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

Our Raccon and Skunk Study: Mammals of the Night

This is a visitor we had at our back door a few summers ago. We had a family of skunks and a couple of raccoons that frequented our backyard in the evenings all that long summer. The raccoon would stand at our door and look in until we would chase him off.....this is when we started keeping our cat's food dish inside. We knew he was eating the food because he would wash the kibble in the water dish, making the water brown and his footprints would lead from the dish off to the edge of the deck.

Last summer was the summer of the skunk in our neighborhood. Just about every night we would smell the fragrance of skunk coming in the windows. This summer....nothing. No skunks at all that I have seen or smelled. What a relief! But also now that I think about it, sort of interesting and curious. Now that we have no grass in the front yard it will probably mean we no longer have a skunk digging around for something to eat....didn't think about that aspect of our yard remodel.

Mr. B and I have spent more than the usual amount of time outdoors at night the past few weeks as part of his astronomy study. I don't think we have heard any mammals around the yard except for our cats. We listened to crickets the other night as we sat and watched the stars. A friend of ours said they had a mountain lion on their property last week! I am happy to report we do not have a mountain lion this year like we did last year in our neighborhood. It went around knocking trash cans over and making messes on trash night.

That reminds me of a conversation we had when we were camping at Yosemite in July. My boys and I were talking about whether we were more afraid of bears or mountain lions. We all agreed that in our experience bears were far less intimidating than a mountain lion. I thought that was interesting and we talked a lot about why we were more afraid of the mountain lion. We talked about how bears appear and go about their quest looking for food. If you stay out of their way, they usually just go about their business. Mountain lions seem to be all teeth and claws and if you have heard one scream, well, it is frightening. The one in our neighborhood sounded like a loud baby crying....it totally creeped me out. It was almost as eerie as a coyote howling.

Well, that is our mammal post to wrap up our summer nature study series. We are anxious to start the autumn challenges. My husband and I have sat down to plan some field trips to enhance our studies. We may revisit bats this fall since they seem to be out in record numbers this week. There is also a resident squirrel that needs some observations and journals recorded. We realized too that we have not done a formal study of our frequent guest at the feeder, the white-breasted nuthatch so that may get done alongside our autumn bird study for the challenge.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this summer series of nature study a great success and joy.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

OHC Summer Series #12: Raccoons and Skunks

This is the last of the Summer Series Challenges! Our summer has been very busy with all kinds of nature study and I hope that the Outdoor Hour Challenges have helped to make your summer more memorable. Our family is definitely using our senses more when we are outdoors, especially in the evenings.

There will be a two week gap before the Autumn Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges begin on September 17th. Use your time to do informal nature study or to catch up on any challenges you hoped to get to but didn't have time for over the summer.

Summer Series #12
Raccoons and Skunks

Train Your Senses

• Sight: Observe any mammal up close: fur, teeth, ears, eyes, paws. Use a flashlight to see if you can see eye-shine in the dark.
• Smell: Close your eyes and smell the night air. Can you smell a trace of skunk?
• Touch: Feel different kinds of mammal’s fur and compare: soft, bristly, thick, coarse, smooth.
• Hearing: Listen closely to hear any mammals in the dark: rustling in the leaves, scratching, barking, howling, sniffing, eating.

Inside Preparation Time:
1. Read pages 245 to 250 (Lessons 60 and 61) in the Handbook of Nature Study for information about skunks and raccoons. Highlight some points that may be helpful when you have a chance to observe a skunk or raccoon in person. You can also use the links in the follow-up section for additional resources for these two mammals.

Link to tracks to look for: raccoon and striped skunk.

2. Read in Discover Nature at Sundown pages 190-209 and 212-226. Use the territory maps to discover what kind of skunks you may have in your area. Also you can use the exploration ideas for activities to learn more about skunks and raccoons.

Outdoor Hour Time:
This week you can spend fifteen minutes outdoors at any time of the day if you are interested in looking for signs of mammals. In the evening you may be able to smell the fragrance of a skunk. If you are out during the day, you can look for mammal tracks, holes, scratches on tree trunks, scat, hollows in the trunk of a tree, burrow, holes in the lawn.

Remember that one of the main aims of this series of challenge is to train your senses. You may not find a raccoon or skunk to observe up close but you can use all your senses to learn more about your own backyard. Keep the suggestions above in mind as you spend your fifteen minutes outdoors for this challenge.

Follow-Up Activity:
You can use the provided raccoon notebook page or the skunk notebook page from the Summer Series ebook, a blank nature journal page from the sidebar of my blog, a free mammal page, or a blank nature journal.

You can read these previous Outdoor Hour Challenges for additional resources for these two mammals:
Outdoor Hour Challenge #50 Skunks and Badgers
Outdoor Hour Challenge #52 Raccoons

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

Raccoon Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge for Mammals

This post is long overdue. As I was going through all the past challenges, I realized that I never posted our study of raccoons.

In our neighborhood, we have raccoons. Big raccoons for the most part. They always surprise me when I see them because they are large, curious looking animals. We have had them look in our windows and french doors at night with their shining eyes. We have had them sit in open doorways and look in at us. They have been known to carry away whole bowls full of cat food. I had a big Tupperware container filled with catfood on the back deck and they would come at night and remove the cat food, carry the pieces over to the water dish, and proceed to wash the food and then eat it. We could see their hand prints on the deck and around the bowl. They are clever creatures indeed.

Last summer Mama Raccoon would bring her young ones in the middle of the night to climb the trees just outside our bedroom window. You could hear them making noises in the dark as they played and climbed. I am not positive but I think they would go up the tree and eat the seeds from the pods from the magnolia tree. They would rustle around in the limbs of the tree and if you shone the flashlight out there, their eyes would reflect like glass.

This last trip to Oregon we made a discovery. Raccoons along the seashore. Here are the prints we saw in the sand.

There were prints very clearly defined.

There were definitely not dog prints.

Here is a notebook page that Mr. B made for his nature journal about raccoons.

If you can't read the bottom I will type it here for you to read. It makes me smile.

"One of the most adaptive mammals ever, the raccoon can make a living almost anywhere. Eating nearly everything it can put its hands on, raccoons aren't ones to be starved easily. Some live eating grubs and fruit, but the majority of these sneaky thieves steal pet food, bird seed, and any valuables it could pawn off later for a good price. When caught in the act, they will climb the nearest tree and flaunt their invincibility by falling asleep up there. Guard dogs will do next to nothing because they will fight with ninja-like prowess when cornered."

Funny.

This time of year our chances of seeing and observing a raccoon are very high. I hope we see one again soon.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #52 Mammals-Raccoon

This is going to be the last of the mammal Outdoor Hour Challenges....we made it through many, many animals this time around. I expect at some point we will focus on mammals again in the future.

We will be skipping some stories in the Burgess Animal Book for Children again this week but you can share them when you have time in the weeks to come.

Here is a video from National Geographic about raccoons...very short. I want to warn those that have sensitive young ones that this video shows the raccoon eating crocodile eggs and babies...briefly. You will want to preview.
Raccoons

"None other of our little brothers of the forest has such a mischievous countenance as the coon. The black patch across the face and surrounding the eyes like large goggles, and the black line extending from the long, inquisitive nose directly up the forehead give the coon's face an anxious expression; and the keenness of the big, beady, black eyes and the alert, "sassy" looking , broadly triangular ears, convince one that the anxiety depicted in the face is anxiety lest something that should not be done be left undone; and I am sure that anyone who has had experience with pet coons will aver that their acts do not belie their looks."
Handbook of Nature Study, pages 247-148

Outdoor Hour Challenge
#52 Mammals-Raccoon

1. Read pages 247-250 in the Handbook of Nature Study about the raccoon. If you want to share some additional resources, there are some listed at the end of the challenge.

“The raccoon lives in hollow trees or caves along the banks of streams. It sleeps during the day and seeks its food at night. It sleeps during the winter.”

2. Supplemental reading in The Burgess Animal Book for Children: Read Story 31. Use the illustration on page 206 to prompt some simple narrations from your child.

3. Spend 10-15 minutes outdoors on a nature walk. Raccoons hibernate in the winter so there will be little chance of actually observing one this week. Instead, look for any animal tracks in the snow or mud. Keep your eyes out for any mammal that comes your way this week.

4. Record in your nature journal any interesting objects you found this week.
Did you see a bird or a mammal to record?
It might be fun to make a list of all the mammals you have seen during our focus on mammals over the last eight weeks.
Complete a mammal notebook page(see link below) for the raccoon to record interesting facts you learned and want to remember.
If you have not completed the Winter Weather Observation notebook page or the Seasonal Tree Study notebook page, you could use those in your nature journal this week as well.

5. Share your blog entry on Mr. Linky as a way of encouraging our families in their nature study.

Additional resources for this challenge:
Raccoon coloring page
Another coloring page
Raccoon notebook page on Enchanted Learning
Raccoon information:
Online book with audio about raccoon
Raccoon tracks

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Thanks to Tina at Jetihoja Academy for the special mammal challenge notebook page. You can find it along with all the other notebook pages here:
Outdoor Hour Challenge Notebooking pages
Thanks Tina!

Raccoon Visitor

Amanda caught this raccoon on our deck a few nights ago. She said he was sitting in the doorway watching them in the house. We knew this creature had been around the backyard for a long time but this was the first time the raccoon showed itself.

There is a section in the Handbook of Nature Study on raccoons starting on page 247.

"None other of our little brothers of the forest has such a mischievous countenance as the coon. The black patch across the face and surrounding the eyes like large goggles, and the black line extending from the long, inquisitive nose directly up the forehead give the coon's face an anxious expression; and the keenness of the big, beady, black eyes and the alert, "sassy" looking, broadly triangular ears, convince one that the anxiety depicted in the face is anxiety lest something that should not be done be left undone..."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 248

We have seen the little muddy footprints where he washes his food in our watering can. We hear him rustling in the bushes under our bedroom window at night. I have heard him chatter as he crosses the yard in the dark. Now we know exactly what creature is roaming our yard at night while we sleep, or at least one of them. :)

I just don't want to see him in our doorway or inside the house any time soon.

Great job taking the photo Amanda.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

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