May Mammal Nature Study: Bats...Revisited (+Who gets the Watercolors?)

Sunset - time for mosquitoes and almost time for bats.

We have been on the lookout for a mammal subject for our May nature study. I included it in the May Newsletter suggested study because I was really hoping to see our fox friend in our yard this month.  I have been wanting to do some research on him, but he has only left some scat behind and we haven't actually seen him.

(Note: I know some of you have had trouble downloading the May Newsletter. It seems as if those of you with Firefox have trouble with just getting a blank screen. If you can switch to another browser like Internet Explorer you may be successful in downloading the Newsletter. If you still have trouble, you can email me directly for the May Newsletter.)

What would we study for our May mammal?

Well, remember a few weeks ago we had a bat visitor inside the house? My husband suggested that we learn about bats. Sigh. I don't really like bats and we already had done a quick study with OHC #49. I wasn't convinced until night before last. We were sitting outside eating dinner for the very first time this year...our normal spring/summer routine....and the mosquitoes were driving us crazy! There is an abundance of these pesky little critters right now and I commented that we needed to do something about them. My husband mentioned that we should encourage the bats because they eat lots of mosquitoes and they would help keep the population down.

Aha! A positive reason to study the bats!

We spent some time at dusk sitting outside to wait for the bats and they didn't disappoint us. They came in and swooped at head level, zooming around the yard with amazing agility. We did some reading in the HNS and online the next day and here are some of the points we gleaned about our flying mammal friends.

• Members of the family Chiroptera, meaning winged hand.
• Only real flying mammal.
• Most North American bats are insectivores, eating about 1,200 insects an hour or approximately 6,000 insects a night.
• You can attract bats in several ways- build a bat house and/or leave a light on so the insects cluster, making a dinner spot for the bats.
• We found this website informative for our local area: Northern California Bats

May Newsletter journal idea - Fill In The Circle (bat drawn by Mr. A)

I have had a few readers ask me what kind of nature journal I use to watercolor in and I will give you a link to an entry where I discuss my choice: Autumn Series #1. Well there you go...our May mammal study finished and just in time to start thinking about all our June nature study subjects. Our family is really loving the new format of the Outdoor Hour Challenge and the freedom it has given us to pursue a variety of subjects as they have come up in our daily life.

Don't forget to send in your nature study entries by 5/30/11 for the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. You can submit your entries HERE.


The winner of the giveaway from last week's watercolor sketch entry is Corrine from Boston! 
(I used a random number generator to pick the winner.) Corrine chose the Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box! Congrats!

California Poppies - Using the Handbook of Nature Study and a Nature Journal Tutorial

The California poppies are late this year but right on time for our May Outdoor Hour Challenge for wildflowers. (See the May Newsletter for all the May topics to choose from.) We have both wild and cultivated poppies in our yard, hoping that the ones we planted with seed will self-seed for next year's crop.

As the state flower of California, you could expect that there would be lots to see in the spring and this year there are many.



There is a section of our walking trail that has a large garden of poppies in various stages of development. One of the interesting things that we have noticed about poppies are the way the petals unfold when it is ready to bloom. The "cap" comes off and reveals the flower underneath. After the flower blooms the petals fall and a pod is revealed that looks sort of like a bean pod. Here is look at it close up.



We took the idea from Lesson 155 in the Handbook of Nature Study (#7) and looked closer at the pod. We cut the seed pod open lengthwise to examine the seeds with a lens. We observed the ribs and how the seeds were attached inside.



Here is a close-up through the magnifying lens of the seeds inside the pod....amazing! All of us were fascinated with the way the seeds are in the pod like you see in a pea pod. We are going to continue watching the pods as they dry up to see exactly when they become black because we know the seeds we planted were not green but black.



Here is Mr. B's sketch of the dissected poppy pod.


Mr. B and I worked on notebook pages for our nature journals using the California Poppy pages from NotebookingPages.com. I highly recommend the Wildflower, Weeds, and Garden Flowers set because it has every flower listed in the Handbook of Nature Study...perfect companion to your nature study. If you own the Treasury Membership it is included so take a look for it in your files.

Fill In The Circle Tutorial

Many of you asked to have me give you more step-by-step tutorials on how I put my nature journal pages together. Here is one for the Fill In The Circle idea that is found in the May Newsletter. (All supplies are shown in the Amazon widget at the bottom of this blog entry - you may need to click over to the blog to see them.)



I started off with a large pencil circle for my poppy sketch. I also used pencil lines for the poem stanza that I wanted to include in this journal entry. I don't always draw lines so it is up to you whether you need them or not.



I added watercolor pencil to the poppy and then made a larger box with pen around the two pages I am working on. I like the "window frame" look to tie two pages together. I copied the poem onto the page using a black pen. I used Prang Semi-Moist watercolors to paint the yellow background....sort of a wash technique using just a little color. I decided I wanted some funky bubble letters so I added those next.



I printed one poppy photo to include on the left page and used watercolors to paint the bubble letters. I added the date to the bottom corner. You can use this idea with any topic you want to include in your nature journal. I would love to see your results so post them in your entry and then submit it to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.

This couldn't be a better time to get started with NotebookingPages.com and their Treasury Membership. Not only do you get access to every notebook page, you will now receive as part of her 5 Year Anniversary:

5th Birthday Sale-A-Bration Details:
1) All new treasury members receive an extended 3 month membership, bonus e-package worth over $70, and a chance to win one of several prizes.
2) Current treasury members may renew their memberships and receive the same deal.
3) All bundled products are 25% off.

Plus!
Use discount code = discount5 to save $5 on your $10+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com
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Outdoor Hour Challenge - New Direction: May Newsletter

Itch: To have a restless desire or hankering for something.

Have you ever felt an itch and couldn't scratch it? Has something ever nagged you and you at first could not decide what it was that was bothering you? I have had an itch to do something different with the Outdoor Hour Challenges for awhile now and the time has come to make a few changes. Changes for the better that will freshen up the concept and give us all a little freedom.

My life has changed quite a bit in the last three years, growing children and changing interests have flavored my days with wonderful experiences and opportunities. I am not ready to leave the Outdoor Hour Challenge behind yet....but rather give it some new life.


Here are the highlights of the changes:

1. Instead of a weekly challenge, there will be a monthly newsletter with a month's worth of nature study suggestions, new nature journal ideas, a custom notebook page, and always a few more goodies. 
2. Each newsletter will be filled with specific ideas for encouraging nature study in your family, no matter where you live.
3. The newsletter will be available at the beginning of each new month and you will be able to download it and print for your family.
4.The newsletter will outline the Outdoor Hour Challenge topics for the month and all participants will complete the challenges the same as before but there will no longer be a Mr. Linky each week. Instead, blog entries will be shared in the monthly Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival at the end of the month.
5. I will still share our family's Outdoor Hour Challenge experiences on my blog and support everyone's entries by sharing about them in the Blog Carnival.

There will be something for everyone whether you are brand new to the Outdoor Hour Challenge or you have been participating through the seasons. I encourage you to download May's Newsletter and see for yourself that the change is going to be exciting. My hope is that this will help even more families find a way to incorporate nature study into their monthly homeschooling. Please feel free to send me an email with any questions or comments.

Here is the May 2011 Outdoor Hour Challenge Newsletter.