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.