The Great Backyard Bird Count 2009

January 28, 2009 in Birds at our Feeder by Nature Notes From Above | 5 comments


The Great Backyard Bird Count is just around the corner starting February 13th!!!

So get out there and stock those feeders and don’t forget to dust off your binoculars!! Don’t have any bird feeders ready to go? Don’t worry you still have a little over 2 weeks and I have a couple of great bird feeders that you and your family will love to make! Try our:

Fruit Bowl Bird Feeder
or
Fruity Pinecone Bird Feeders

You can count the birds in as many different spots in your yard as you like but only once each day. Every day plan to observe your feeders for about 15 minutes each, recording the largest number of each species you see visiting at one time. Once you have completed your days count make sure you go over to the GBBC website to enter you information!

If you know a family that would like to participate but doesn’t have access to the internet there is a PDF file of what you will be entering on the BGGC website that can be printed out, filled in and mailed. This is really great because everyone can participate then :)

Have fun!

Fruity Pinecone Bird Feeders

January 24, 2009 in Nature Crafts by Nature Notes From Above | 1 comment


The kids and I have been enjoying our little feathered visitors to our feeders and I thought that it would be fun to make a new treat for them to munch on during these cold snowy months. So we raided our pinecone stash picking out some nice large ones and coated them with peanut butter and then rolled them in birdseed. For a more nutrituous touch we added sliced rounds from apples and oranges and strung them onto the string to. They are so pretty to look at and they are a big hit. The smaller Juncoes and Sparrows land right on them and spin around wildly while eating and the Stellar’s Jays dive bomb them *grin*, ripping of whatever they can catch as they swoop past :) Great entertainment!!

What sort of feeders do you have up right now?

Winter Wednesday ~ Week 1

January 9, 2009 in Nature Walks by Nature Notes From Above | 3 comments


This week’s assignment was to read the first chapter in our Discover Nature in Winter book and then observe colors in nature that are more noticeable because of the white snowy landscape and barren trees. So we trekked outdoors today in the high winds and bitter cold *grin*, to see if we could spot some brightly colored nature :)


The first observation that the kids made was that there were no brightly colored plants visible since everything around us is completely covered with over a foot of snow right now :) So I encouraged them to look more closely at some of the trees and shrubbery that we walked past. Under a giant cedar tree they found huge masses of moss, wonderful furry moss that was soft to the touch.


And growing along with that wonderful moss was some silver colored lichens which were definitely more scratchy and rough to the touch. We’ve got a bit of a touch and fell theme going on today *grin*.


We also found lots of tree branches and leaves littered on top of the snow as we walked, blown down by the winds today. Above L is holding a chunk of a cedar branch. We also observed a blue sky the color of robin eggs and not a cloud in sight :)


And just as we were about to head inside we stumbled upon some of the beautiful bright red berries of the Cotoneaster bush poking out from beneath the snow. Sorry for the bad photo. It was so far up on the hillside, that I had to zoom all the way in to get it and sacrifice quality :(

Hope you enjoyed discovering winter colors with us :)

Winter Wednesday

January 8, 2009 in Uncategorized by Nature Notes From Above | 3 comments


I have sadly neglected my blog for quite a few months but I think we are all ready to throw ourselves back into some good old nature fun!! And wouldn’t you know it, Barb aka Harmony Art Mom is hosting a really fun sounding Winter Wednesday nature study starting today and we’re joining in :)

She will be posting a weekly assignment to follow or use as a guideline using the book Discover Nature in Winter. I ordered a copy of it on the weekend but it hasn’t arrived yet, but I did find it through google books and it lets you preview the first chapter! So this will help us get started this week until our copy arrives and if you are interested in joining you may want to use that to until you can find a copy of your own :)


Dark-Eyed Junco

January 7, 2009 in Birds at our Feeder by Nature Notes From Above | Permalink


A bird does not sing because it has an answer.  It sings because it has a song.  ~Chinese Proverb

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