Consider this Fun Friday 2.0: I’ll still be sharing simple, quick ideas for nature play, but in a slightly new-and-improved format. Thought you might find it entertaining (and hopefully, helpful) to hear how each of the activities I recommend fared with my own little explorers. Here goes …
The idea: Head out to your backyard to bird watch.
Our notes from the field: A few weeks ago, my oldest son and I painted a bird feeder to hang in our backyard. We filled it with black oil sunflower seeds, hung it out near the end of a branch on our lemon tree and have been feeding the birds ever since.
One afternoon, my son wanted to help me refill the feeder. Since we were already there, we plopped down under the tree for a few minutes to watch for birds.
While we waited, we heard a ton of chatter coming from the trees above. The little birds that hang out there are plentiful, small and quick. So quick I couldn’t snap a photo of them. But we did see quite a few!
We had a lot of fun taking a break from our day to listen to all the chatter and connect with each other and the environment around us.
Take-home tips: I’m sure as we add more bird feeders to our collection, we’ll have even more visitors stopping by. In the future, I’d make a few changes to our backyard bird watching time:
- Bring binoculars! My son has a pair (which we forgot for this outing), but I’m in denial about the fact that I’ve lost mine. This puts me at a severe disadvantage when it comes time for games of bird “I spy.”
- Get to know your birds. Prior to our backyard bird watching adventure, I didn’t really notice the different types of birds hanging out in our trees. I’ve since become obsessed with figuring out who’s out there. The best part is my son wants to help! So far we’ve identified the house sparrow.
Have you ever been backyard bird watching with your kids? Are you thinking about trying it? If you’ve got tips to share, please do!
Hi Sarah, welcome! We used the site you mentioned to identify our backyard bird finds, so thanks for sharing that. Keep thinking warm thoughts! 🙂
Bird feeding can be so educational and fun. Roger Tory Peterson, the author of several field guides said “The observation of birds can take many forms. It can be an art, a science, an environmental ethic, a recreation, or a sport, depending on the person.” <br /><br />To learn more about birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology has some resources for kids and families at: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/
We've been trying to identify the birds in our backyard lately and also trying to recognise their calls.
Alison, I am excited to have finally joined the flock of bird watchers & I hope my kids will follow suit (how can they not?). Plans for hanging different feeders to attract additional birds are already in the works.<br /><br />Mel, LOVE the idea of keeping a list of the birds we see. My son loves lists! I'll be looking out for your post on the Backyard Bird Count. 🙂
How about keeping a list of the birds you see? Also, the Backyard Bird Count is coming up in Feb (I'll be posting about it soon). That's a fun "goal" to keep kids interested.
How marvelous to have a lemon tree to hang your bird feeder in. I think house sparrows were the first birds my kids learned to identify. I wish there were less of them, but at least if they start off an interest in learning about birds that is a good thing.<br /><br />Congratulations on getting started in the bird watching adventure – taking the first step is sometimes the hardest part!