Our next challenge from the Handbook of Nature Study’s Outdoor Hour Challenge  – More Nature Study Book 2 is – Winter Bird – Chickadee .

On the first notebook pages of the Winter series – a question was asked to the boys  – What do you hope to learn this winter about these topics?  Jon’s question: “Why do the birds only hop and never walk.” 

We’ve spent literally hours watching the Oregon Juncos, various Sparrows, Varied Thrush, Towee, Blue Jay, and any other wandering birds at our feeders.  Since he’s asked the question, we’ve spent focused time looking at their legs, how them move, how they hop. They have a sort of wing supported hop. Quick wing action, like they aren’t even hopping –but “flying just a bit” to move. We observe the pecking order, and know that when a certain species appear, others fly away, some can be there at the same time, others not so much. No one likes Stellar Blue Jay, he gets to eat alone. When looking up the question on the internet – we learned that it thought to be an energy conservation and safety awareness combination.  I think of a player on a basketball court. or Volleyball.  Always on the toes, knees bent, arms out. Always ready to move, always alert of the field. Ready to defend, ready to grab the ball, ready to run. I’m not sure I’ll look at the deck quite the same again – than to see a cute little Birdie Basketball game going on.  The boys watched some funny bird videos from tropical areas watching the Moon Dance and such – funny.

We are really enjoying the extra effort that has been put into the older notebooking pages. Jon still enjoys the more basic page – he is a drawer, observer, talker.  Nate enjoys the teen page – he is a thinker, digger, explorer, writer. I love notebooking. Have I said that?

We didn’t find any information in our field guides in regards to their hopping – here is the pile that you see strewn across the table.

I was going to make it a separate post – but since y’all are here – Here are our feeder birds.

I had over a hundred, cut down to 35, cut down to these. Mostly through our rain soaked window – This is just a foot away from my chair and my laptop, so I get to watch them a lot. Jon found this stick, it has many holes drilled into it, probably from Northern Flickers , and it makes a very nice birdfeeder! We have a hanging feeder, but with 80 mph winds, we took it down!