Classical Charlotte

For last year’s bird study we used the Burgess Bird Book for Children and this year we are reading the Burgess Animal Book for Children for our mammal study.  We read the first two chapters, which involved our buddy Peter Rabbit and, as always, his curiosity.  This time around, it is Old Mother Nature who gives Peter (and friends) a lesson about various animals in North America.

We learned about:

The Cottontail Rabbit (Peter)

The Snowshoe Rabbit

The March Hare

It was really nice to be back with our little friend Peter – such sweet stories.

Spring is about a month away for Peter Rabbit.  Poor thing has to work hard finding food to eat and two birds, the Northern Goshawk and the Great Horned Owl, make it even more difficult since Peter looks like a good meal to them.  Luckily, though, he knows how to hide well and stay quiet.
 
Northern Goshawk

Great Horned Owl

Even though we are done with new bird study lessons we will be reviewing for the next month. Daddy Doo found a great bird coloring book at our local Borders for cheap (it was closing) so we will be reviewing videos plus coloring pages of birds we met this past year.

Here we are, at our second to last bird study.  We started over a year ago (although slowly at first then went to weekly lessons when Kindergarten started) so it feels pretty surreal that we are almost done.  I look forward to our animal study this Fall when we rejoin Peter Rabbit and his friends.

Today’s lesson introduced us to two birds we will never see in warm LA, the Pine Grosbeak and the Common Redpoll.

We especially enjoyed the first Pine Grosbeak video, below, since he is joined by a few winter friends.

Pine Grosbeak

Common Redpoll

Next week will be our last bird study but then we will spend a few weeks reviewing what we covered. That should be fun.

Whoops, I’ve been lax in posting our bird studies.  Sadly, after today’s, we only have two lessons left!  Boohoo!!

These final chapters revolve around birds who do not fly south for the Winter or, when they fly south, they end up in the Northern U.S. so still in the snow and cold.  Only two we read about, the Horned Lark and Red Crossbill, can be found in sunny SoCal.

Chapter 41 introduced us to this Horned Lark plus the cute Snow Bunting.

Snow Bunting

We enjoyed the Snow Bunting sliding down the snow.

Horned Lark

Chapter 42 brought us the Eastern Screech Owl, which obvious by its name, can be found nowhere near us.  Cute baby video below, though!

Today we read Chapter 43, which covered the Ruffed Grouse and the Red Crossbill.  We found both pretty fascinating, since the Ruffed Grouse’s feet change in the winter to become “snowshoe-like” and the Red Crossbill has a beak similar to scissors.  Supposedly, we can find the Red Crossbill in our area but I don’t think we have yet to have the pleasure.

Ruffed Grouse

Red Crossbill

After our two week Spring Break, which is starting next week, we will just have two more chapters in the Burgess Bird Book for Children. Wah.

We were introduced to the American Tree Sparrow, which is not someone we can hunt down here in CA.  But we knew the Dark-eyed Junco can be spotted here and Doo even studied it for nature study last Summer.

American Tree Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

I cannot believe we only have FIVE chapters in the Burgess Bird Book for Children left!!

Jury duty distracted us from our usual Monday bird study so we got around to it this morning.  Winter has started and there is snow on the ground.  Peter’s many bird friend have flown South for the winter but he still has a few to chat with and observe.  And, we are happy to report, both friends discussed in this chapter can be found locally.

The White-breasted Nuthatch

And the Brown Creeper

Oops, I totally forgot to post about last week’s bird study.  We “met” a friend I remember well from my childhood, the Canadian Goose.  Doo has also experienced these loud geese at the LA Arboretum.  Plus we read about the Common Loon which I am pretty sure we have seen on a few little lakes out here.

Canada Goose

Common Loon

And, on a slightly related note, Doo has spent this Sunday morning hopping around in Daddy’s big slippers announcing “lipperty lipperty lip!” wherever she goes. Here comes Peter Rabbit!

Today’s bird study “introduced” us to the Black-capped Chickadee.  A bird Mommy grew up with and one Doo was already familiar with since it’s been in several bird books we’ve enjoyed.

to have both birds presented found here in SoCal.  But we were pleasantly surprised to find that the European Starling and the Cedar Waxwing can be found in our area.  Hopefully we’ll see a Cedar Waxwing this year before it heads North to breed. They’re beautiful.

European Starling

Cedar Waxwing

This week’s bird study brought us a very creepy bird – the Loggerhead Shrike.  Not creepy in looks and not even an intimidating appearance but the fact that he impales his prey (insects, mice, lizards, and even birds!) weirded us out.  He can be found here in Cali so maybe one day we’ll be horrified lucky to find his food storage area.

Our second bird was the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  Unfortunately, this bird can only be found out East but we won’t complain since SoCal is host to several other types of hummingbirds.  I just enjoyed observing one today while Doo was in her co-op class.