overdue update

Life has been so busy around here with soccer ending and swimteam starting, that I haven't been able to catch up on our long overdue updates. We have had many wonderful things happen and have learned so much more than we set out to learn. We have also had some sad things happen, as does with nature.

First, we still have many visitors to our feeding center. One day Brian and I were out enjoying the day and we noticed a bright orange bird in a tree in our back yard. It never came to eat, but it hung around for quite a while. We finally figured out that it was a Baltimore Oriole. We were very excited!!! The next day, we had an Indigo Bunting come to eat. We were amazed at how blue it was. We have enjoyed all these colorful creatures in our back yard.

We were very excited to realize that we have 3 nests in our yard. The swallows are back and we believe the eggs have finally been laid, because someone is hanging out in that nest all the time now. We have a mockingbird who built a nest in our front yard. Funny thing, the mockinbirds never come to eat. I guess they just eat insects. Lastly, our sparrows built a beautiful nest, right in our backyard, in our bottle brush tree. We were a little concerned because there are often cats hanging out under that tree. On Wednesday we noticed the nest, on Thursday there were eggs and on Friday we had a HUGE storm with lots of wind. We were worried about the birds and when we checked on them noticed they had found shelter on our rain gutters, right next to their nest. The next day we checked on them and noticed 3 babies!! We watched them grow and checked on them daily. We used our plastic picnic table to stand on so that we could see inside the nest. Well, we left the table too close to the nest and the cats were able to reach the nest. We were all so sad to lose our babies and have learned an important lesson about interefering with nature.

If you build it, they will come.

This is an entry that the girls wrote. These are facts that they have learned about the birds in our backyard. (or some they made up) We have also been studying birds that we haven't seen in our backyard like owls, pigeons, ducks, hawks, egrets, penguins, eagles and swans. We will post more about those birds later. By the way, our swallows are back this year and as we read about the swallows of San Juan Capistrano it makes us feel special that they chose our house again to nest. If you click on the links (you may have to copy and paste), they will take you to the song of each bird here. I also found an incredible site that has much information for "birding."
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/

Have fun reading our thoughts!




This is a mourning dove with a grackle. They are called mourning doves because of the cooing sad, song that they make. The grackles have colorful patches on their neck. They're mean. The mourning doves is why they're called mourning doves is cause they're always in the birdfeeder at morning. The mourning dove's beak is not curved.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Mourning_Dove.html#fig1

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Common_Grackle.html



This is a house wren. They only came to visit once or twice and there were several of them. Their beak is small, straight and pointed. It might be a female red winged black bird.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/House_Wren.html


This is a cardinal. It is a male.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Cardinal.html#fig1


We think this one is a Bridled Titmouse. It eats insects and acorns. The one below is a Bridled Titmouse too.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Bridled_Titmouse.html

This is a white winged dove. It is not common in Texas.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/White-winged_Dove.html#fig1

This is a female cardinal. It has a red beak not like the many other birds. And it's light brown. And the male is red. The cardinal's voice is very good. It's feathers make a mowhawk and some don't. The cardinal's are only is special spots and you don't see them very often around town. Usually in backyards.




This is a red winged black bird. It has a little bit of yellow on his wings. He's about 4 inches tall. His beak is pointed and not curved. We see it sometimes in our backyard. The female is more dark brown and is not black or red.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Red-winged_Blackbird.html



This is a house sparrow. It can be 5-6 inches tall. They blend in with trees. They live in cities and suburbs, and farms.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/House_Sparrow.html


This is a goldfinch. These are very obvious, but they blend in very well with the magnolia tree. This is a male. The female's colors are duller. They're just about darker. They look like the color of a flower.They sometimes come to our backyard and they eat in the birdfeeder and they don't fly away, but then a grackle comes and it scares them away. They nest in mid summer. They kind of look like the lemon fish in our fish tank.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/American_Goldfinch.html
This is a house finch. The house finch has a red head and a brown body and the female has just a plain brown body. They are very common around the United States.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/House_Finch.html

Our first unit study!!!

I am so excited. A few weeks ago I realized that our ocean unit was winding down so I decided to take the plunge and develop an entire unit study for all subjects and go with it. We have had several birds visiting our backyard lately so I decided this would be the perfect study. I started researching online and making a book list. I started searching the used book stores and talked my husband into going with me to our local Wild Birds Unlimited store. We ended up coming home with lots of wonderful stuff! Our wonderful Daddy put it all together and we were all trying to figure out where everything should go. This was a wonderful family event. Right Daddy?!?

So today was to be our first "bird" day. It started out wonderful. Our painters came to fix our damage from Hurricane Ike and Daddy took the baby to run errands. We grabbed what we could out of the learning room before they covered it all with tarps. We gathered around the kitchen table and began to discuss all that we knew about birds and all that we wanted to learn. The whole time watching our new feeding center in hopes that someone would come and dine. There were at least 20 different species that we saw, but no one stopped to eat. We sketched some birds while we all talked and the girls came up with some amazing art work. Then daddy came home with the boy and he wanted to help the painters. So we called Grandma and off we went. We gathered what we could and took off to Grandma's house. I began to feel like this may not have been the perfect day to begin, but I prayerfully offered it up and tried to just go with it. Once we went to my parents, it was lunch so off the kids went upstairs to play some computer games while we fixed lunch and got settled in. After lunch I decided it would be the perfect time to go for a nature walk around their trails. So we started off and as we turned the corner we were greeted by a beautiful sight and sound. A cardinal was on a low branch singing and communicating with another cardinal far away.

What a treat for us. Part of our studies will be learning the different bird songs. We learned this one from a real life experience. This is the connection that I want for my children to experience. I don't want them to read about these things from a textbook. I want them to learn them from real experiences so that they develop a relationship and it will stay with them their whole life. We walked a little further along and I was amazed at all we saw. From spider webs to turtles to beetles to a very unusual flowering tree that we still have to look up to identify.

Once Daddy called with the all clear that the painters were gone and it was safe to return, we went home and began a poetry study outside while waiting for visitors to our feeding center. We learned a wonderful poem by Victor Hugo.

Be like the bird

That, pausing in her flight

Awhile on boughs too slight,

Feels them give way

Beneath her and yet sings,

Knowing that she hath wings.

This is the first time that Hope has not complained about having to copy something this long. She is loving this so much!!! After we studied the poem for a few minutes, we were visited by a mockingbird on our roof. We watched her for awhile and saw her catching bugs, then we were amazed as she flew to a small, bare tree in our neighbors yard. She went to her nest and fed her babies the insects. Immediately Daddy mockingbird showed up as well. The girls ran upstairs as fast as they could to grab the binoculars to look out their bedroom window, but they couldn't see inside the nest. They were disappointed, but we will be watching to see when the babies leave the nest.

This morning we woke up and finally had visitors. We watched as a male cardinal came over ever so slowly and checked out the feeders, then finally flew up and started to eat. He then delivered a meal to a female who waited patiently in the tree. Once he did this several times, she became brave enough to fly over and fill herself up. We then had some mourning doves who made themselves very comfortable and rested their for several minutes. Not eating, just resting. I am anxious to see where we go and what we learn on this amazing new study. So far in the last two days I have learned more than I ever realized I would learn. I am seeing things and hearing things that I never have heard before. What an amazing world God has created for us and how blessed are we to be able to connect to it on such a deep level.