Teaching other kids about birding

Knox, Colin and I were invited to speak to a class of homeschool kids about birds and birdwatching today. I hope it was as much fun for them as it was for us! I wasn’t sure how it would go, as the boys were terribly nervous. We had spent a couple of days preparing, so […]

Learning about Birds

We were in the car last night and 3 year old Cal spotted a bird. He said, “Mommy, I just saw a blue grosbeak!” Now, I myself have never seen a blue grosbeak! So I asked him, “How do you know it as a Grosbeak? Maybe it was a blue jay!” He replied, “It had […]

Birdwatching

If you are interested in getting your kids involved in birdwatching, check out my new birding blog!

Our bird garden

We are planting a bird garden. This is a huge project for us, so it is a work in progress. We cleared a big area on one side of our house. It had been mostly scrubby weeds before, lots of briars and yucky stuff. I know the birds liked it as it was, and I […]

Teaching Conservation

I am trying to give the boys a commitment to conservation. We were challenged recently by a fellow birder that it is not enough to just enjoy counting birds….you need to really love the birds, in and of themselves, not just for the sake of identifying them. It is clear the boys already have this […]

Birdie play

Knox and Colin have been playing birds a lot lately. Cal plays, too. Last night, Colin had set up a “birdie baseball game” and Knox had set up “birdie football”. In birdie baseball, there were birds representing each position. Eagle, being the biggest, was the referee…California Condor, Painted Bunting and Crow all had “tryouts” to […]

Ideas for Beginning Birders

We have two beginning birders in our family. I would love to share some of the things we have been doing to train these avid young birders. We just got back last night from the Georgia Youth Birding Competition where they and their two teammates won their age group (Pre-Elementary) for # of species. I […]

Georgia Youth Birding Competition 2008

We just got back late last night from the 3rd annual Georgia Youth Birding Competition. We were blessed in so many ways, from good weather (only 10 minutes of rain while we were driving, in spite of dire warnings for bad weather), stamina for the boys (in bed at midnight, they popped right up at […]

Blessed Birdwatching

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” K. and I are birdwatchers. I recently contacted the man who does our local Christmas Bird Count to see if we could join him. If I had known who he was, I never would have dared […]

Tally from Christmas Bird Count 2007

Birds seen: West Point Lake CBC,GA./AL – 27 Dec2007 5 Common Loons 7 Pied-billed Grebes 21 Horned Grebes 32 Double-crested Cormorants 6 Great Blue Herons 3 Black Vultures 2 Turkey Vultures 1 Gadwall 3 Mallards 2 Northern Shovelers 4 Ring-necked Ducks 6 Buffleheads 2 Hooded Mergansers 1 Bald Eagles 1 Cooper’s Hawk 3 Red-tailed Hawks […]