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

Skunks and Badgers: Our Outdoor Hour

Our area is inhabited by quite a few striped skunks. In the summer time we frequently see them in the evening hours in our backyard as they dig under the birdfeeder and in the yard. We even had a family of skunks living under our house a few years ago.

Every night that summer we would have the fragrance of skunk to contend with. We sort of became used to smelling it at night but when they would sometimes spray right up under the windows, it would make you feel sick to your stomach.

This time of year we only occasionally see skunks and it is a nice break in our "nature study".


This is a photo from last year and it shows what the skunks come and do at night in our yard. They dig around looking for insects and worms and the holes look like swirls when they are done. This was an especially bad night where I am so grateful they decided to dig in the unlandscaped part of the yard and not a few feet over and into the grassy area. They are very good diggers as you can see. This year we have a dog that sleeps outside in her kennel so we shall see how that goes with the resident skunk population.

On another topic, we did have a special treat this week while we were on our trip to the desert. The Living Desert Museum actually had a badger to view and observe! We had never seen a real badger before and we were surprised at the size and the claws! The badger was busy digging in his enclosure so we stood and watched him for a long time and we can now see how he uses those long claws to dig his burrow.


Skunks are really an ongoing nature study subject for our family since we have them so close at hand. We have learned to live with them and to stay out of their way.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Mammals in the Twilight

Last light just about sunset I was in the backyard puttering around. I love to go out at that time of the day and enjoy the cool air and the stillness. Walking back up to the house I realized that my friendly neighborhood skunk was standing right in front of me. He isn't very big, about the size of a large house cat. He has a very distinct tail that is actually quite lovely as long as it is pointing away from you. :)

He saw me coming and ran under the deck and I ran up the back stairs.

I called to my husband to tell him that the skunk was in the yard and asked if our cats were inside. One cat was in and one cat was out so I stepped back onto the deck to call Cocoa. She usually comes when I call her at bedtime but there was no sight of her.

My husband joined me on the deck and we stood for a minute looking out over the backyard waiting for the cat to decide to join us. As we stood there, we saw something amazing and new to our yard. We knew right away it was a fox! I think it was this kind: Red Fox.

"The red fox is so clever that it has been able, in many parts of our country, to maintain itself despite dogs and men."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 253

There is a whole section on red foxes in the HNS starting on page 251. I am going to read it today and see what I can learn about this creature. The skunk has a section in the Handbook starting on page 245.

We really do live in a fantastic spot for wildlife. We seem to have all sorts of creatures right under our noses and never realize it until we slow down and really look for them. I don't know if I really want a fox in my yard every night but last night I felt so blessed by his appearance.

We sat on the deck late into the evening discussing the events we had just experienced. The familiar skunk and the rare fox had touched both of us; the variety of life we have all around us was remarkable. Shortly after seeing the fox, the bats began circling around the yard having their evening meal.

Skunk, fox, bat, and then the curious cat all kept us company.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Picking New Garden Flowers-Green Hour Challenge #12

I thought I would share a little of our family's gardening history in our Green Hour Post this week. We have always been a gardening sort of family and the kids have grown up with their hands in the dirt. Each child has had their own garden box and when spring rolls around they get busy planting. This is my youngest son working in his garden in 2001....that would have made him five years old. I think the look on his face says it all.

This year he has planted a zuchinni, some spinach, and is now going to add some dill and some violoas to his box. He has herbs from last year growing...chives, oregano, and basil I think.


We went to Home Depot to look for some new things and he wanted something colorful and he wanted seeds so we found some on this really big rack of seed packets. He also picked out a pepper called "garden salsa" and this one he wanted as a seedling. I picked up some morning glories after being inspired by Jenn and I also picked out some coleus seeds for my pot on my back deck.



Our nature study this week has been filled with observing each morning the signs of a skunk in our backyard. Here is what it looks like. They make swirly holes looking for grubs and other tasty treats. I am so glad they are doing this in the unlandscaped side of our yard and not in the grass....yet.

Can you believe how busy these guys are looking for things to eat? Here is my son's drawing for his nature journal of a striped skunk.


We had another relaxed Green Hour week with a little time each day in the garden and observing birds and reptiles in our backyard. We did have one really sad incident. The baby blue jays that we had in a nest near our window were taken by some bird and then the nest was damaged so there are no longer any babies for us to observe. It has been hard on everyone to watch the "circle of life" drama this week.

I hope that everyone else has an enjoyable week for their Green Hour. Remember, you do not have to focus on garden flowers if you are into another focus or you have something else in mind for your family. I am giving suggestions and you can use your Green Hour time any way you want to....please share using Mr. Linky.

Thanks,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Skunks at Night

We are having a night time visit from our friendly skunk *again*. We have not seen him yet this time but we can smell his 'calling card' in the morning hours. Two summers ago we were plagued with skunks living under our house and we learned a lot about skunks and their habits.

The Handbook of Nature Study on pages 245-247 has information about skunks. Here is what the author says about skunks that I found interesting.

Page 245:
"It is a night prowler, although it is not averse to a daytime promenade. The white upon its fur gives warning at night that here is an animal which had best be left alone. This immunity from attack makes the skunk careless in learning wisdom from experience; it never learns to avoid a trap, or the dangers of a railway or trolley track. It plods deliberately across highways, leaving its protection to the motorist."

I would rather they didn't live in my backyard or under my house or porch but when I don't have a choice I know how to give them their space. :)

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