Bird Nature Journal Ideas and the Great Backyard Bird Count Reminder

I am getting ready to count birds now that the seasons are changing. We have so many birds at our feeders these days that it is going to be interesting to see the comparisons between last year and this year.

Here is the official video announcing and explaining the Great Backyard Bird Count!



I also found this link very helpful in learning more about feeding our backyard birds.

You may wish to make a record of the birds your family observes in your nature journal. Our family likes to look back over the years and see how our lists compare.

Here are some ideas for recordkeeping:

A simple list is a great place to start. Record the date, the bird species, the location. You could keep a list for each day of the GBBC and then insert it into your nature journal or add to your life list. (There is a link to this particular bird log at the bottom of this page.)

I also keep a running list of birds on one of the free notebook pages from my friend Tina that she made for the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

A few years ago, our family made cards for each bird we observed. The pdf for the captions can be found on Scribd. You can see what they looked like HERE. 

NotebookingPages.com has a nice set of bird pages you can use if you want something premade.(Note: If you are a Treasury Member of her site, you have access to all the bird pages included in your membership.) See links at the bottom of this post to the set I use in our journals.

We also use the coloring pages from Cornell's Backyard Feeder Coloring Book as a way to record birds we see in our backyard. I print out the table of contents and keep it for reference and as a reminder of what birds are available in the coloring book.

Both of my bird field guides have places for you to record the birds we have observed. It is a handy place to keep your record since you will normally have your field guide on hand.

In the Peterson guide there is a checklist in the back of the book. It looks like the newest edition of this book(which I don't have) has a life list in the back of the book.

In the Audubon guide there is an index with circles to check off as you observe a bird.

I am eager to count birds this weekend and will probably be able to participate on two of the days with my family. This week's Outdoor Hour Challenge will feature winter birds so next week you can share your family's list as part of Mr. Linky if you would like to participate in this challenge.

Mammals in Our Backyard

We have decided to work through our list of mammals that we have observed in our backyard and make journal entries for them in our nature journals. Often times we observe an animal and do not take the time to do the research or the entry into our journals. On these cold, rainy days of winter we will take the opportunity to read about each one in the Handbook of Nature Study if possible and then record our findings. Many of the animals we observe are not specifically covered in the HNS, so we will use the internet or our field guides to get the information.

Here is the list of animals we are going to study:
(also found as links on my sidebar)

Western grey squirrel
Striped skunk
Broad-footed mole
Long-tailed vole
House mouse
Norway rat
Mule deer
Common raccoon
Little brown bat

Covering one animal per week for the next term, I think that our goal is within reach. I will share our results as we go along.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom