Wordless Wednesday...

wordless Wednesday

Any guesses on what these are?

a new member of the family!

On Sunday, we went up to Pennsylvania and got a basset hound! His name is Rafferty and he is four years old (we think). He just started playing catch with us today but instead of bringing the ball back to us he ran over to the slide and dropped it there :). He is learning how to sit and barks at tractors a lot. He is the fastest runner in the family so I made him a little trophy out of cardstock yesterday. Here is a picture of him laying in his bed on Sunday night:


-the birdman-

a new bird website...

A couple days ago i found a new bird website which has online coloring pages,purple martin house plans, printable calanders ect.

-the birdman-

Guess what!

I won ribbons at the fair- 4 of them!
3rd place for my cookies
1st place for my woodburning
and honorable mention for my painted brick and rubber stamped greeting card

here are a couple of pictures...

Ornithological Societies of North America (OSNA)...

The other day i found a neat bird website called OSNA which stands for Ornithological Societies of North America on their website you can join bird societies, subscribe to
Ornithological Newsletter and more!

nesting birds!

In an earlier post, I said that Bluebirds were nesting in our birdhouse I actually found out that was a house sparrow nest. However, the bluebirds started building a nest in our other birdhouse on Sunday. I think it is finished or almost finished so they should start laying their eggs soon. Also, some mockingbirds are nesting in our neighbors tree. This morning we saw two little babies heads peeking out of the nest. I have seen the parents bringing them food in their beaks.

We are studying birds

This week, we are studying birds. I get to be the teacher some of the week, but not today.

I just wrote my first cinquain type of poem.

Beak
different shapes
spearing,pecking,skimming
Used in different ways.
mouth

Wordless Wednesday

Eastern Screech Owl...

The Eastern Screech Owl is the smallest owl in the Eastern side of the USA. They eat mice,bugs,birds, and amphibians. Here is a link to a website where you can dissect a Screech Owl pellet.

Screech Owl info

Screech Owl movie

We have a Screech Owl house that we put up the other night. They have not used it yet.

weekly quiz...

The cornell lab of ornithology has started a weekly bird quiz.

-the birdman-

a neat bird website...

I found a neat bird website where you can disect owl pellets do an owl crossword puzzle and more!

wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday (a day late)

ebird

yesterday i started doing ebird
you write down all the birds that you see and then enter them on their website. this helps you keep track of all of the birds that you have seen.

-the birdman-

great horned owl

Great horned owls are about 22" tall. They can eat anything from the size of a fly to the size of a great blue heron! they also eat: squirrels,mice,rabbits,snakes,skunks,weasels,porcupines,
domestic cats,crows,ospreys,and other owls and hawks.
here is some info...

lots of pics and info
picture

movie of a great horned owl

black-capped chickadee

Black-capped chickadees weigh the weight of four pennies. Their favorite food is sunflower seeds. The reason that their name is chickadee is becuase their call is chickadee-dee-dee. chickadees are very easy to hand feed just hold some sunflower seeds in your hand and sit very still.

here is some info:

black-capped chickadee info

more black-capped chickadee info

black-capped chickadee picture

-the birdman-

bird of the week... lesser and american goldfinches

There are two kinds of goldfinches that live in North America. The Lesser Goldfinch is mostly in the Western part of the US and American Goldfinches are found across the whole continent. Their favorite foods at bird feeders are hulled sunflower seeds and niger (thistle) seed. Americans are 5" tall and Lessers are 4 1/2" tall.
We saw male and female American Goldfinches yesterday. The American Goldfinch is also called the Eastern Goldfinch. It is the State bird of New Jersey,Iowa and Washington State. Here is some info...

american goldfinch info

male and female American Goldfinches

more american goldfinch info

Lesser Goldfinch info


American Goldfinch Coloring page

-the birdman-

Bird of the Week...Eastern Bluebirds

Eastern bluebirds are my favorite kind of bird. Their eggs are pale blue & the nest is made out of grass or pine needles. Their nest is in a tree cavity or nest box.
You should not mount nest boxes on trees because snakes, raccoons, and squirrels may climb the tree to eat eggs and nestlings. Three kinds of bluebirds live in north america Eastern, Western, & Mountain. After 3 years of trying, we finally attracted eastern bluebirds!(we saw them the other day) :).

Here are some links for you...
attracting bluebirds
ibc eastern bluebird movie
bluebird secrets
eastern bluebird info
mountain bluebird info
bluebird male and fledgelings
more eastern bluebird info
all about eastern bluebirds
Siala Sialis (Eastern Bluebird)
Western Bluebird

a neat bird website...

My good friend Timothy, gave me the link for this website. There are lots of neat bird videos and other information. I even found a video of a red-crested pochard and one of a white-breasted nuthatch.

The Internet Bird Collection

the nature reserve...

Last saturday we went to a nature reserve. We saw a lot of birds like american coots, tundra swans, canada geese and on the way out we saw a perigrine falcon. We got 2 pictures of an american bittern.
Here are the pictures of the Bittern...



-the birdman-

The Great Backyard Bird count

Calling all birdwatchers, grab your notebook and binoculars and lets watch some birds! This weekend is the Great backyard birdcount and it's gonna be fun! You can find out more information here. There is a checklist for birds you might see in your area, a neat page full of games and stuff for kids and all sorts of neato stuff. There's even a participation certificate you can print out.

Snow Geese

Some snow geese are staying in the field behind our house (with the swans). Last week they came right up to our fence! We got a bunch of pictures. here are a few of them

the eagle

This is a picture my Grandpa took the other day. He and I went for a nature walk and a Bald Eagle flew right over us.