In the new house a lot of spare time has been devoted to watching the birds that come out to our feeder. Being on the edge of woodland seems to be a boon as we've been getting quite a variety. Evening Grosbeaks, Purple Finches, Common Grackles, Redpolls, Bluejays, etc. Our indespensible tools are a good pair of field binoculars and a Sibly Guide.
Bird watching has also led to a lot less school work. We're working on Winston Grammar again and Catherine loves Aleks math but that's about it for the moment. The birds have been dragging us back into unschooling and we've been happy to let that happen.
For anyone else who's eagerly putting up feeders and has a pair of binoculars close by just in case here's a list of resources that I've been looking through or have used:
Checklists- here are checklists of birds by state and province.
Homeschooler's Guide to Project FeederWatch - a PDF with lots of ideas for activities and resources to help a kid with an interest in bird watching.
All About Birds - An amazing resource with just about everything you might need from help with the basics to multimedia resources. From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
5 comments:
Ooohhhhh, redpoll, you just solved a mystery for me. I saw those in Jan/Feb and could not figure out what they were, even with my guidebook pics. Now I know.
We're seeing wdowney oodpeckers, various finches and sparrows, chickadees, common grackles, mourning doves, rose breasted grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks, nuthatches and I don't know how many more. They are putting us in the poorhouse over sunflower seeds!
Haven't seen a Downy Woodpecker here but we have seen a Hairy Woodpecker. No Rose Breasting Grosbeak or Nuthatches but all the others yes. Just today we saw a couple of European Starlings which are apparently common as crows but I've never seen and boy, are they pretty.
And yup, we're speading tons on the seeds too. Especially since a squirrel was doing morning raids on the bags I had on my deck. We stuffed the seeds in a rubbermaid container and he chewed away on the edges of that for awhile but seems to have given up. :D
Now we're hanging up hummingbird feeders as they should be getting here anytime now!
You ever coming back this way Lorraine? I know a perfect place for you guys to bunk for a weekend! :D
Hello! Found your blog from the Evolved Homeschooler Wiki and thought I'd say hi!
We live in the Colorado mountains and have bird feeders up, we have so many hummingbirds, woodpeckers, and other birds we have to identify. :)
I tried to send an email to you but it bounced, can you shoot me an email? I have a question...
I'm a new reader!! I'm looking forward to reading your blog more. I am excited to find some other homeschool blogs - we are just starting our journey (again) and our blog (4 Brothers Ranch) ...
I don't like birds, but cub scouts keeps pushing the nasty little things on us! LOL
I have gotten free bird resources from Currclick (Happy Scribe) and Notebooking Nook. Also the old time book called "Citizen Bird" from Homeschool Freebie of the Day.
Also, older copies of kids enclyclopedias are great, cheap resources for bird info.
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