Nature walks and backyard birding with kids

Nature walks with children are alot of fun.  Right now is the perfect time (right now is always the perfect time, no matter where you live!).  I recommend this for "science" for kids up to grade 2 at least. If you don't have any background knowledge of nature yourself, buy some local reference books on the birds and trees in your areas, and go out bird and tree spotting with your kids.  If you aren't stuck out in the country, then find a local park with trees you like to go to. Enjoying nature is one of the best introductions to science you can give your kids. 

If you live in the northern hemisphere, it's spring now.  So what's happening out there now?  The plants are coming out of dormancy and growing!  Trees are growing leaves back at incredible speed.  How about taking photos of a particular leaf or tree each day?  This is a very impressive visual project for anyone - especially kids. 

Bees do it, birds do it, let's fall in love....yes, it's nest building and egg laying time of year.  A quick walk around our yard with the focus on bird nests found 10 different nests.  We were able to peer into 4 of them.  Make sure you do this quickly and caution the kids that sometimes, if the nests smell too much of humans the birds don't come back (this helps to give the birds some room from the kids).  Take the camera, and the kids later can learn to identify the eggs that match different birds. 

Put out some nesting materials - bright colored yarn cut up into short lengths looks awesome in a bird nest!  Put out bird feed, building nests and laying eggs is hard work, this encourages the birds to stay around, and the kids will become familiar with the names of the different birds. 

Here's A ROOM WITH A VIEW (Mockingbird in the grapevine nest on the fence);

A ROOM WITH PERFUME (Red cardinal nest in the Rose bush). ...........

a pair of Eurasian collard doves have nested in the plum tree (A plum position!);

Some sparrows have nested in our old electricity meter box (SPARROWS IN THE SPARK BOX) (we heard the babies);

and we have a nest in the fig tree we haven't FIGured out the owners yet....

Aussie Kim

Comments

[Mike Barlow]

Great post! I wholeheartedly agree that enjoying nature is the best introduction to science.

[Aussie Kim]

Hey Mike,
It has taken me 6 years to figure this out. Wish I could go backwards, but anyhow, perhaps others will learn from this post?
Thanks for the comment.