Nighttime Critters - Our List from the July Newsletter

Summer evenings outdoors....with our chiminea.

We have been working on our July Newsletter Nighttime Critter Challenge all month. I wanted to post a little of what we are observing and learning to give you an idea of how you can pick a few things from your area to study in the evening hours.  I will update our list after the end of the month with any new finds.

Our most predominant nighttime critters of interest are the Brown bats that come every single night to fly in our backyard. I wrote about them back in May as part of mammal study.  For the July newsletter challenge for Nighttime Critters, I decided to share a few of our other nighttime visitors of interest. This study was sort of on-going because when the weather is hot, we tend to drag sleeping bags out to the back deck to sleep in the cool night air. We all lay awake and listen and watch as the nighttime settles in around us.

Shooting stars, satellites zipping across the sky, the moon, the swaying trees in the breeze, and the night sounds all entertain us as we wait for sleep to come.

Fill In The Circle and Fill In With Color Example - Poor owl sketch...he has such a crooked beak.

One of the things that we have discovered sleeping outside on hot summer nights is that we have quite a few great horned owls in our neighborhood. We can hear them calling back and forth right after the sun goes down and then again at around 5 AM. Here is a link to AllAboutBirds.org and if you click the sound button, you will hear the two types of sounds we hear from our owls: Great Horned Owls. We have yet to actually see them but they are out there...no doubt about it.

We also are serenaded by crickets when the temperatures get just right. It is amazing how you don't hear any crickets and then all of a sudden it is as if someone turned on a cricket soundtrack and they all chirp at the same time. The lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study gives a great illustration showing the parts of the cricket and an excellent explanation of how he "sings". (Lesson 82)

 "The wing covers are much shorter than the abdomen and beneath them are vestiges of wings, which are never used. The male has larger wing covers than the female, and they are veined in a peculiar scroll pattern. This veining seems to be a framework for the purpose of making a sounding board of the wing membrane, by stretching it out as a drumhead is stretched." Handbook of Nature Study. 

Turn in your copy of the Handbook of Nature Study to read much more in the lesson explaining this interesting creature.There is such a simple explanation of the mechanics of the crickets chirping that it is perfect for sharing with younger children. The crickets and the frogs compete in our neighborhood for the winner of the "background" noise. It seems as if one or the other is singing their little hearts out. 

We smell skunks quite a few nights a week. Sleeping outside we hear rustling in the garden and I think it is the skunk. I know they dig around the base of the birdfeeder outside our window but over the years I have decided that if he leaves me alone, I will leave him alone. Here is another entry where I talk about our nighttime visitors.

List from the July Newsletter. I cut it out and taped it inside my nature journal.

One last nighttime critter we have had around the neighborhood is the raccoon. Our neighbor has been sharing how they keep forgetting to bring in the dog's food dish at night and the raccoon has decided that it makes a easy snack taken just outside their patio door. We have had our share of raccoons in the yard over the years but we haven't seen any lately. Here is an entry sharing one raccoon experience: Raccoon Visitor.

 
Well that gives you a taste of what we have around here in the evenings. I just thought of something else I need to put on my list....moths.

I look forward to reading about your nighttime critters. Don't forget to post your entry and then submit it to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival before 7/30/11 for a chance in the July Newsletter giveaway!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

OHC Summer Series #4: Bats and the Sense of Hearing

Summer Series #4
Bats and Sense of Hearing

Train Your Senses

• Sight: Observe the sky at sundown, look for the silhouettes of birds, bats, or insects in the air.
• Hearing: Observe the sounds of the night starting at sundown: bats, crickets, frogs, bark of a dog, hoot of an owl, birds, rustling in the leaves, wind, etc. Can you hear more sounds on a damp night? Can you hear more sounds at night when your sense of sight is not as keen?

Inside Preparation Work:
1. Read pages 241-245 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 59 The Bat). Although the lesson for bats states that it should not be given unless you can directly observe bats in person and most of us do not have direct access to bats, do not let this discourage you from completing this challenge. Make sure to watch the YouTube video about bats listed in the additional resources for this challenge and then proceed with the lesson suggestions. If you need additional information, use the resources at the end of this challenge.

2. Read in Discover Nature at Sundown pages 27-35 and pages 130-153 (Note: Evolutionary talk in this section). The first section will prepare you to use your sense of hearing more as you are outdoors in the evenings this summer. Plan on spending some time outdoors in the evenings to observe the sounds of the summer at sundown. The second section will give a thorough account of the bat including what kind of bats you can expect in your part of the country. Pay special attention to pages 138-140 for specific ideas for finding bats to observe in real life.

Outdoor Hour Time:
1. Things That Go Bump in the Night:
Spend 15 minutes outdoors at sundown, observing some of the sounds suggested in the book. The book suggests observing sounds on a damp night and a dry night and comparing your results. Something else to listen for is “sudden silence” where the night noises completely stop and then start up again after a period of time.

2. World of Bats:

“Although an occasional bat can be found flying about during the day, most bats take to the sky during the twilight hours. On a summer evening you can observe them in a dance of twists, spirals, and loops that is choreographed by the insects they pursue.” Discover Nature at Sundown, page 148

If you have the opportunity to observe some bats up close, make sure to use some of the suggestions from the Handbook of Nature Study and/or the Discover Nature at Sundown.

Follow-Up Activity:
Make sure to give time and the opportunity for a nature journal entry using the Summer Sounds or the Bat notebook page for provided in the ebook or a blank page in your own journal. There is also a bat coloring page included with the ebook.

Additional Resources:
Here is a general video about bats. Please preview.
YouTube.com Bat Video

More Information on the Little Brown Bat.

Life cycle of the bat notebook page.

Bats and pollination.

Please make sure to come back and post your link on Mr. Linky after completing this challenge and writing your blog entry.

If you would like all the Summer Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. Here is a link to a complete description:
Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges

Summer Plans: Suggested Resource for the OHC

I am having such a great time planning our family's summer nature subjects...in anticipation of the Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges. I pulled things from our shelves and have been enjoying reading through some of the resources we have not covered yet. One of those books is Discover Nature at Sundown by Elizabeth Lawlor and I have decided to incorporate it into the Summer Series.

This book is in the same series as the Discover Nature in Winter book that we used for our winter nature study a few years ago. (You can still find those challenges on my sidebar.) I like the format of these books and think they complement the Handbook of Nature Study nicely if you read the corresponding sections at the same time.

Here is a link to Discover Nature at Sundown on Google Books. There is quite a large portion of the book available to read online so you can get a flavor of the topics and ideas covered.

I like this book so much that I am going to incorporate it alongside the readings in the Handbook of Nature Study as part of my new Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges. You can check your libraries, look for it used, or purchase it from Amazon.com and have it on hand for your summer evening nature study times. Of course, you can always use the Handbook of Nature Study as your main source of inspiration for the challenges but the Discover Nature at Sundown book will enhance and let you go deeper if you want to and have the time.

More information on the challenges will be available as I get closer to publishing the series. I hope to make the Summer Series available around June 1st. One thing I will mention is that I will be featuring the idea of using all your senses during your Outdoor Hour time. This book touches on the sense of smell and the sense of hearing and what better way to learn about these senses than to exercise them as you spend time together outdoors...in the cool of the evenings.

I hope you are planning on joining us for the Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges.


Right now it looks like there are a decent number of used copies at around $3 a copy.