Nature Walk along mountain brook parkway

We are taking a break from school this week, but we were not able to do a nature walk last week, so we got up early on Tuesday morning and headed to a new trail close to us. It runs along the Mountain Brook parkway and we had been to a picnic along it a few years ago. The creek that runs along it, and which you can cross over at one point was a big draw!



We spent about an hour there, and our "normal observations" of birds, trees, and flowers was "added to" this week. The creek brought with it some new things, and our wildflower intro at home brought new observations.
Let's see, we saw a few robins at work, tossing old leaves and searching for worms. Also, we heard the bluejay long before we saw him. We had to sit for a few minutes before one of the boys saw him high up among the pine a beech trees. Noah had me take a picture of his favorite tree,


...and we took pictures of a flowering bush that had amazing flowers on it. I can not figure out what it is- maybe someone could help me?? Each branch had 5 leaves at the end of it, and the limbs/stalks are a pink color. It is very pretty, but I don't have any idea what it is. We are definitely learning to use all our field guides, though!




Down at the creeks edge, we found some shells, and wondered what they were. Joshua grabbed a handful to add to our ridiculously large assortment of shells. We have an enormous collection that grows every year :)
We also encountered a lot of wildflowers and the boys were amazed at how tall they were. everyone was trying to find one his height or taller.




Now we just have to figure out what those wildflowers are!

Our flowers

As an introduction to flowers, we did another treaure hunt in our yard. We just took pictures, and I did not lead it in any way. The twins comments were that everything was pretty. The older boys were noticing the flowers we have that "come in different colors" and that some of our flowers come back every year.
We also added the blooms of the azalea in the front yard.

Dandelion Study

We went through the HNS info about dandelions. It was very interesting because there were some things I had not thought about, and the one in particular that my kids had noticed and that Comstock talks about is the placement of the leaves and what that means to the plant and to its neighbors. I had never real thought about how the leaves seem to hug the ground and that really big ones don't allow anything to grow too near it.
We also discussed the stalk lengths- of the seed verses the blossom. They noticed that the seed stalk was higher, and because they studied botany this year (Jeannie Fulbright's book) my oldest immediately talked about the seed dispersal, that it was by the wind, so it needed to be higher to carry the seeds.
These "weeds" are really appreciated by all children as flowers. What mom has never received a "pitty fower" from a toddler's chubby hands only to find it was a dandelion. I have 5 boys who love to bring mom pretty things, so I have received my fair share!
The boys drew in their nature journals also, focusing on blossom and leaf, the day after the study/discussion.







I especially loved Noah's animated picture of the wind blowing a seed :)

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.