woodpecker
7. California towhee
8. House sparrows
9. Brewer's blackbirds
10. American crow
11. Turkey vultures
12. Red-wing blackbirds
13. Western scrub jays
14. Common ravens
15. Cedar waxwings (saw these yesterday) - heard their high pitch whistle
16. Oak titmouse
17. American robins -counted 47 one day
18. California quail - flock of them
19. Yellow billed magpie - on a day trip, distinctive sound
20. Blue heron - on another day trip
21. Steller's jays
22. Cooper's hawk - we hear this sound a lot in our yard (nest call/alarm call)
23. Red-tail hawk
24. 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.