Our wildflower search

Our wildflower search through our front and backyard was more of a treasure hunt. We were leaned over walking slowly through the back yard (thank goodness my husband has not mowed yet) with camera in hand. I am posting pictures of what we found, and then we will try and identify them.
This activity is my introduction to wildflowers, and then we will focus some by doing the dandelion specifically.

We love birds!

Thanks to my husband's (and his dad's) enthusiasm for birds, it has rubbed off on our entire family. All the boys have binoculars, and we have a feeder right outside our family room. So, I thought I would post the pics we have so far this year.











They are, in order, house sparrow, chipping sparrow, one of a brown thrasher "thrashing", then of him with his beautiful back to us, then a male and female cardinal (he had just finished giving her a seed), followed by dad at the feeder, then if you look real close in the tree there is a cedar waxwing (we have had a flock hanging out but they never get close), then a purple finch, 2 doves, a blue small water bird, and a Canadian goose.

Nature Walk on April 1st

We went to a different trail today. We went around 8am, which was pretty early to get out for us. We went to an old "exercise trail" near our house. It is in front of the Montclair Hospital, and I am sure it was built in the 80s for the hospital employees. It is a great little trail, and friendly for my 3 year olds. It has a small creek and 2 ponds, tons of trees, and a huge field across the street.
Before we even got to the trail, they saw about 10 worms in the gutter all traveling up the street, so we had to stop and inspect them, of course!

Once we started on the trail, we immediately noticed birds. We do not have any jays at our house, and they noticed 4 blue jays pretty quickly. We even ended up identifying their call, and pointing it out to each other every time we heard it afterwards. Joshua saw a hawk, that we guess was a red-tailed hawk, and the boys saw 2 different woodpeckers. One was a red-bellied, and the other was either a downy or a hairy... we are not sure which because it was so high up in the tree, and alas, no binoculars! When we made it to the pond, we saw a mallard duck, which the twins thought was amazing.


Noah noticed a magnolia, but did not know the name of it; just that it was like the one at Mimi's- and we later identified it. We also identified dogwoods which are in full bloom- we saw white and pink ones. We also saw the ever present oakleaf hydrangea; they are everywhere!




We also noticed a wildflower, but my pic was kinda blurry. We are going to try and figure out what it is this week.

Outdoor Challenge #5

We went to the Botanical Gardens today, and the boys kept noticing birds on their own, and trees (sometimes with a little prodding by me). So, I guess our focus is what they notice! Haha :)
The first thing they noticed was a flock of birds which they identified as tufted titmice. We followed them for a while, watched them eat berries, we think, and stop to rest in a group of crape myrtles. We counted around 100 of them... wow!! They also noticed 2 mocking birds that seemed to be following them, and came across a brown thrasher (up real close) in the vegetable garden area.
After that, our friends showed up and there was not quite as much observing. Although, I remember that David was noticing that there were some differences in the magnolias- he noticed that most of the ones he sees are shaped in a definite pattern, but that he had seen one on our walk today that had branches going "all different ways". I would not have known what he was talking about, except that my friend Ashley had pointed out that tree- that it was a type of magnolia that was deciduous. In fact, the blooms had already come out on them, and the leaves were a lighter green than the evergreen variety. Thanks to Ashley, I was able to explain the difference in the trees to Noah and David.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so no picks today. But, later in the walk, Noah and Joshua drew sketches in their journals. I wrote down the latin names for the plants an we are going to look them up this week. One was a type of cactus, and the other looked similar to a yucca plant.

Seasonal Tree Study-spring

We went today to the Botanical Gardens and spent all our time (a few hours) at the Japanese Gardens. I asked the boys to each pick a tree to do our seasonal study on. Noah and Joshua picked trees at the garden and David chose the crape myrtle in our front yard. Noah's is first, then Joshua's, then David's.





We took pics of the trees, and then we went home, they drew them in their nature journals. I have included the pics from their nature journals below.

Outdoor Challenge #4

Today we (including daddy) went to the Moss Rock Preserve in Hoover. We spent a little over 2 hours on the trail. The twins got tired, but they did well!... and especially liked the "big wocks and watie" (big rocks and water)


The boys had chosen insects to study, but they noticed so many things, and Josh especially noticed things he had been learning in botany, and pointed out an unrolling fern, which we had discovered last week at the Botanical Gardens. The boys saw some bees, but not many other bugs. They did notice several spider webs, though. They were very excited to discover several "caves", and we got a picture in one.


We noticed several types of moss, they noticed the blooming oak leaf hydrangeas, and even found some minnows in the stream. All in all, it was a great family excursion, even if we did not make it to the official "boulder fields"; a place where lots of rock climbers spend their time. We have been there before but went in by a different route this time, and did not make it because we had hungry stomachs and tired toddlers.





The last picture we are going to follow up on; it was a dead log across the trail with tons of lichen on it.

Outdoor Challenge #3

Today is St. Patrick's Day, so it is very appropriate that we spend time in nature seeing God's handiwork. The Irish/Celts were very aware of and "in tune" with God in nature. I read the boys the Lorica of St. Patrick, an awesome prayer, and we headed out to the Botanical Gardens early.

The first thing we saw was a patch of beautiful tulips and we took a few close ups.



Then, we went to the right of the fountain...


...and headed toward the hothouses, but they were closed for repairs, so we went a little past it and got sucked in at one small plot where we took tons of pictures of different stages of a flower (?) opening up. (the pictues somehow loaded backwards, the next to last one is first of the bloom, and then as it opens, and lastly how the petals fall off, and what is left was in order very last).







We spent a lot of time walking around and observing tons of flowers, trees, bugs, worms,and the first bees of the year. Then, after looking at the lenten roses, we stopped by some tulips to draw in our nature journals.(Again, the pics are kinda backwards). Josh drew all the different kind of leaves he had seen (because they are studying different vein patterns in leaves and he found all the different types, so he was very excited.) david drew the tulip, and Noah drew a tree that had split and then grown back together. We had a wonderful time.






The first picture is one Joshua took, he was noticing the hair-like things on the stem of this bush.

Last but not least was my favorite group of tulips- purple for Lent!