Perfect Winter Hike - Looking for Color

Just another day of perfect December hiking and taking in the challenge to find some color. Our winter nature study is shaping up to look more like fall....warm temperatures and dry, dry, dry. We looked at each other after lunch today and everyone was in agreement. We needed to be outside.

I quickly filled the backpack with water, snacks, and camera then we were out the door. The parking lot at the trailhead was about half full of vehicles and most of those were trucks with horse trailers, a few with bike racks. We opted to hike since the Kona dog wanted to take a swim at the river. It was that warm.


The trail starts off on a downward slope and if you look in the distance you can see our landmark "lollipop" tree (farthest hill with a single tree). We aim for that tree and know that the river is somewhere over there. It is an easy hike with several trail options. We took the Long Valley Trail down to the river and the South Fork Trail back up.


Along one section of the trail we observed lots and lots of goldfinches having a seed feast. Amazing yellow color in real life...our first real color of the hike. We also stopped to observe another little bird who sat on the cattails in the ditch. It was a new bird and we took the time to really look with the binoculars, noting shape, size, color, eye-stripe, beak shape, tail shape, and song. (We identified back at home as a Bewick's Wren=new to our life list!)


The river was running high and we had the place to ourselves, except for some barn swallows swooping overhead and a couple of fellow travelers on horses. This is a gorgeous section of the river all lined with oaks in the winter sunshine.


Kona took a swim right off the bat and I decided to rest on the rock overlooking the river. She splashed and retrieved sticks for the next half hour. One man in a canoe and one woman in a kayak went past. I was happy to be dry up on my rock but I waved a friendly wave as they floated past.

I soaked in the sun, watching the water rush by, and contemplated the beauty.

I was grateful. My heart felt refreshed or maybe just cleansed of the everyday.


The view from my rock spot was enjoyable and it is easy to get lost in your thoughts as the water rushes by you. So much power and so much potential...wondering where the water will end up at the end of its river journey. I even thought for a few minutes about the rocks just under the surface of the water, the rocks the kayaker succeeded in navigating around on her trip down the river. We all need to know where the rocks are.



Here is my favorite image of the day showing the winter color of my world. The shore of the river is always changing but these multi-colored rocks keep the river from eroding the banks away except in the highest storm waters. What are your favorite colors found in the rocks? The green? The pinkish orange? The speckled? The white? I put one in my pocket and now it is sitting on my shelf as a reminder of my winter color walk afternoon to the river.



We had to drag Kona away from her beloved stick fetching and started back up the hill towards home. Along the way we watched two birds in flight over the rolling hills...stopping to hover over some prey. We used the binoculars but were unable to really identify this second new bird of the day. We noted behavior, wing shape, size, color. At home we identified this new bird as the White Tailed Kite.  How exciting is that?

It was a very good day.



My December nature journal entry in progress...notes and things I want to remember about this month....to be continued as the month rolls along.

Our June Bird Study: Lesser Goldfinches Eat My Sunflowers

Sunflowers in our garden (self-seeded). Tasty snack for the goldfinches.

Bird Study for the June Newsletter Challenge

We have a beautiful songbird in our backyard that sings to us as we garden. He often is seen in our finch feeder but he also has another part of his diet that is interesting. The Lesser goldfinch eats our sunflower's leaves! They must be so very light because they can land on the leaves and they hardly dip under the weight. They nibble the green parts of the leaves and leave holes and skeleton leaves on the plants.

I found this video on YouTube.com that shows what we observed in our garden.

Lesser goldfinch eating sunflower leaves

I caught this Lesser goldfinch in our birdbath....bathing and singing.

There is a lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 10) and a previous Outdoor Hour Challenge (Yellow Birds) for the goldfinch which includes this link: Get Gorgeous Goldfinches! The article gives you tips for attracting and then feeding your own goldfinches. If you would like to hear the goldfinches song, you can listen at AllAboutBirds.com.

We used a photo and the notebook page from the June Newsletter.

We read on AllAboutBirds.com that the Lesser goldfinch sometimes makes its nest in among grapevines to shade the nest from the sun. We think our finches are nesting in our grapevines that are near our back birdfeeder. I never thought to look there.

We love these little birds and even though they cause a little mischief in the sunflower patch, we hope they stick around for awhile.

This is the last of our June Newsletter Challenges. We were able to complete all four this time.
Here are links to the other three:
Garden Critter: Honeybee
Tree: Sitka Spruce
Crop Plant: Corn

Now for our Tweet and See list for June 2011
Backyard and Neighborhood:

1. Turkey vultures
2. Steller's jay
3. Oak titmouse
4. Lesser goldfinch
5. Anna's hummingbirds
6. California quail
7. Western scrub jays
8. Mourning doves
9. Acorn woodpecker
10. Common raven
11. Wild turkeys
12. Cooper's hawk
13. White-breasted nuthatch
14. California towhee
15. Spotted towhee
16. House finches
17. American crows

Trip to Oregon-There were more birds that I didn't know so I can't list:

1. Osprey
2. Brown pelican
3. Song sparrow
4. American crows
5. Turkey vultures
6. American robins
7. White-crowned sparrows
8. Western gull
9. California quail
10. Black oysercatcher
11. Winter wren

Happy Birding!

Meet My New Friends-The Goldfinches

We have had a hard time attracting goldfinches to our yard. We tried thistle feeders before but the goldfinches never came. I decided two weeks ago to try again and this time....they arrived right outside my window!


I can't tell you how thrilled we were to see them in the feeder, lined up along the branches, and sitting in the top of the tree. Their bright yellow color is amazing to see flash across the yard and their sweet little song is so beautiful coming in the windows.


Mr. B came in yesterday with a gift for me.


He found a goldfinch feather under the feeder and brought it in for me to see. Doesn't it look as if someone dipped the tip in yellow paint?

This is going in my nature journal! We found the goldfinch in the Handbook of Nature Study and now we are going to read up on them and do some of the suggestions in Lesson 10.

"Goldfinches are seen at their best in late summer or September, when they appear in flocks wherever the thistle seeds are found in abundance."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 57

Hopefully they are here for awhile so we can get our fill of finches.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge-Birds: Meadowlarks and Goldfinches

In Challenge One we started to look for birds in our neighborhood and in Challenge Two we focused on looking at the beaks of birds. The next challenge we will take will be to learn about bird feathers and wing and tail shapes.

Just for fun to grab some interest in birds this week, watch this amazing video on the lyre bird...the master imitator. Leave me a comment after watching the video...I would love to hear what your children think about this incredible bird and his abilities.
BBC Wildlife: Amazing bird sounds

Just a note: I may not get a challenge prepared for next Friday because of the spring break but I will definitely have a new challenge on Friday, April 24th.

Outdoor Hour Challenge Birds #3
Goldfinch and Meadowlark (Western and Eastern)

Inside preparation work:
1 Read the Handbook of Nature Study pages 29-33 about feathers. Another great link is found here: Feather Structure
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/studying/feathers/feathers
Here is another link to Bird Wing Shapes
http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Birds/flight-shape.html

2. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 53-57 about the goldfinch.

We have had great success in hanging a finch feeder in our yard. The little yellow birds love to hang upside down from the perches and eat the thistle seeds. You might think of a place to hang a finch feeder in your yard. Here are some tips to attracting finches: Get Gorgeous Goldfinches! http://www.wildbirdsforever.com/goldfnch.html

3. Read the Handbook of Nature Study pages 80-82 about the meadowlark.

4. Backyard Birds: Read aloud with your child pages 16-19. Use the illustrations to point out the field marks for each bird and for the goldfinch, the differences between the male and female birds.

5. Peterson Field Guide: Make note of the wing and tail shape illustrations on pages 18 and 19(W) 24 and 25(E) Look up in the index the goldfinch and the meadowlark. Observe the illustrations carefully and read the narrative descriptions and explanations. Notice the beak, the tail, and the wing shape for future reference. (See links at the bottom of the post for the particulars on these field guides.)

Outdoor Hour Time
Practice your quiet observation skills for at least part of your 10-15 minutes of birding time. Remember the focus from challenge two and make special note of the shape of the beak and the way the bird uses it. Also, make note of the wing and tail shapes of any birds that you observe during this challenge.
Shape of the tail: Square tip? Rounded? Pointed? Notched?
Shape of the wing: Rounded? Pointed? Slim? Long? Short?

Sometimes a bird’s wings and tail look differently when they fly. Observe a bird during flight to see if you can notice different colors, shapes, or stripes when they fly. Remember to make these observations for any bird you see during your outdoor time and not just for the meadowlark and/or the goldfinch.

Follow Up Activity for the Goldfinch and the Meadowlark
You can make a nature journal entry for the goldfinch and the meadowlark if you would like. There are several styles of journal pages in the NotebookingPages.com set below.

You will find a coloring page for the goldfinch in Feeder Birds Coloring Book.

If you would like a coloring page for the meadowlark, you will find one here at http://www.coloring-pages.ws/displayimage.php?album=88&pos=61

For something different in your nature journal, copy the John Keats poem on page 57 of the Handbook of Nature Study. Many families like to include poetry in their nature journals and this poem about the goldfinch is a perfect addition.

If you are using NotebookingPages.com’s bird nature study set, you can use the pages on feathers to record your feather observations or you can draw a feather and label its parts.

If you would like to hear the bird calls for this week's birds, here are the links:
Western Meadowlark
Eastern Meadowlark
American Goldfinch
Lesser Goldfinch

If you want to purchase the All About Birds-Basic Study set for $2.95 from NotebookingPages.com, here is the link. They are perfect for this series of bird challenges.


If you would like some ideas for attracting and feeding birds in your own yard, check out my Squidoo page: What Do You Feed Birds in Winter?  This page is applicable to all seasons.

Happy birding.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Please note that you will only need to purchase one of the field guides, either Western or Eastern.

A Morning at the Birdfeeder

(house finch)

Just a few photos from this morning at the birdfeeders. It is a bright sunny day, at least at the moment.

(lesser goldfinches)

We have had house finches, dark-eyed juncos, scrub jays, lesser goldfinches, house sparrows, and a few titmouses visiting so far.

Have a great weekend.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom