Yard Birds October 21st

Yesterday morning, my husband called to me from his home office asking if I ordered a "shepherd's hook" from Amazon. Of course I had. It's a tall metal pole for holding a bird feeder. 

He just got a text that it had been delivered!

Huh...I thought I had ordered it through my own account (I had, in fact, but the Internet knows all), but how nice of them to let me know. I went to the front door in anticipation of setting it up in my yard right away, only to find no package at all had been delivered. Not again, I thought. We have the misfortune of living on a street with the same first two letters as the street parallel and a block north of us. Packages are frequently misdelivered.

Maybe it's due to the horrors of students who were taught to read using sight words instead of phonics.  Or maybe it's just a momentary lapse on the part of the letter carrier. Or maybe she just doesn't care anymore. My package was not delivered to my home, nor to my northern neighbor.  As evening approached, I searched the USPS customer service page, but it was no use.  My package was declared "delivered" and I was out of luck.

As I was about to type a note of complaint, the doorbell rang, and there stood a man with a tall cardboard box. He lives 5 blocks away on a street with an altogether different set of letters making up the word, but the same house number. It was super-nice of him to do the gov't's job!  

I set up the shepherd's hook just beyond the dog's reach and made an old planter saucer into a hanging dish-feeder. I filled it with wild bird seed. For some reason, wild bird seed comes with candied papayas. The ants love candied papayas, and climbed 5 feet up and one foot down the hook to enjoy the sweet treat. I look forward to woodpeckers eating the ants.

No feeder visitors came by last night.  Not one.

This morning, ever hopeful, I poured my coffee and sat outside with my camera. There were birds everywhere, thanks to my neighbor's dying cherry tree. He took down a blue spruce in perfect shape, removing the breeding spot for several generations of crows. He took down a row of arborvitae I-know-not-why. He has threatened to take down a smaller tree behind the garage.  But this leviathan cherry, with dead branches and hollow trunk, just waves violently in the lightest breeze waiting for the gust that tears the branches off, and for gravity to do her worst, right over my yard. But I can't really complain, since the tree provides constant shelter for my friends the birds.

Today, I saw a towhee in my yard (technically, in his tree which extends over my yard) for the first time!  As you can see, I got a photo for ID, but it's not beautiful.

Towhee.

And a pair of unidentified birds played way up in the branches, refusing to turn for proper identification. Any guesses?

Unidentified birds in classic Audubon pose.

A house finch stood out red against the blue sky.  He was having a great day!

House finch.

He likes the high branches, where the wind whips his feathers.

A medium sized hawk--possible red-shoulder from the looks and cry--swooped onto the branch, but my little friend spied him early and fled. A bit later the hawk swirled away, to the south.  Sorry, no photo. He's one that got away.

But some other interesting birds were visiting. I looked at a bird in the hedge, and saw a pine siskin! It's the first I have seen in the yard. It had not come for the seeds I put out, but for the tiny conifer seeds in the hedge. I took a few photos. Imagine my surprise when I opened the photo in Picasa and saw that there were 6 birds in the photo! Can you see them all? Did I miss any?

So many siskins.

The birds are pretty well camouflaged, but Amigo, the cat next door, is not. His white fur shines brightly in the morning sun.

Amigo.

Whiskers, the cat next door on the other side, is a bit harder to see in the shadows.

Whiskers.

Both would like to nab a bird, but the birds are well guarded by Circe. Not that Circe has not nabbed a bird in her day, but she'd rather have cat.

"Mmmm.  Kitty-kitty," says Circe.

Finally, a visitor landed on the new feeder.  This song sparrow is brave and patient, and not afraid of Circe at all.

Song sparrow.

Still looking up in case the hawk came back, I saw a flock (well, three) of something go over.  A closer look through binoculars showed them to be greater cormorants. That was nifty.

Cormorants.

And though it was only 65 degrees out, a few honeybees were sucking the last of the autumn nectar. Despite the cold, they were faster than my camera, and I only got a good shot of a foot and wingtip as it explored the morning glory.

Morning glory food for bee.

Meanwhile, the rubbish men came by, some workmen tore out part of our sidewalk, old Greta-two-doors-down yelled at her daughter-in-law in Deutschlish, someone rang our doorbell, sprinkler men came to fix the neighbor's sprinklers, landscapers mowed, leaf blowers moved the leaves around, the fire siren went off, and, in the distance, a chainsaw made short work of a tree. I had coffee and birds, and was almost oblivious.

Raven Eats Wasps

Did a quick image search for this sort of behavior but nothing turned up.

(Caveat:  Never birdwatch while driving.)

Way in the back of the long office parking lot, there is a pass-through driveway to the supermarket next door.  The back of the parking lot is a bit overgrown, and in the curbside underbrush grows a tree. And on that tree, there hangs an impressive and unmistakable paper wasp nest.  Big and grey, it waves, heavily on a windy day, on the tip of a delicate branch.

I was taking the shortcut through the supermarket lot on my way to the office when I saw a big black bird fly over the car and land on the nest.  I thought it was a crow at first, as ravens are not as common in these suburbs.  But this was a big glossy bird with a heavy bill, and it was making no sound, unlike the boisterous local crows.

The pass-through is narrow, and I hit the high curb as I was looking at the bird.  Two cars leaving the office lot stopped to stare as I backed off the curb and let them pass.  I drove through when they had gone and pulled into the nearest space, hoping the bird was still there.  It stayed as I stepped out of the car and into the lot.  A guy drove up behind me and honked impatiently until I moved to the side.  A woman drove up behind him and smiled indulgently as I snapped a few shots.

All I had was my Samsung tablet.  It takes photos, but not like the Nikon does.  With no zoom lens, and only a screen which reflects the sky on a bright day in such a way that one cannot tell what one is photographing, I took a few blind shots while the raven picked at the nest, sending shards of the soft gray paper fluttering to the ground. This is the good one:

This one wasn't too bad, either, left uncropped.  It was a gorgeous cold day, and the raven is beautiful black bird.

Since it was a sub-freezing,  I imagine the raven got a few tasty torpid wasps for its trouble.  Ravens are the largest of the perching birds, members of the crow family, and quite stunning up close.  Paper wasps are nasty, stinging insects.  I'm thankful for ravens.

Want to learn more?  Here are some raven books:
Mind of the Raven (Heinrich)
Ravens in Winter (Heinrich)
The Raven (Poe!)
Raven and the Red Ball (picture book)
Raven (Native American tale)
Arabel's Raven (Aiken)
Charlie's Raven (George)
Clem (true story)
The Seven Ravens (Grimm)

American Spiders

There were two girls in the attic of the German House at Sewanee.  One was from Leipzig, and the other from Budapest.  Neither was happy.  In the corner of the attic where they would be storing things for the next year, there were spiders.  These were not the nice, gentle Eurospiders of their homelands, but nasty, vicious American spiders--spiders that could bite and maim.  American spiders have nasty venom, and nasty ways of delivering that venom into your body.  Annika and I giggled as we listened at the bottom of the stairs.

Well, yes.  There are American spiders worth fearing.  The Brown Recluse and Black Widow are two notorious arachnids.  They are distinctively colored and patterned and so easily identified, but they do lurk in dark places.  

Europe is not without its own spidery pests.  There are widow spiders and comb-footed spiders throughout Europe.  They are not really a big threat, though.  I guess the girls were right.

If you want really venomous things, though, we often think the best place to find them is Australia.  The venom of the Northern Funnel Web spider is quite potent.  Then again, it is not the worst.

The most venomous spiders are in South America. Consider the Brazilian Wandering Spider.  And tremble.  Then remember that you don't live in Brazil and rejoice.

Anti-venom is a help, in most cases.

So there you go, girls.  Don't worry.  Much.

Spider books (because you knew there would be some):

Fabre's The Life of the Spider
The Tarantula in my Purse
Spiders by Seymour Simon
NG Readers: Spiders
Spiders and their Kin


One of our favorite pets is the jumping spider.  Catch one if you can, and watch it for a while.  Watch an orb weaver in your garden, and feed it!  And if you find one in the house, put it outside, don't kill it!  You can do it from a distance with this handy tool.

Water the Birds

Silly robins. They love my yard in winter, and now I understand why. I left the outside faucet dripping, and fresh water is as important as food when it comes to attracting birds, especially when the weather is freezing.

Deeper Nature Study: Stalking Bacteria in the Wild Part 1

Nature study is the core of many a homeschooler's science studies.  Nature study for the younger set is often simple and un-directed; the children find what they can find and bring it to Mother for examination, or home to observe and preserve.  The child and parent try to identify specimens, and often learn how to use a field guide together.  It's fun and informative for the younger children, but what about older kids?  Just as highschoolers can benefit from intensive copywork using great books and technical articles, so a high school student can get laboratory credit for nature study that is specific and directed towards a more quantitative goal.

This year, I chose a few victims (I mean students, of course) to try out an addition to our biology curriculum using more advanced living books.  This is the first in a short series of blogs on "Deeper Nature Study."

A few years ago, I came across a terrific book called A Field Guide to the Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer.   Dyer is a biology professor at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and has recorded a Modern
Scholars lecture series on this same topic called Unseen Diversity, which is top-notch and available from Audible.  Both are fine alone, but combined they make a formidable mini-course in bacteriology that is easily used by homeschoolers.  You will be relieved to hear that Prof. Dyer suggests that we not grow things in petrie dishes in our kitchens, so we won't; instead, we take our search outside.  In the wild, we have been able to discover evidence of bacteria everywhere.  And we are only 1/3 the way through the outdoor portion of the course.

The best thing about this short series of hikes is that it can be done anywhere, almost any time, with little modification.  Since bacteria are plentiful everywhere, and very few are pathogens, it's a safe and nearly fail-proof study.  You can study bacteria where you are, because they are there, too.

We began with a brief lecture on different kinds of bacteria, and the environments in which each thrives.  A quick version--cold, temperate, and hot are three measurable but wide temperature ranges for bacterial growth (one can get way more specific, and we did, but I don't really want to write out the entire lecture, and Prof. Dyer does it in more depth).   pH is another variable for determining the types of bacteria we are likely to discover.  The third environment we are exploring varies in oxygen content.  We could also add salt, and more, but these are the basics.  After my brief lecture we went outside and found some regular every-day common clover to examine.  We dug up the roots to find nodules of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the root system.  These are terribly EASY to find!  We found some lichen, that combination of fungus and bacteria that grows so well on rocks and tree trunks.  And we found some cyanobacteria growing in patches large enough to identify by color alone.  Then we hopped into the car and took a quick field trip to the local Quaker cemetery, where the old tombstones yielded more evidence of bacteria at work.  And that was day 1!  NB:  It is very difficult to pry teens out of graveyards...go figure.

Day 2 brought us to a local swamp, where quick running water, deep muck, and hard trails all had perfectly detectable bacteria for our viewing--and sometimes smelling--pleasure:

The light leaf litter smells fresh even though it is full of bacteria.

Miss A. is encouraged to take a deeper sample...it will have a different odor.

Right along the trail are worm castings, full of bacteria fresh from  the gut of  worms.  Slugs approve.

Intrepid Miss B. strives for the best sampling spots, mid swamp!

OK.  Crossing the swamp by log is just fun for Miss B., Miss C.,  and A.

Slow, clear water reveals a nice bacterial mat, with large air bubbles!

Miss C. discovered that the faster running water was cold.

Yet, who could resist? Neither P nor Miss B.

Bubbly beer-like bacteria!!

Ha-ha!  Miss M. captures millions of bacteria.

Tempting...but no, she didn't.  ;)

Next stop?  The salt marsh...

Tie a Yellow Police Line 'Round the Old Oak Tree

Or, you really need to walk around the neighborhood to find what the storm really did.  

The Biggest Thing I Hit This Time

Outside the Window

A balanced diet.

Thanks to T for calling me to the window. We saw the baby first, blending in, perfectly still. Then the parent came by with a bright red berry. Yum.

Taste Test: Civet Cat Coffee

Weedwhacker of the Apocalypse

(or, How MacBeth Spent Her Afternoon)

I went to whack the weeds, I went
With weedwhacker in hand,
I planned to whack down all the weeds
Across my patch of land.
But when I saw the violets,
so green and lush and full,
I pulled the weeds around them out
But these I could not cull.


I docked the dock, took pokeweed down
and trimmed the side and drive.
I stopped and spied the work of mice,
And wasps (a paper hive!).
The mice had eaten cherry stones
And left them on the slate;
The wasps were eating clothespin wood--
My clothesline was their plate.

The dandelions lost their heads;
I let daylillies grow.
I also let a flower stay
(It's name I do not know).
I trimmed around the tree until
Tart sorrel's yellow bloom
Defeated me; I had to stop
And grab the dusty broom.

 (Click on photos for a closer look.  Copyright 2011.)

Grasshopper Jars or Store Bought Pet Habitats?

Under the sink, Nana kept clean glass jars.  There were all sorts of jars--jars which had once held jelly or pickles or mayonnaise, or even gefilte fish.  And the jars were of all sizes; piled beside the jars were lids of steel or aluminum, I guess, but never plastic.

Clean and plentiful, the jars were there for the taking, and during grasshopper season, we took quite a few.  We had to find the correct lid, but it only took a minute or two.  One of us--my brothers and cousins and I spent hours outside in the summer heat--would sit on the hill along the side of the house, holding a prized grasshopper between gently pinched fingers, watching it make a drop of "tobacco juice" between its mandibles, while waiting for the others to return with the jar.  We would run out of the house with a glass jar in hand and stuff a few tufts of grass into the jar before releasing the insect into its new habitat. For one unlucky grasshopper, there would be a bit of soapy water left in the jar from its last washing, and the poor thing would adhere, hopelessly struggling, to the inside of the jar, and we children would learn a lesson about checking the jars for moisture.  But now, a luckier grasshopper would find a dry bottom, and plenty of food (we thought).  Then, someone would point out that without air, the grasshopper would surely suffocate.

"They breathe through their legs," someone would say, and we would all nod knowingly. (This is not true; but it seemed plausible at the time.  The truth is nearly as fun--they breath through spiracles (openings) in the thorax and abdomen.)  We needed to do something to let the air into the jar, or our merciful natures would force us to release our captive.

So we would do what most children did at that time:  We sought a hammer (a large stone would do) and an awl (a screwdriver would do) and began to pound holes through the lid.  The lid, of course, would be on the jar, and only great skill prevented us from breaking the glass while venting the lid.  The holes could never be so big that the grasshopper would escape, so we would make many small holes.

Then, in the warm afternoon sun, lying on the hill, we would admire our new pet while chewing on the "sugar tips" of grass ourselves.  If it was good enough food for the grasshopper, it was good enough food for us.

Today, if one can find a glass jar, the lids are often plastic, and they crack when one tries to punch a hole. But never fear.  Rather than build a habitat for a pet with what-you-can-find-around-the-house, you can buy an insect house, plain or fancy, but risk free, and keep your pet safely.  I laughed when I saw that one does not even have to touch the insects one finds.  With a bug vacuum, one may catch small arthropods safely, which I guess is fine if you wish to catch and observe scorpions or hornets or black widows; but most insects are quite harmless.

Which brings me to the point:  Have we lost something?  Is there some value in finding an insect by accident, tracking and hunting it in tall grass, holding it in a bare hand and feeling it tickle ones palm as it walks, or seeing it squirm as it struggles to escape, all while one is scrounging for a creative place to keep the bug-de-jour?  If instead we give the child the box and instruct him to take the bug vacuum and find something, are we not taking away that tiny creative moment and replacing it with ready-made purpose, precise instructions and a right way to do it?  Is it any wonder that, surrounded by pretty plastic things with switches and lights, the child cries boredom?  When we remove a step--e.g.:  figuring out where to put the bug after one has caught, it as it sits in ones hands--we remove a creative purpose that stimulates the intellect and stretches the imagination.  Egads.  What have we done?

So save some jars; if you fear your young entomologists might handle something dangerous, suggest he figures out a way to make a net or a trap.  Let him find things spontaneously, and scrounge for the right materials.  Some interesting specimens will escape, but let that strengthen the resolve of the child to solve the problem in his own way.

Summer Books, Originally found at MacBeth's Opinion

Trip at sunset, Martha's Vineyard

Summer is traditionally "time off" from school. But of course, learning takes place all the time. Here are some suggestions for summer learning without worksheets or burdensome lessons:

New! Have a Moominsummer with the Moomintrolls!

• Visit unusual places

Storybook Travels will take you on a virtual tour (or a real one if you like) to places like Hannibal MO, London, NYC, California's Channel Islands, and more--over 30 destinations from your favorite stories.

We found Gepetto's workshop in Italy with this book!

Also: How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books Like the title says...beautiful narrative. Read how the author tracks down the elusive Arthur Ransome and finds out where Swallows and Amazons really takes place.

• catch frogs or toads

Read about a famous literary frog!

• pick berries (be careful of bears!)

Sal finds blueberries, and her mother, in Maine

• camp

The famous pig gets back to nature

• grow a bean teepee

• climb trees (maybe a famous tree!)

• sit under a shady tree on a sunny day

• hike (bring water)

• look under a rock

• catch fireflies

• listen in the evening--what birds sing last?

East, Central: West:

• wade

• hike to an island at low tide

Libby and Annika with cousins Kelsey and Brianna on "private" island

• dry seaweed/pondweed on blotter paper and frame it...or eat it!

• visit a lighthouse

or spend the night in a lighthouse!!

• cook outside using a Dutch oven

• race snails, feed snails, eat snails!

• track the weather

• watch a spider spin its web and catch dinner

• run under the sprinkler (plain or fancy)

• look for rainbows

• walk on dew-covered grass in bare feet

• roll down a hill

• make "windy things" with online instructions from the Franklin Institute

• learn to sail

• plan an archaeological dig in your own back yard

• walk along a railroad (carefully!) or stone wall

• look for geodes

• Imagine! (Finnish Troll Tales are the best for any season!)

• play "new games"

Looking for more traditional games? Try these:

• build a ropes course

• plant a Mary Garden (off site)

• Camp!

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Non-fiction and reference books for summer learning and activities:

The Complete Book of Decorative Knots includes lanyard knots (remember summer camp?) and much more! Great rainy day activity.

Cooking in the Outdoors A good, basic guide.

The Field and Forest Handybook Follow up to the Boys' Handy Book

The Outdoor Handy Book: For Playground Field and Forest More from Dan Beard

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Need Field Guides? Click here!

More Summer books? Click here!

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Thinking of camping? Click here for MacBeth's Equipment opinion.