Big dipper

Today’s nature calendar task:

Which way is the big dipper facing at 8 pm?

We have had snow here this week, and the skies have been cloudy. When we have a clear night, we'll go take a look. I found a good book about the big dipper from the Let's Read and Find Out Science series. It is called 'The Big Dipper' by Franklyn M. Branley. It is a good book for younger children, ages 3 to 5, although my 6 1/2 year old enjoyed it too. I also highly recommend the books by H.A. Rey, The Stars, and Find the Constellations. They are very good for older children, perhaps ages 6 and up.

Updates on past nature tasks:

April 4: Build a toy windmill

I attempted this yesterday, and since it involved hammers, nails and a handsaw, it was a project for me, not the kids. After getting very frustrated making a rather pathetic looking weathervane (I am too embarrased to post a photo) I decided I either need to develop some woodworking skills or I should leave all such projects to my husband. He suggested that he teach me how to use power tools. The jury is still out on this nature task.

March 10th: The song sparrow is due.

It often takes a little while for the birds that have arrived to find my backyard. I had heard the song sparrow much earlier, and I saw one on a hike, but yesterday he showed up in my backyard.

I was delighted to see that he had chosen the 'feeder' that I had put out just for him. In the book 'Projects for a Birder's Garden', they suggested putting out a shallow rock, and filling it with birdseed containing millet. They also suggested having a shrub for cover nearby. (Page 3, if you happen to have this book).

I put my rock with the millet next to my scruffy brushpile by a shrub. That's exactly where the song sparrow was!

The photo isn't particularly good. You can see the snowfall we had this week. The song sparrow has a stripey breast with a little 'bow-tie' and the black spot in the middle of his chest.

Toy windmill

Today’s nature calendar task:

Make a toy windmill.

I haven't quite figured out how I will do this yet. The picture on the calendar looked like a small weathervane.

Here's an interesting link that has instructions for making your own weather station. It has a straightforward weathervane design. It also has instructions for a rain gauge, which was April 2nd's nature task. I think I'll try that tomorrow.

Update: windsock successfully made, April 9th.

Rain gauge

Today’s nature calendar task:

Set up a rain gauge to measure April's rainfall.

We didn't manage to make our rain gauge today. I think I will use a canning jar and put a ruler on the side. I'll need to find a spot in the backyard where the branches from the trees won't be over top of it. It doesn't matter so much just yet since the leaves aren't out, but later on it will. Perhaps we can record our rainfall on the calendar.

Updates from past nature tasks:

March 28th, the skunk cabbage

I have been searching high and low for this flower. I knew it would probably grow somewhere swampy. On our first hike we did not find it at a conservation area we like to visit that had some nice swampy areas.

Then I went online and searched my area for known places that this flower exists. I found two sites, and off we went.

The first place we tried we could not find it. We hiked the trail twice (it was short). We did see a Golden-crowned kinglet though. They are a very tiny bird, they arrive early in the migration season.

Finally, at the second place we found it!

It really is an unusual plant. It is supposed to smell bad, but I did not smell anything. The leaves are just starting to come out. There was a cluster of about four of them in this spot. It might be easier to find them earlier in March, if there was still snow on the ground. They are able to raise the temperature of their surroundings and melt the snow around them.

They are a good size flower. With all the brown leaf litter they were not easy to spot.

Of course, once I had seen one of them I started to realize that they were all over the place. Later in the summer this section will be covered with tall grasses.

There are probably at least 10 plants in this photo. Look for the dark red triangles.

Sun rise, sun set

Banff, April 2008

Today's nature calendar task:

Record: Sun rises ____ am. Sun sets _____ pm. Length of day _____ hrs _____ min.

We recorded our sun rise, sun set info today. Sun rise: 6:44 am. Sun set: 6: 15 pm. Length of day: 11 hours 30 min.

I used our local weather website to get this information.

On February 19th we had recorded this same set of information for that day's nature calendar task. Sun rise: 7:10. Sun set: 5:53. Length of day: 10 hours 43 min.

It was fascinating to see that in only 16 days we had an extra 45 minutes of daylight! Daylight savings time is tomorrow. Our next date for recording sun rise, sun set data is on March 15th. It will be interesting to see how the Nuthatch will try to understand what happened. Today he was definitely trying to figure out how the day could be longer!

A long time ago we did a simple experiment that showed how the length of the day changes. It used an orange, a pencil, and a flashlight. I think we found it in the book "What makes day and night" from the Let's Read and Find out about Science series. I think I'll check it out from the library again.

Snow and hail

Our school lessons have been interrupted by the weather quite a bit lately. First there was hail. They put dishtowels on their heads and ran outside.

Then a few days later we woke up to a blanket of snow. They grabbed their shovels and cleared the snow off the back deck in no time flat.

We love winter weather!

Sunny or Overcast?

An excellent photograph depends very much on the quality of light. You can take a great photo whether it is sunny or overcast, what will be different is what you choose as your subject.

Eiffel Tower, Paris, May 2006

Bright sunny days are great for photos that have the sky as the background. Days like these are great for photographing buildings, trees, landscapes. Think big. If there are some interesting clouds in the sky, even better. Photograph the clouds, include them in your composition. If you happen to be at the Eiffel Tower and it is overcast, you can still take the picture to prove you were there, but chances are it won't be the one you send out with your next Christmas card.

Bright days are not very good for taking pictures of flowers or anything else that you want to capture a lot of detail. The bright sun washes out the colours and will make your photo too harsh. Sometimes shadows can be distracting as well. The shadow of the truck does not add anything to this picture. Notice the fresh snow in the background, this picture was taken this afternoon in my backyard. Spring is on its way around here, but it hasn't quite arrived yet.


Cloudy and overcast days provide you with even lighting. On overcast days the sky is dull, grey and boring, so don't put it in your picture. Think small. It is a good day for close ups (bring your tripod). Notice the difference in the colours of the truck. I moved the truck two feet to the left so it was in the shade.

Taking portraits of people is worth its own separate blog post. However, in general it is a good idea to keep people's faces out of the bright sun. I'll write more on that later.

Knowing the weather helps me choose what equipment I should bring when I'm heading out. If it's sunny, I'll want a wide angle lens. On overcast days I'll bring my telephoto lens and my tripod. If it's raining (or still snowing!) I'll bring a large ziploc bag to put my camera in.

Homemade Sundial

Materials required: A stick, a cup, and a bright sunny day.

Actually, I didn't even need the stick, the shadow of the tree would have worked just fine. I was soaking up the sun in my window and it dawned on me that the snow would make a great backdrop for a sundial. At noon I placed the cup on the line made by the shadow of the stick. This photo was taken at about 12:30.

The kids have been enjoying checking up on it every now and then. We did a similar activity in the summer when we traced their shadows on the deck using chalk. It was fun to see the shadows lengthening as the day went on.

I'm really searching for any last reasons to enjoy winter before all the snow melts. I prefer having the fresh snow on the ground. When all this beautiful clean white melts we will be left with mud and garbage and brown for a little while before the green new growth of spring arrives.

This second photo was taken at about 2:30 pm. We'll keep tracking it for the rest of the day. It would have been better to have started first thing in the morning. It also would have been better if the snow hadn't been trampled. Both photos were taken with the Canon G7.

Do not complain (about the weather)

Sunlight through fence on fresh snow

Next to my kitchen table is a list entitled 'Our Family Rules' which we gratefully borrowed from here. Number six is 'Do not whine or complain'.

This morning I awoke to a beautiful fresh snowfall. As I went out to shovel the driveway and sidewalks I discovered that my garbage bins (cleverly placed near the edge of the road) had been buried as the snowplow cleared our street. I must admit, it was a challenge to follow rule number 6 at that moment. As I worked I thought about how culturally acceptable, perhaps even expected, it is to complain. And we love to complain about the weather. It's too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry, too sunny, too cloudy. There may perhaps be only three perfect days of weather every year according to the complainers.

I enjoyed the fresh air and exercise this morning. Every now and then I looked up to see Cookie watching me from the front door. Eventually my son woke up and joined me outside, helping in his three year old way, his cheeks glowing. The weather was just perfect.

Do your pictures of white snow come out grey? Cameras try to expose all photos at 18% grey, and most of the time this works. However, it turns snow 18% grey as well. There are a few ways to fix this. If you are photoshop savvy and shooting in raw, you can just fix the exposure on your computer. Or, you can tell your camera to increase (or decrease) the exposure. Look in your camera's manual for exposure compensation. You'll need to experiment a little until you find the setting where your photos are 'white as snow'.