When we went to the nature reserve on Monday, we picked up a leaflet for each of the children, about the upcoming garden nature count, from the RSPB. The children are captivated by the identifying pictures supplied and the tick boxes. For the last few days, they have been eagerly looking out for each bird and ticking them off.
You can find out more about Naturewatch, but in a nutshell, you are meant to take an hour between 5 and 13 June and record how many of each variety you see. We love taking part in this one and the winter one. In the meantime, the children are learning the different types of birds. They are so keen.
In preparation for the watch, we have upped the seeds that we put out for the birds. This has become TF’s job each morning.
They all can now distinguish a female and male sparrow. As AJ said “The boy’s got the beard.” I am amazed that our regular visitors to this table include a family of crows. They visit so often I’m beginning to recognise individuals. So far jackdaws, starlings, coal tits, great tits, blackbirds, chaffinch and collared doves have been ticked off the list. The woodpigeons don’t seem able to navigate the small landing stage.
The children love watching the nuthatch hammer away at the peanuts.
So I think that we are ready for the nature watch. More importantly the children are learning and caring about our wild feathered friends.
I’m linking this to The Magic Onions Friday Nature Table. Wing your way over for more inspiration.
We’ve got wood pigeons that have learnt to sway in time with the seed feeder while they stand on the metal ring that is supposed to hold a water bowl. Hours of fun to watch. Thanks for the link yesterday, I’ve used Lucy’s ripple stitch pattern which was very easy to follow she does explain things very clearly.
I’ll get the other instructions over to you. Children decided to camp out last night, which meant I missed out on my usual computer time.
Hi, you all may like this http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/download/minibeast_pack.htm
there is so much there. x
Thanks for the link. You’re right, there are lots of downloadables and printouts. I’m going to print out some of these to have on hand. Good one!
That is great. We would love to have a table for the birds but the magpies are so bossy without it we can’t imagine how terrible they would get with it! They steal from our plates when we eat outside! So great to see how inspired the kids get.
Thanks for sharing!1
We had a stage where the starlings bullied all the birds off the feeders, but now we have far less starlings. Not sure why.