Happy Hail Day

We've been hanging low this week because I haven't been feeling well. Soon after we got home from our Nature Walk on Tuesday I began feeling the crud... achy body, stuffed up nose, headache, all that fun stuff. So I spent lots of time resting. I also got a lot of thinking and planning done for school next year. Its so fun to be putting it all together. But today I was feeling a bit better so we headed out to Wood Lake Nature Center to check on our friends, the Red-Winged Blackbirds. They were there and singing their songs for us. What struck us as strange though is that there were absolutely NO ducks or geese to be seen. Not a single one. Normally they are all over the place there. I guess they may be hiding out nesting? We just thought it was weird not to see any since we usually see many species of ducks along with lots of geese. But we had a nice walk anyway. My camera was having a hard time with the sun for some reason, but I did manage to get one ok photo of Tyler and Emily together...

We got home just in time to hear the sirens going off so we headed to the basement and waited for the storm to hit. We had some thunder and lightening... and heavy rain... and small hail. Hail! Tyler was excited over the hail. I think this is the first time he's seen it. Daddy even brought him in a handful to check out. He kept it in a bowl until it melted. I snapped a couple of photos while it was coming down. These were taken through our basement window, so they're not the best but I think they turned out cool...

They were about pea size, some more like dime size. We were lucky, some places in MN had hail up to golf ball size!! The storms have moved past us now, but they are still going to the southeast of us... some growing stronger. Hope everyone stays safe in the path!

Nature Walk at the Quaking Tamarak Bog

We went for a nature walk with my CM Nature Study in MN group today at the Quaking Tamarak Bog in Theodore Wirth Park, right here in Minneapolis. I am constantly amazed at the little hidden away oasises of nature we have right here in the City. There were 14 of us walking today... 5 Moms and 9 children. It was so fun to meet some new friends!

We met a couple of ladies along the trail who brought our attention to some fairly loud bird sounds coming from a nearby tree. We were able to pinpoint it to a small round hole in the tree quite a ways up off the ground. I tried to look in the hole using my binoculars, but I couldn't see anything. As I was looking, though, a Woodpecker came along... it landed on the tree and walked over to the hole. It stuck its head in the hole for a few seconds and then flew off. I am certain we were watching a Downy Woodpecker's nest!

"The downy's nest is a hole, usually in a partly decayed tree;
an old apple tree is a favorite site and a new excavation is
made each year. There are from four to six white eggs, which
are laid on a nice bed of chips almost as fine as sawdust.
The door to the nest is a circle about an inch and a quarter across."
~Anna Botsford Comstock - The Handbook of Nature Study - Page 72~

It was nice to have Amanda join us for this walk. She is very knowledgeable about Wildflowers and the likes. She helped us to identify quite a few of the flowers we saw along the trail...

Wild Calla


Star Flower


Wild Columbine

She even introduced us to a Wild Edible... Garlic Mustard. It is an Invasive Species, so we picked a leaf to try it out. When rubbed it smells like Garlic. It has a salad green, lettuce, leafy flavor. Tyler says he didn't like it! :)

Garlic Mustard

Our new friend, Heather, brought her microscope along! She grabbed a sample of the water from the Bog and the kids took turns looking at it under the microscope. They really liked this part.

Tyler decided it would be cool to have a microscope... I was telling my Dad this over the phone and he said that he has one at his house that he never uses and he will send it to Tyler! Yay!

We had a really fun walk and enjoyed spending time with all of our friends, both old and new! We hope to get together again real soon!

A different kind of Bird Study

We spent the day at the Minnesota Zoo today. There are many many types of animals there of all shapes and sizes but ,once again, the birds stood out for us. So we took the opportunity to work in a little Bird Study. First stop, the World of Birds Show...

East African Crowned Crane
Found in eastern Congo, Uganda, and Kenya to central Tanzania.


Red-Tailed Hawk
(this one is half Albino)
Found right here in MN, as well as around the U.S.A


King Vulture
Found from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.


Red Junglefowl
From NW India, through Assam, Burma, Thailand and Malaya to Indo China, South China, Hainan, Sumatra and Java.


Hyacinth Macaw
Found in only three areas of Brazil and the eastern border areas of Bolivia, and in extreme NW Paraguay.

Bald Eagle
Native to MN... they range throughout the 48 contiguous states, Alaska, and Canada.


Also making appearances:

Green-Cheeked Amazon

Rose-Breasted Cockatoo

The Zoo's pond was a beehive of activity... a pair of Trumpeter Swans were nesting along the shore. A Canadian Goose wandered a little too close to the nest and the male Swan made quick work of chasing him off! I also saw a couple of tall white birds in the distance that I think were a Crane of some sort.

We spent some time on the Minnesota Trail where we were able to get up close and personal with some native birds... both on display and in the wild at the bird feeders.

Pileated Woodpecker

Great-Horned Owl

Bald Eagle

Chickadees

Grackle

Hummingbirds

The Tropics Trail always has a variety of very colorful birds to enjoy... and they were out and showing off for us today!! Flamingos, Bali Minah, Greater Indian Hornbill, Green Aracari, Ducks of many shapes and sizes and colors, and lots of others that we couldn't identify!

We even found birds at the Family Farm. Chickens galore! Chickens in fences and Chickens running wild! There were also Chicks and hatching eggs in the barn to observe.

After our stop at the Farm, we had a pretty heated discussion trying to figure out the answer to that age old question... which came first, the Chicken or the egg?