We were finally able to participate in an Outdoor Hour Nature Study project this week… it has been awhile. This week’s focus was Cardinals, Finches and Robins… super easy assignment for us. Our feeders are filled with the first two species and the Robins have recently returned… much to the kids’ enjoyment. For awhile there with every Robin sighting in the yard, Bug would pull us away from our other activities to watch at the window.
The kids have been stalking the Robins in our yard. Watching them trying to catch one makes me laugh and remember how my grandpa had teased us as kids. He told us that if you sprinkled salt on a bird’s tail feather you could catch him. Of course now I know that the joke is if you can get close enough to shake salt on the bird you could catch it… not that there is some magical property in the salt that renders the bird flightless and therefore easier to catch… as my brothers and I thought as kids. Ha… to think of us chasing the birds with a shaker of salt. 😉
I also dug up some photos from last summer of a Robin’s nest that was housed in a crabapple tree along side my grandmother’s deck. We enjoyed watching the little guys getting bigger and eventually take off on their own. I hope we are able to find another nest in easy viewing distance again this year.
BTW-If you can get your hands on a copy of Round Robin I highly recommend it. It is hand’s down one of my kids’ favorite books.
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I loved your robin entry and the cardinals in the feeder photos. This was a perfect study for your family!
The photos of the robin babies in the nest are priceless. Can I use one as the Outdoor Hour Photo of the Week? Please let me know and I can add it and a link in my sidebar.
Thank you so much for sharing your entry.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
awesome photos! I havent’ heard of that book, I’ll have to search for it. We love watching the birds here!
Yes Barb, feel free to use a bird photo.
Weren’t those babies sooo cute?! I also love how there is some blue and white striped material in the nest. I hope we can find another nest this year to keep an eye on.
Thanks for sharing your backyard bird experience with us. We are also participating in the outdoor hour challenge and when My Girl and I saw your photo of the newly hatched robins with their tiny little bills all nestled together, we both sighed. Loudly. 🙂 Beautiful.
Love the pictures of the baby robins. I haven’t really seen the robins return yet here. Maybe soon. The red-winged blackbirds returned last week which was quite exciting. We love Jack Kent books around here :-), we will have to check that one out.
I have to comment! Those baby bird pictures are wonderful!!! What a lucky find!!! We are obviously feeble nest spotters are birds round here are a lot more furtive!
It seems in our backyard you don’t need the salt. Today Bug was getting so close to the birds I think they would have let him scoop them up! All our fair feathered birds have returned, including the grackles which are quite the bullies! Today Bug is spending the night, and out our dining room window we watched the entired mating ritual of 2 grackles. Bug asked a lot of questions, to which I gave lots of correct answers. I’m sure you’ll hear more about it soon, Mom!
Thanks for sharing the pictures of the Robin’s nest! My kids loved how they are “tucked in.”
Our backyard lacks trees but the front yard has a beautiful bradford pear. This year I decided to put a birdfeeder in the tree to see what action we would get. It was so cool when my youngest two (4 and 2) saw the first cardinal on the feeder…it was like Christmas. Now they sit by the glass storm door and wait patiently for our visitors almost everyday.
Great pictures. I loved the ones with the babies from last year.