Stockholm and London

I recently returned from a fabulous trip to Stockholm and London. I created a blog for my photos of each city. The Stockholm photos are done, the London photos are still under construction. Click on the pictures to go to the blogs.

Hepaticas

Today’s nature calendar task:

Search for opening buds of hepaticas.

This task was easy since I have a sharp-lobed hepatica in my garden. The buds are almost open. I think they would be very difficult to find in the wild if they had not opened yet.

A handful of Chickadees and Nuthatches

We returned to the conservation area where we had fed the chickadees two weeks ago. The kids were eager to explore every small side trail leading off the main path. At one point we could hear lots of chirping and singing in the trees. I took out my ziploc bag of birdseed and almost immediately they were on our hands, one after the other in rapid succession.

"But bird-stalking is only to be done upon certain conditions. You must not only be 'most mousy-quiet,' but you must not even let a thought whisper, for if you let yourself think about anything else, the entirely delightful play of bird-life passes by you unobserved; nay, the very bird notes are unheard."

Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1 pg. 90

It is very difficult (impossible) for my children to be 'most mousy-quiet'. The birds were brave and did not seem to mind their constant chatter.

Last time we fed the chickadees. This time we were greatly surprised to have red-breasted nuthatches come on our hands as well!

"He (the nuthatch) was walking head first down the trunk of that tree, picking tiny eggs of insects from the bark and seemingly quite as much at home and quite as unconcerned in that position as if he were right side up."

Burgess Bird Book for children, pg. 220

We had read the chapter on nuthatches from the Burgess Bird Book, but the birds in real life left a greater impression. The kids could really see them crawling down the bark head-first, hiding their seeds in little holes in the trunk.

My 2 1/2 year old was adamant that she did not want a bird to land on her hand. She eventually fell asleep in her stroller and I placed a little bit of birdseed on her knee.

"The chickadees appear in small flocks in the winter and often in company with the nuthatches. The chickadees work on the twigs and ends of branches, while the nuthatches usually mine the bark of the trunk and larger branches, the former hunting insect eggs and the latter, insects tucked away in winter quarters."

Handbook of Nature Study, pg. 68

The nuthatches were more aggressive than the chickadees. We even had two nuthatches on our hand at once occasionally. They were landing on top of my camera and looking at me while I was taking pictures! They ended up with most of the seed, as they would take it and stash it in a crevice in a tree and be right back again. The chickadees, however, would take their seed and eat it immediately.

I suspect that in a few weeks the bugs will be out and the birds will no longer be interested in the food that we have, and we will not be interested in standing around being eaten by blackflies!

For our April nature calendar, we have had some fun tasks in the past few weeks. We have been enjoying the blossoming branches on our kitchen table, we hunted for the elusive skunk cabbage, and I finally managed to make a 'toy windmill'.

This is our second month working on this nature calendar. I am starting to notice that while there is a great variety of activities, there are also some ongoing themes. In March we had a number of days where we looked at how the days were getting longer. April has a collection of activities related to the weather.

I try to post daily on our experiences with this nature calendar, come check out what we are up to!

First bees

Today’s nature calendar task:

Watch for the first bees in search of nectar.

We have seen a few insects on warmer days, and we saw bees on our visit to the garden centre. Our crocuses are out, I should take a closer look to see if there are any bees.

Snakes

Today’s nature calendar task:

Snakes will soon venture from their winter crevices.

We had an April snowstorm at the beginning of this week. I bet the snakes are thinking twice about whether or not they will come out.

We did see a chipmunk the other day. They could make a tasty post-hibernation snack for a large snake.