Birds: Part 4

Local birds and Birdwatching

To wrap up our unit on birds, we took a day trip up north to our property. Before that, though, we learned about the species to be found around us, to better be able to identify them in the wild. We sat and looked through field guides, examined specimens, and found a fun game to help us learn.


Books

• The Birds at My Barn by Kathleen Moeller
• Wild About Michigan Birds: For Bird Lovers of All Ages by Adele Porter
• My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell
• Tico and the Golden Wings by Leo Lionni
• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Activities

• Game: bird bingo. This was a lot of fun, and we played several rounds. It didn't hurt that the incentive for getting a bingo was an M&M. I found a very simple version online to print off for free, and used counters as markers. We could only print in black and white, so I added a little bit of color with crayons to make the birds easier to identify. Evie really liked the game, and I may use different versions of it for more subjects in the future. Here is the link to the game I found: http://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/free-backyard-birds-pack/

• Bird coloring pages. I went through our coloring books and pulled out all of the birds I could find, then we spent an hour coloring them together. 

• Craft: Pine cone feeders. In an effort to attract more birds to the vicinity of our windows, we decided to make some food offerings for them. I remembered the pine cone bird feeder craft from when I was little, and since you only need four things (pine cones, peanut butter, bird seed, and yarn), it was very simple to put together. The only difficult part was trying to stop Evie from eating all of the peanut butter before we could use it. We found pine cones right in our front yard, then brought them in and spread peanut butter all over them. Next, we rolled them in bird seed. I tied a piece of yarn to each of them so that we could hang them, then put them up on a little Japanese Maple in front of our bay windows. The cats have appreciated the resulting bird gatherings, as well. 

• Specimen examination. I gathered most of the bird-related specimens from my collection, and put them on the coffee table for Evie to look at, touch, and talk about. We have feathers, eggshells, a nest, and a couple of feet. We have a turkey foot and the foot of a goshawk. It was interesting to point out the differences between the feet while talking about how the birds obtain food. Evie liked seeing how sharp raptor talons really are. Looking only at the feet of a bird, it's really easy to picture them as the feet of a prehistoric animal. It's the scaly feet that really connect birds with dinosaurs in my mind. 

• Birdwatching at property. We piled into the car to drive up north and spend a day on our 63 acres! It was beautiful weather, and we saw quite a few birds. We looked for other species, too, of course. Here is a list of every species of note that we saw:

1. Turkey Vulture
2. Osprey
3. Crow
4. Robin
5. House Sparrow
6. Blue-Spotted Salamander

1. Four-Toed Salamander
2. Red-backed Salamander (both color morphs)
3. Eastern Newt Eft. This was by far our most exciting find. My father and I have been looking for one of these for years. It wasn't the bright red variety, but it was still very interesting. It was a brownish color with dark red spots and a bright yellow belly. My dad has all of the pictures, so i will not be posting one here, but I will provide a link to a page with more information about Eastern Newts. http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Notophthalmus_viridescens/
4. Land Snail (we may or may not have brought two of them home...)

I'm especially thrilled with the salamanders that we found. I feel like it is getting harder and harder to find salamanders nowadays, and it makes me very protective of the populations that we have on our property. When we live up there, I may even start trying to monitor the population sizes. 

Video

The Secret Life of Birds