Winter Wednesday #9 Winter Mammals

The Challenge: Keep a record of animal tracks you have observed in the snow or mud. Record your findings in your nature journal along with a drawing, the date, the weather, the time of day, and the type of animal if you have identified it at this time.

We observed dog tracks and urine in the snow. This was the first time we were able to get out and actually look for tracks in the snow. The weather was nice, partly cloudy, and in the mid-30s. We ventured out just after noon.

We were able to identify cat tracks, dog tracks and we think rabbit tracks. Here are some pictures of what we saw.

We're not sure what left these tracks.

These are cat tracks.

These were dog tracks.

These were human tracks.

These we think were rabbit tracks.

Winter Wednesday #6 Winter Weeds

The Challenge: Collect a variety of seeds from weeds in your local area and sketch them in your nature journal. Gather a few varieties of weeds and display them in a vase.

These are the weeds we found around our neighborhood.

This is Moca's drawing of our weeds.

This is Jo Bean's drawing of our weeds.

I didn't have time to make one of my own this week.

Winter Wednesday #4 Trees Silhouettes

The Challenge: Find a tree that has lost its leaves and sketch its shape in your nature journal. This activity can be done from a window if your weather is too cold or snowy.

Our Winter Tree... it was actually midday when I took this photo.

My illustration of our tree.

Jo Bean's Illustration of our tree.

Moca's illustration of our tree.

Winter Wednesday #5 Cones

The Challenge: Collect cones and compare them in your nature journal. See if you can find the seeds inside the cone.

The weather has been snowy and cold.
Too cold to venture out for a nature walk.
We had a small window in which to dig up these cones.


When we found the cones they were completely closed.
We could not look for the seeds.


But within a couple days they began to open.


As they opened the needles began to fall off of our twig.

We are still unsure of there names.

Winter Wednesday #8 Birds

The Challenge: Hang a bird-feeder and observe the birds that visit over the period of a week. Keep a tally of the different kinds of birds in your feeder.

We watched for birds on the 12th for 15 min. in our yard. We saw... 3 Brown Creepers, 2 House Finch, and a House Wren.

We watched for birds on the 13th for 15 min. in our yard. We saw... 1 Brown Creeper, 1 Pine Siskin, 1 female Brown-headed Cowbird, and a European Starling.

We watched for birds on the 14th for 15 min. in our yard. We saw... 16 Song Sparrows on the roof of a neighboring house.

We watched for birds on the 15th for 15 min. in our yard. We saw... 1 House Wren.

We watched for birds on the 16th for 15 min. in our yard. We saw... 2 European Starlings

We watched for birds on the 17th for 15 min. in our yard. We saw... no birds

We watched for birds on the 18th for 15 min. in our yard. We saw... 1 black bird that we couldn't identify.

Winter Wednesday #7 Insects

The Challenge: Look for signs of insects: on bare tree branches, under rocks, on the backside of leaves, on or under a fallen log, in a woodpile, in the soil.

We found a Goldenrod Gall

It's hard to see but it's not completely rounded.

Here is a close up view...
They are made by Eurosta solidaginis


Eurosta solidaginis larva


Eurosta solidaginis adult

Here is a site that has several types of Galls

Winter Wedneday #3 Winter Sky

The Challenge: Try to pick a cloudless night where you can observe plenty of stars. Observing the moon in the winter is a great nature study experience as well. Keep it simple and give it a try.

We don't have a cloudless night sky... in fact the entire month of February is generally spent under a canopy of gray and white. We grab quick glimpses of the sun peeking through a cloud once or twice a week. And yet there is much to be seen late in the evening on a cold winter night...



Here's what we saw to the north...


And to the south...


And the west...


and to the east.


Okay maybe not that much to see. But we still had fun being out in the forbidden hours in our Jammies.


We saw snow crystals atop our mounds.


I saw the rare Jo Bean's pearly whites.


And we had a jumping contest.

Then we headed into the warmth of our abode. We looked at Winter Sky Tour. Then we went to Space.com to check out the Sky Calendar unfortunately we couldn't find any info for February.

Then we watched Orion and Horsehead Nebula and Orion Jewel of Winter Night Sky and Winter's Night Sky

Then we watched Hubble's Amazing Rescue: Nova from Netflix. It was great watching Moca glued to the monitor as he watched the rocket blast off. I'm sure we will be hearing more "space" facts over the next few weeks.

I think we may take some time to make our own Hubble Telescope tomorrow, just for fun. Eventually we'll get a chance to see some stars in real life, but for now we had a good time.

Winter Wednsday #2 Snow

The Challenge: Snow Produces Water

• Fill a measuring cup with fresh snow

• and let it melt.

We guessed that 2 1/2 cups of snow would make:
Dadkins- 1/2 cup of water
Mommy- 3/4 cup of water
Jo Bean- 1 cup of water
Moca- 8 cups, oh wait umm 1 cup of water
Z train- half of 2 cups of water
Sugar Plum- free (3) cups of water

Mommy Won! Whoo Hoo!

• See how many cups full of snow it takes to fill a measuring cup with the melted water.
  

We guessed 6 cups. It was seven.

• Repeat the experiment with old snow and record any differences in your nature journal.

We didn't see any significant difference. However when we packed snow into the glass we got 1 cup water after it melted.

Winter Wednesday #1 The World of Winter

So I found a nice Nature Study that I'm going to try out. Not being very nature oriented myself... I'm glad that there are others out there with the talent which I can borrow.


The Challenge: "Find a few minutes this week to notice the colors you can observe in your own backyard, even if it is from your window."

Well we don't have any color in our back yard except for white, and white, and a little more white. But here's what we found in our neighborhood.

Some beautiful Green and brown foliage

Some sort of Red Bush that we can't identify.

Another Beautiful Red Bush.

This Broom Bush is still growing despite the snow.

This bush had little red flowers and thorns on it.
The thorns were pretty sharp but my son said,
"It's worth the beauty of the moment for a few pricks".