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.
