Nature Walk at Eastman Nature Center

Tyler, Emily, Dave, and I met up with Michelle and her boys today for a nice walk in the woods at the Eastman Nature Center in Elm Creek Park. It turned out to be a beautiful day and we had the chance to see lots of fun things in nature out there.

We saw our first wildflowers of the season... some pretty purple Hepatica.

We did a lot of looking under logs and digging in the dirt...

Where we got dirty and found lots of fun little critters...

We also saw some fun birds and animal tracks along the trails. The boys had fun picking up "treasures" along the way... although some of them were not so much treasured by us parents!! All of us had fun and enjoyed the weather, the nature, and the company.

We will be using this outing as our Outdoor Hour Challenge Assignment #2. I will post that separately, as Tyler and Daddy headed out fishing in the boat as soon as we got home from our nature walk.

Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrel

Another little slice of nature in Downtown Minneapolis...

Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrel

Thirteen-Lined Ground Squirrel Nature Snapshot from the MNDNR

Happy Earth Day

Tyler's new baby Red Pine - Planted in observance of Earth Day 2008

It is true...

Nature really is all around us.

Even in the city.

We are a big fishing family, and we have several regular fishing holes right here in Minneapolis. Close, safe, and easy. These photos were taken at one of those spots right smack dab in Downtown Minneapolis. This Goose has been there pretty much every time we fish there... every single year. Last night I told Tyler we were going to find out why he looks the way he does. I think we have pretty much decided that he is a cross between a Canadian Goose and some sort of farm Goose. Love his white head and orange feet. He has been dubbed "Ugly Goose", but he is really not ugly. Just different than the others. Hmm... sounds like a familiar story line!

It seems to be paired with this Canadian Goose. They were there together anyways.

Another Canadian Goose came to visit and these two were not happy. I guess three's a crowd! :o) We did get to witness lots of natural Goose behavior though... hissing and chasing. Emily really liked watching these two. We even fed them a few french fries. Funny thing happened while I was knelt down with Emily watching the "Ugly Goose". I turned around to check on Tyler and his friend, Jacob, who were playing in the dirt up towards the van. The Canadian Goose had wandered up to them about a foot away from them and was standing there watching them play! The boys hadn't realized it. I loved the look on their faces when they looked up and saw him. Eye to eye. Too funny!

I'm amazed at the nature right here in the city if you just open your eyes to it.

Our first Nature Journal entries

Tyler and I completed the very first entries in our Nature Journals this evening...

I think it went well. Tyler really enjoyed it. Daddy even got involved coaching Tyler to get the bird shaped right. I can see how the Nature Journal will help reinforce what we see on our walks. It made Tyler concentrate on the shape and texture of the bird... and he drew it in its natural surroundings which helped reinforce that as well. Then the writing added to it all too. What a great exercise! Tyler is already asking when we will be going on another nature walk so he can draw in his Journal again. :)

Nature Walk at Wood Lake Nature Center

Today was the first nature walk organized through my new Nature Group. We planned to meet up at the Wood Lake Nature Center. We didn't have a real good turnout. One mom was sick and one must have had something come up, so it was just me and the kids... but we had a great time enjoying nature anyways, and there was a ton of it to enjoy!

Here's Tyler doing a little pose for us at the beginning of our walk...

There were lots of birds and other animals out and about for us to enjoy today. This Mama Robin was busy building her nest...

Tyler thought it was silly that she was using pieces of plastic for her nest!

Meanwhile, Daddy Robin watched from a nearby fence...

These Red-Winged Blackbirds were all over the woods. They were really showing off for us... letting us get exceptionally close to them while they sang their songs for us.

The Waterfowl were out in pairs today as well. The Mallard Ducks...

The Canadian Geese. This one was eating...

This one was napping...

We saw a beautiful pair of Wood Ducks...

And this pair of Hooded Mergansers...

After our walk we spent a little time inside the Nature Center Building playing and learning.

We had a great time and saw some very cool things in nature today. Part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Assignment #1 was to choose something from our walk that we want to learn more about. Tyler thought we should learn more about those friendly Red-Winged Blackbirds. So that is our mission for the next week or so. We will begin by reading about them in our Handbook of Nature Study and The Sibley Field Guide to Birds. I told Tyler that I think there are some songs about Blackbirds, so we will look some of those up online and have fun with that as well. We'll also take some time to sketch a picture of one in our Nature Journal. I think he chose a good animal to study!

We used this scavenger hunt sheet during our walk. It really helped us to use all of our senses out there! Some of the other things we saw and experienced...


Things we saw:

A tree with blossoms on it

A bird

A bird's nest

Something moving in the breeze

A Squirrel

A Chipmunk

A Downy Woodpecker


Things we heard:

The wind rustling the leaves

A bird chirping


Things we felt:

Something cool in the shade

Something smooth

Something rough

Something wet

A goose feather


Things we smelled:

The grass

Smoke (they were burning off some grass near the building)