Another week flew by and it’s Summer Solstice time already. The summer is officially here, yay!
Photo of the week:
Kids were all about playing with water this week, no wonder, we had a couple of extremely hot days
What were we up to this week:
Previously in Birding adventures we tried a Bird Walk and Bird Banding class. Today was all about nests.
I picked up another wonderful book by Sylvia Long and Dianna Hutts Aston “A Nest is Noisy”, so naturally we had to explore the subject. The book as expected is absolutely gorgeous and talks about all kinds of nests, big and small, those of birds and of beasts. Most of the information was new to kids and even to me. 5 stars as always.
Their “An Egg is Quiet” is another book on the subject
We talked a little bit more about nests, what’s inside and how to tell which nests belongs to a bird and which to a squirrel (squirrels use sticks to build theirs). 10 Facts about Bird Nests (although the video is a bit fast)
Kids then set out to look for nests around our house. Lots of birds were singing, but only squirrel mansion was found:
We talked about helping birds by leaving materials for them to build nests and kids tried to make their own little “gift nests” for the birdies
D’s nest includes tiny twigs, leaves and cat’s hair
C.’s also has leaves and cat’s hair, plus she went for esthetics with dandelions 🙂
We watched a documentary called Hummingbird: Magic in the Air (link leads to PBS episode, it’s also on youtube for those that can’t access PBS). What fascinating creatures these little birds are! 25 amazing facts about hummingbirds. I had no idea they only live in the Americas, somehow I thought they surely will be present in Asia or Australia.
We also looked at amazing close up photography of hummingbirds, which prompted our art making. Children did their best to draw hummingbirds in flight, while I experimented with my watercolor pencils to sketch one of the close-ups.
It was a very interesting mini-lesson today, there are more documentaries in plans, as I hope to discuss different habitats with kids.
Also please check out our previous art activity “How to paint a portrait of a bird”
Sunflowerous Days 