Birdsong at Night

I'm sitting in our cabin here in Maine, listening to birdsong. That's not unusual, except that it's fully dark, almost 9 PM, and I'm sipping a nice Cabernet, not my morning cup of coffee.

I love wild birds. I love feeding them, watching them, identifying them, and listening to them. My daughters once shared my delight and awe, but now they are teenagers and not much delights or awes them any longer. It's quite sad. But I remain hopeful that once they get past this stage (which has its own delights, I assure you), they'll return to those things that once bright them joy.

Source

The bird I hear now is a hermit thrush. I've been enjoying listening to them for years here in Maine. I never hear them down South. They have a very unique and lovely song; it's intricate, whereas some birdsongs are quite simple. And there's a unique whirring aspect to parts of it.

I first learned about hermit thrushes a few years ago when the girls and I visited Birdsacre and the Stanwood Wildlife Sanctuary, a wonderful house museum and bird sanctuary in Ellsworth, Maine. There we learned about the life and vocation of Cordelia J. Stanwood, a 19th century pioneer ornithologist and photographer whose passion was birds. We enjoyed out tour of the house and the girls got to help the volunteer feed the birds that live there. Our favorites were the sawwhet owls.

As a memento, I purchase a biography of Cordelia, written by Chandler S. Richmond and titled Beyond the Spring. Frankly, I did not hold out much hope for a well-written book. So I was pleasantly surprised at the engaging style of Richmond's prose. And what a story, too! More to the point of this post, however, is her deep admiration for the hermit thrush. She wrote:

“When the thrush speaks to me, it seems as if the rags and tatters that enshroud my soul fall away and leave it naked. Then I must be simple and true or I cannot feel the message the small voice brings to me. When the thrush sings, I desire to live in a small, scrupulously neat camp, open to the sun and the wind and the voices of the birds. I would like to spend eternity thus, listening to the song of the thrush.”

My response to the thrush's song isn't quite as strong, but I do love it. Here's a link to the hermit thrush page at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds website. You can see photos of this bird and, more importantly, listen to recordings of its song. And here's a link to the hermit thrush page on the Audubon website. Excellent recordings of its song are down lower on the page. Prepare to be charmed. And the next time you hear a bird singing at night, think of the hermit thrush.

A New Guest at the Feeder

We FINALLY hung one of our bird feeders up on the deck right outside the kitchen window. We still have two more to hang, but I need to get feeder posts suitable for the deck to hang the feeders.

One of my "must haves" when we were house hunting was a kitchen window with a view to the outdoors. Many houses around here have interior kitchens. No, thank you. As much as we love bird-watching, a room with a view was non-negotiable.

I posted quite a bit about birds in the past, and I'll get back into the habit when I get back into blogging like I used to. With the switch in focus (and life), I'm still trying to find my groove. And unpack boxes. Yes, still.

Anyway, I was super excited to have this visitor last week:

Source

Yes, it's the aptly-named red-headed woodpecker. Aren't they gorgeous?

Unfortunately, they have "near threatened" conservation status. Partners in Flight list them as a "Common Bird in Steep Decline." Why? One major reason is that they nest in dead trees or dead parts of live trees. As development spreads, dead trees are removed from the landscape. And even though red-headed woodpeckers will nest in utility poles, studies have shown that eggs do not hatch in newer poles, probably due to creosote.

I only saw this beauty for two days. It visited my feeder several times for the black-oil sunflower seed I serve. They are big insect eaters; perhaps our warmer weather has made for an increase in the insect buffet around here. I hope so.

Wouldn't it be a huge shame to lose such a beautiful species?

BirdSleuth: A Great Resource for Birdwatching and Nature Study

As you may already know, we are dedicated backyard birders. As a form of nature study, birdwatching is easy and inexpensive and fun. You can even take the leap into the field of citizen science with the Great Backyard Bird Count and Project FeederWatch, both programs from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology.

I recently came upon another Cornell resource called BirdSleuth. This is wonderful! Read my full review over at Curriculum Choice. . . .

New Sighting! Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

So I got all excited about this bird that was pecking at the trees near our feeders because I thought it was a pileated woodpecker. We hear them a lot but see them rarely. But Tiny Girl said, "It can't be, Mom. It's too small."

After we got a few brief glimpses through our binoculars (a birder's best friend -- well, those and a good field guide), it flew away and we flew to the computer.

Our friends at Bird Web provided the solution. On the pileated woodpecker page, there are several photo suggestions for birds that look like it. Tiny Girl pointed to one. "That's it!"

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

Sphyrapicus varius

We compared the yellow-bellied sapsucker with the red-naped sapsucker. The latter is not in our area of the country, so that gave us our answer.

Typically, Cornell's All About Birds site is my go-to online resource, but the only two similar species they suggested were the red-headed woodpecker and the American crow. (What?? I think I can tell the difference between a crow -- which we see all day, every day -- and a pileated woodpecker!)

But it's good to have a few tricks up one's sleeve, so I'm glad I found Bird Web.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

New Sighting! Eastern Phoebe

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

I've heard mention of Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) often over the years, but I've never seen one except for photographs. But just today, I caught sight of an unusual bird perched atop the feeder pole. For a second I thought, "Mockingbird?" But it was too small and its head was darker. I thought it might be a Phoebe.

It flew away before I could grab my trusty binoculars, which I keep on the kitchen counter for bird-spying. But I looked it up in my new compendium, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, almost 800 pages of photos and detailed descriptions, along with a CD of bird songs, featuring 150 different species. And I was right!

(I'm getting pretty good at this, actually. Ahem.)

She didn't partake of our feeder offerings, but I hope she comes back.

Weekly Happenings: Ancient Egypt and Signs of Spring

This week we got back into the swing of things after two weeks of theater busy-ness. We still aren't up to top speed, but that will come. Next week.

Our inaugural days of participation in Project FeederWatch were Tuesday and Wednesday, our second foray into citizen science (the first being the GBBC). We saw 19 different species but not more than four of each species at a time. I also tried my hand at a chalk pastel rendering of a male bluebird! For tons of pastel inspiration, click the link at the right: A Simple Start in Chalk Pastels.

After lunch today (Friday), I made homemade oatmeal cookies and ate a lot of dough. I still feel slightly sick, but it's worth it.

We read about the Mosaic Map of Madaba and Machaerus, Herod's fortress in present-day Jordan, where John the Baptist was beheaded (website). Above, Miss Priss researches images of Machaerus. She found some neat cutaway and 3D pictures to share. Tiny Girl found us images of the mosaic on her laptop. I love it when the girls' interests are piqued and they conduct extra research on their own! Both links I've made take you to more photos and information.

We also worked on maps of Jordan. The girls have enjoyed our mapping exercises of the Holy Land. I download and print free blackline maps of each country. Then we consult our several atlases for mapping details.

I determined that our study of the ancients needed more of an Egyptian touch than AO Yr 6 scheduled, so I made some additions. Fortunately, the girls agreed (otherwise there would have been pushback -- ugh) since they've read and enjoyed Rick Riordan's Egyptian-themed novels. This week, both girls began Roger Lancelyn Green's Tales of Ancient Egypt, and Tiny Girl read The Golden Goblet, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, a Newbery Honor book set in ancient Egypt. She gave it a big thumbs up. Miss Priss plans to read The Cat of Bubastes, by G.A. Henty. This title has a free Kindle edition and is also available on LibriVox, if you're looking for something to pass the hours on an upcoming car trip.

Piano recital pieces are coming along nicely. They are also working on other pieces as well. I love listening to them play! We build piano practice into our school day, and the girls' skills are really improving.

Signs of spring are everywhere. My daffodils have come and gone. The earlier azaleas are covered in buds, a few of which have already bloomed. The hydrangeas and rose bushes are leafing out, and the iris by the mailbox has sent out leaves. Ornamental pear trees are blooming everywhere (see my Weekly Happenings title photo) and so are Japanese magnolias. Ornamental cherries are covered in buds. Below are some photos I snapped during the week.

Lenten roses (hellebore) outside the historic sanctuary of my church.

Our tiny red azalea bush.

Flowering cherry trees in bud at a neighbor's house. These trees are glorious when in bloom.

I don't recall what kind of tree this is (at my church). It might be a dogwood. Time will tell.

Those are some glimpses of our week! How was your past week? Full of good stuff, I bet!

Happy weekend!

Link-ups:
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
HammockTracks
Homegrown Learners

New Sighting! Pine Warbler

Tiny Girl and I noticed two birds -- visiting at separate times -- who looked out of place at our feeders. They bore a slight resemblance to goldfinches, but their heads were grayer, their breasts were pale yellow, their wings were lighter (gray instead of black), and the white bars on their wings were not as distinct. One of them had more yellow on its head than the other, resembling a nonbreeding male goldfinch. But the wings were still too different from a goldfinch's wings.

Pine siskin? we wondered. Nope. Pine siskins' breasts are heavily barred, a detail missing on our diners. Plus, they were too yellow. Pine siskins have a bit of yellow under their wings and tail and maybe a touch on the wing edges, but that's all.

Off to the WWW we went, straight to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's site, All About Birds. First, I went to their goldfinch page, not because I thought our mystery guests were goldfinches, but because this fabulous website features similar species -- with photos!

On a hunch, I clicked on the link to the pine siskin page and looked over the similar species photos. A few clicks of the mouse later, and I landed on a strong contender. I called Tiny in to take a look at several photos. "That's it!" she said happily. Pine warblers. Setophaga pinus and Dendroica pinus, in case you're boning up on your Latin. I guess they're so fabulous they get two binomial names.

Photo courtesy Laura Gooch via EOL, Encyclopedia of Life

Ah, what satisfaction.

The photo above looks a lot like one of our new friends. The second warbler had more yellow around its head and breast. I couldn't find a satisfactory photo of it. I'm certain the one above in a female, which tend to be more drab than the males.

Equally as fun as identifying this species is the fact that we've never seen them before. According to All About Birds, pine warblers have olive coloring on their backs. I'll look for that next time.

New Bird Sighting! Hermit Thrush

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Last week, the girls and I noticed a new feathered visitor to our tray feeder. It looked a little similar to a brown thrasher, except the eyes, tail, and size were different. We researched the bird in our bird books, hoping for a firm identification, but the closest we could surmise was the fox sparrow. Too bad our friend didn't sport the grey areas on its head, like a fox sparrow does. So our mystery guest remained a mystery.

So I was delighted when I opened an email from Audubon about the Great Backyard Bird Count, and there it was! A photo of our bird AND a positive i.d. It's a hermit thrush!

The photo above really doesn't do Catharus guttatus justice. Its back feathers are a lovely reddish brown (think auburn), and the white ring around its round, dark eye is particularly vivid. Smaller than a robin and larger that most of the songbirds that dine here, hermit thrushes are in our area in the winter only, like dark-eyed juncos.

We are always excited to identify a new bird variety!

Don't let this year's GBBC (Great Backyard Bird Count) slip by without joining in! Today's the last day. And you can count for as little as 15 minutes. Yesterday, I counted for that length of time while I worked at my computer in the study. I face a picture window that overlooks my back yard -- and feeders!

Weekly Happenings: A Week of Quiet

 We took it easy this week. The last two weeks were a flurry of activity, mainly due to Miss Priss's theater production. This week, she was hit with a bad cold (and actually napped twice one day -- unheard of!), and I have the winter blahs. It seemed a good time to take a little break.

But we weren't slugs by any means. Unless you count the fact that we stayed in our jammies until we absolutely HAD to get dressed.

On Tuesday, we celebrated National Pancake Day at our closest IHOP. Who can beat a free short stack of pancakes? While we were there, we talked about the positive identification of Richard III's skeleton in Leicester.

We listened to the chatter of the cedar waxwings, stopping for a few days on their annual visit. They and the robins stripped our large holly tree of its berries. I loved watching them swoop to and fro outside the picture window in my study. They were easy to distinguish from the robins because they are smaller and, when they fly, their tails flash yellow. They've now moved on, and we won't see them again until next February.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

We listened to Bach and explored a new art project, which I wrote about in detail yesterday:

The girls did quite a few art projects. They both worked on friendship bracelets. And Tiny Girl drew a picture in pastels for the upcoming Sketch Tuesday event hosted by Barb, something she hadn't done in a while.

We read nice books and drank lots of tea. I read The Tutor's Daughter, by Julie Klassen. Miss Priss read Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne's House of Dreams, and Anne of Ingleside, all by L.M. Montgomery. Tiny Girl read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, and, for even more fun, Tongue Twisters for Kids. One of the gifts she received at her birthday party last Saturday (her actual birthday is yet to come) was a Kindle! She adores it.

We're also reading The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone: Key to Ancient Egypt, by James Cross Giblin. AO's Year 6 history is light on ancient Egypt, so I added in a few resources. This is one. I want the girls to be properly informed in preparation for our trip to England. We're in the nascent stages of planning it. I've seen the stone on a previous trip and can't wait for them to have that opportunity, too.

The girls are now practicing their piano pieces for the recital in May. Each has one piece that's a bit of a challenge, so we're working through the angst of "I'll never be able to play this!" But of course they will. I'm often called to the piano during their practice time to work out a measure or two so they can hear what it should (ostensibly) sound like. And that's the extent of my piano prowess, I assure you.

It's almost time to say good-bye to Max, one of our ponies. Our lease is up, and his owners plan to send him to Kentucky to sell. We are hoping and praying that he gets another little girl who will love him as much as we have.

The girls and I both needed this week of quiet. Also, it gave me some time to research and plan some other materials we're about to pick up. In our "regular" weeks, I don't have much time to do this.

How was your week?





I'm linking up with:
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
No Ordinary Blog Hop
HammockTracks
Collage Friday
The Homeschool Mother's Journal

Spend some time perusing the blogs on these wonderful link-ups for some new ideas, encouragement, and fun!

A Charm of Finches

The Great Backyard Bird Count is next month, and we've already begun luring our quarry (to count!) to our feeders.

We've had finches in abundance: goldfinches and house finches, to be precise. Did you know that the most often used collective noun for finches is a charm? I love that. A charm of finches. How perfect.

Here are six female house finches dining at our tray feeder. They love the black oil sunflower seeds and the suet cake. Can you see them? It's a little tricky, but this was the best I could do. I took the photo from my breakfast room window.

They also cluster around the thistle seed feeder alongside the goldfinches, but I couldn't get a decent shot of that. I'll keep trying!

We are still seeing the bluebirds several times a day. But it won't be long before they move along to search out bluebird houses to their family nests. We don't have a bluebird house (nor an ideal place to put one), so we'll bid them adieu til next winter.

My Favorite Bird

Our backyard birdfeeders get lots of visitors in the winter. Tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees, Carolina wrens (which we've called Jenny wrens ever since we read the Burgess Bird Book), and northern cardinals are our most frequent guests. Song sparrows, house finches, mourning doves, and yellow-rumped warblers show up quite a bit, while dark-eyed juncos hop along the ground just under the feeders, gleaning. Downy woodpeckers and red-bellied woodpeckers enjoy the suet. And in later winter, goldfinches will flock around our niger seed feeder.

Early last week, on one of the many drizzly, dreary days we've had, a flash of bright blue caught my eye. I called the girls to the window and we watched four eastern bluebirds take turns with the suet. Three males and one female. Since then we've seen them every day, as many as five at a time several times per day.

I can see the feeders from the window above my kitchen sink and my study picture window, so I have plenty of opportunities to observe my favorite bird species. The leafless trees in our backyard are the perfect backdrop to their purple-blue plumage. Often two males will perch on swaying branches just near the feeders whiletwo or three others nibble at the suet. Sometimes one or two will glean on the ground beneath the feeders, or snatch up suet pieces that fall on top of the baffle.

This morning, I watched for a few precious seconds as a male bluebird and a male cardinal perched on the edges of our tray feeder. I quickly alterted Miss Priss, who was eating her breakfast at the table. She managed to catch a glimpse before they flew away. What a glorious sight!

Sightings of bluebirds are particular precious to me because I know the birds won't stay around for long. A woman at a bird feeder store told me that if I'd put up a bluebird house, they would stay and raise a brood. But our wooded backyard is not conducive to bluebird houses; they have strong opinions about house placement!

So I'll enjoy them while I can. I'll stop whatever I'm doing to note their dark periwinkle feathers that perfectly complement their burnt range breasts. I'll admire the lovely blue-gray coloring of the females, their buff breasts, and their bright black eyes.

I love all the birds that we see. I adore goldfinches and am always glad to play host for them on their travels.The cedar waxwings that descend upon us, strip our holly tree of berries in a day or so, and then disappear -- their very transience mark them as extra special. In fact, we've actually missed their visits in prior winters! And I'm always excited to see something new.

Still, the Eastern bluebird holds my heart.

"Owls" Project Pack: A Fantastic Study!

I've enjoyed a few lovely days off to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with my family and friends. I hope you had some rest and relaxation time as well. There's nothing like a cold, rainy Christmas Day that invites you to stay jammie-clad in front of a nice fire with a really good book, is there? Perfection!

I wasn't completely lax, however; I found time to write a review on a most wonderful resource: the Owls Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child. If you and yours love owls -- like we do! -- you'll thoroughly enjoy this. To read my complete review, pop over to Curriculum Choice.

And a happy and blessed 2013 to you!


Photo credit: Doug Greenberg / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Weekly Happenings: Promises to Keep

This week was a bit different from normal (I'm wondering if there's such a thing as a normal week, anyway), what with dreary, chilly weather for a few days; The Elections and a friend of the girls hanging out with us most of the day; a day meeting at church, some theatre excitement; and horse show preparations.

I made a few amendments to our schedule, bypassing spelling, grammar, and memory work for the week. I also stretched out our composition assignments and Miss Priss's Critical Thinking workbook lesson.

Hot chai and composition on a wet day

A breakdown of some things we learned:

• Ordinary Genius, a biography of Albert Einstein and AO Year 6 selection. They've been notebooking each chapter, and I was pleased overall with their initial attempts.
• In history, we read about events following World War II, such as the Marshall Plan and the building of the Berlin Wall; South Africa and apartheid; and the Communist victory in China.
• Dion and Dionysius battle it out in Syracusa in "Dion," one of Plutarch's Lives.
• Newton's law of universal gravitation was the focus of our Secrets of the Universe: Objects chapter. I'm telling you, the way natural phenomena can be reduced (if you will) to mathematical equations simply blows my mind!
• In It Couldn't Just Happen, we read about the ozone layer of the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect and how termites (!!) greatly contribute to it.
• Ulysses (Odysseus) and his men are taking their own sweet time getting back to Ithaca in The Odyssey for Boys and Girls. This week, they lounged and feasted with Circe (after she changed half of the men into pigs and back again) for a year or so until one of them said, "Hey, shouldn't we be thinking about heading home?" (I'm paraphrasing.)
• We regularly catch sight of a blue heron at our lake cabin and sometimes one flies overhead here in the South, so School of the Woods delighted us.
• On Friday, we enjoyed another Hodgepodge pastels tutorial: Harvest Moon Nocturne. The girls were less panicky this week than they were last week and loosened up a bit.

Tiny Girl's on left; Miss Priss's on right.

One of our Frost poem's this week was "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," one of the best-known poems of the twentieth century. And no wonder. The calm, quiet pastoral scene beckons us in and then surprises us with an unexpected depth. Here is an unmissable link: a video of Robert Frost reciting this simple yet magnificent poem.

On Monday evening, Tiny Girl's theatre troupe's production was announced: Peter Pan! And Tiny herself was cast as Captain Hook. Already she's in the throes of practicing at home with her lines and songs (she has a short solo). Miss Priss's troupe has been rehearsing their production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Miss Priss was cast in several ensemble parts, and she also has a brief solo for one of them.

Petal the pot-bellied pig came to visit us at the barn.

Tiny Girl has a horse show tomorrow, so we have schooling later today at the show venue. We'll also be cleaning tack, polishing boots, ironing jods, etc., tonight. She and Max are going to the show, but here she is with Tuli, who's coming along well with her training.

Not so familiar with the Great Blue Heron? Here's a fun video to watch:




I'll leave you with Frost:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening (1923)

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

I'm linking up with:

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
The Homeschool Mother's Journal
Hammock Tracks
Homegrown Learners
No Ordinary Blog Hop

Suburban Nature Encounters: Birds and Rabbits

We've had some fun nature moments in the last couple of weeks. It's spring, after all, and every creature's thoughts turn to. . . the usual: survival.

Since I'm a mediocre photographer at best, please bear with me. You may need to use your imagination a bit to really appreciate the scenes. :-)

At the equestrian park last week, we were delighted to discover this Carolina wren's nest in the rafters of the barn, right above our heads. I was unable to get a photo of Mama Wren, since she was extremely busy searching out food for her young ones. We could hear their demanding little peeps. Miss Priss and I were intrigued by the nest design: she'd built it "up," with the opening at the bottom left. You may be able to detect the front door:

Our neighborhood rabbits have been active. Perhaps spring has gone to their heads; we see them all hours of the day, even in the bright afternoon. I hope they're on the lookout for hawks and cats! I took this (admittedly poor) shot from our breakfast room window. Before I could take any more, the little guy bounded off.

I saved the best for last. In my most recent  Weekly Happenings post, I wrote about watching a titmouse make off with a large tuft of dog hair to line its nest. Corgi undercoat must be a much sought-after building material. In these photos (the best of many I shot), a Carolina chickadee collects dog hair from a rug we'd tossed on the deck.

She made several trips to gather the hair.

See the tuft in her beak?

Right after I snapped the above photo, she lit off.

In case you're wondering why the rug is on the deck rail, I'll tell you. The dogs had been having a field day ripping off the non-skid backing, and, in their exultation, ruined the rug. Ah, well. It had already given the best of its life to us.

Our feeders have been busy. The mealworms, so mocked by Himself ("What's going to eat those?"), vanished. We've sighted our regular patrons: titmice, Carolina chickadees, Carolina wrens, and Northern cardinals. Other visitors include: mourning doves, a yellow-rumped warbler, nuthatches, and house finches. I was late setting out my niger-seed finch feeder, however, and we missed the flocks of migrating goldfinches we usually serve in the spring.

Any interesting nature activity in your backyard or environs? Tell me about it!

Weekly Happenings: Testing, One, Two

It's been an atypical week here! We set aside most of our regular subjects while Miss Priss endured the CAT5 for sixth grade and Tiny Girl suffered from test envy. To stay on schedule, we continued with our readings after testing for that day was complete.

Readings this week:

• Oliver Twist: read through chapter five. Still a favorite.
• George Washington Carver, by Suzanne M. Coil: read through chapter four. Tiny Girl especially is connecting with this book, which pleases her mama.
• Lilias Trotter: A Passion for the Impossible: read through chapter three. Miss Priss loves this!
• Story Book of Science: read the chapters "Rain" and "Volcanoes."
• Abraham Lincoln's World: problems cropping up around the world, e.g., Ireland's potato famine, Canada's dissatisfaction with the mother country, working-class rebellions.
• This Country of Ours: the battles of Shiloh (in Tennessee -- I visited the battleground when I was a child) and New Orleans; the importance of control of the river system.
• Mapping the World: a new geography resource. Read my review here.
• "Brutus," from Plutarch's Lives: Caesar's assasination. Both girls thought there should have been a better way to handle Caesar's thirst for power than murdering him.
• Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar: we finished our readings for the term.

In other activities, Miss Priss had a fabulous time at her first junior docent meeting at a local antebellum house museum. Tiny Girl has been working hard with the new pony, Max. I've implemented a new schedule for writing and life. The girls and I greatly enjoyed Miss Priss's theatre company's high school drama troupe's production of Seussical. The kids did a wonderful job. The girls and I planted morning glory seeds, carrots and corn, lamb's ear, and basil (potted).

Yesterday, Tiny Girl and I had an up-close interaction with a baby squirrel at the barn. The mother died (drowned in the horses' water trough) and left several babies. We are giving them food and water and hoping for their survival, but it's going to be tough for the little guys.

Jasper and Georgette, our delightful and much-loved corgis, are shedding their undercoats. We've witnessed birds carrying in their beaks tufts of dog fur for their nests. I had to smile while watching a tufted titmouse struggle with a particularly large clump; she managed it in the end!

I'm linking up with I'm linking up with the Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. If you're looking for some inspiration and ideas, you're sure to find both on other linked-up blogs!

Happy weekend!

Weekly Happenings: Ellen, Interrupted

We've been ridiculously (some might say stupidly) busy in the past week that I've neglected both my blog and my blog-reading, heretofore happy habits of mine. I've missed both. I've also neglected housework (hard to do when one is not home), friends, and a responsibility or two. So now I've settled in front of my desktop with a cup of PG Tips and some cold Zaxby's french fries, ready to roll. Folding laundry can wait.

Big News: we found a new pony for Tiny Girl! Yes, after trying eleven -- count 'em, eleven -- we found one we liked enough to bring to our barn for a ten-day trial. Max is a medium Welsh pony, a larger version of Tappy, whom Tiny Girl has sadly outgrown. Since we had only ten days to ride with him at our barn, we spent at least two hours at the barn every day this week. Max had spent a long time hanging out in the field at his place, so he was peach-colored when we got him, thanks to the local clay. A bath was beyond necessary. Thank heaven for OxyClean!

Tiny Girl, Miss Priss (see her head?), and our trainer
giving Max a much-needed bath.

Yesterday, we took him out to our nearest equestrian park to school him, just to see how he behaved "out and about," so to speak. He was great.

Tiny Girl schooling Max.

Last weekend, we had a frigid cold front move through. I cut my blooming daffodils to save them from the freeze. Fortunately, they weren't all killed, and some of my creamier varieties are blooming now.

For Valentine's Day, I baked Himself his favorite peanut butter cookies. I'm certain the girls and I ate more than he did.

One day this week, Miss Priss called me to the window to see a small flock of birds in our front yard. They were unfamiliar to us, and all our identification attempts have failed thus far.

They are about robin-sized, black with a small orangey stripe, and orange underneath their wings. Do you recognize these birds?

Miss Priss's theatre troupe is about to roll into crunch time. Their production of Wonderland! begins March 8 through March 10, and the two weeks leading up to showtime (AKA "crunch") begins February 27. She'll be in rehearsals from 4:00 until 9:00 every weeknight except Wednesday and Saturdays from noon until 5:00. AND my trip to the UK is during that same time....
 
The girls have been reading quite a bit in the last two weeks. Miss Priss has read Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink, Ramona Forever, by Beverly Cleary, and The First Four Years, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (all for the second time), and Caught in the Act, by Joan Lowery Nixon. Tiny Girl has read Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes, Crispin and the Cross of Lead, by Avi, and The Last Wilderness, by Erin Hunter. Both girls read Our Only May Amelia, by Jennifer L. Holm.
 
Thanks to our increase in outside activity, we've had to finish our schoolwork several evenings this week. I've learned this is not ideal for anyone. By evening, we are tired and want to do our own things. But it's served as a good lesson in diligence and responsibility. Even (especially?) for me.
 
Enjoy your weekend!

A Tale of Two Birds

Tuesday was a dreary day in our neck of the woods. At breakfast, Tiny Girl, who is now suffering from fifth disease, bless her, looked out the kitchen window and exclaimed over three very BIG birds up in the tops of our backyard trees. The birds looked black, but beyond that, identification was difficult due to the grayness of the day and the falling rain. But we persisted.

Tiny Girl Googled "huge black bird" and came up with some possibilities, which we investigated online. Only one seemed likely: the black vulture. We've seen turkey vultures here in our neighborhood before. But we could not get a clear view of this bird's head, so we were still unsure.

However, there were a few other clues. The birds high in the trees were silent. There were, as I said, three of them. They weren't gathered together in one tree, but they seemed "together." Their legs were light-colored in contrast to the rest of their bodies. And there was a murder (or flock, if you prefer) of crows haranguing these large, black birds. We've seen crows behave the same toward other vultures and hawks.

When the rain slowed to a sprinkle, I ventured out, camera in hand. I was able to get a decent shot, much to my delighted surprise. While I was outside, one of the birds spread its wings and held them outstretched, a behavior we've observed in turkey vultures.

In the above photo, you can (sort of) make out the shape of the bird's head, but you can't really see the pattern on its wings. I could see both clearly from my spot in the yard. After I took a few more snaps, the bird silently lifted off and soared away.

With all the information we'd gathered, we positively identified these birds as black vultures.

The second bird in my tale makes me happy every day. It's a solar dancing penguin. I'm fortunate to have two of them in my kitchen window because each of my daughters received one in a birthday favor bag from a friend. When sunlight hits the small screen on the white base, the little penguins rock back and forth. One of them is a sedate waltzer; its rock is in a series of four with a pause between each series. The other is more frenetic, rocking energetically and continuously.

What can I say? It doesn't take much to make me smile.

Backyard Sighting: Cooper's Hawk

I happened to glance outside my bathroom window just in time to see a Cooper's hawk land on the deck railing below. My camera was downstairs (of course!), so I contented myself with spying on it for a minute or two before it soared away.

I can hear you now. So, Ellen, how do you know that it was a Cooper's hawk and not the similar-looking sharp-shinned hawk? Well, it just so happened that I did NOT know for certain, so I did a bit o' research, as is my wont. I came upon a wonderful article, Tricky Bird IDs: Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk, from Project FeederWatch, which cleared up the conundrum. Now I know my particular hawk was a Cooper's.

As much as I like seeing hawks -- we mostly see red-tailed hawks in our backyard -- I admit to a touch of anxiety when they stalk our feeders. Yes, I know they need to eat, too, and that their entree of choice is other small birds. But I don't like witnessing such National Geographic moments in my face and in real time. You know, in reality.

For your viewing pleasure (not in real time or reality), here's a photo I found on the GeorgiaInfo webpage:

Photo by Vicki DeLoach

In addition to this hawk, we were glad to see the dark-eyed juncos arrive! What are you seeing in your backyard this winter?

Weekly Happenings: A Few Beginnings and Advent

The house is very quiet. Himself and the girls have gone on an overnight trip out of state to see Himself's alma mater play in football play-offs. Although I've been looking forward to some quiet time alone, and I enjoy my own company, I have to admit the quiet is deafening. This must be how the dogs feel when we leave them behind.

We began two new AO Year 5 readings this week: Abraham Lincoln's World and Of Courage Undaunted: Across the Continent with Lewis & Clark. We said goodbye to Abigail Adams last week; you can read my thoughts on that here. Other readings we enjoyed included King Arthur and His Knights, This Country of Ours, Gods and Heroes, and "Poplicola" from Plutarch's Lives.

Much to Miss Priss's revulsion, we learned about spiders and silk in Storybook of Science this week. I was so intrigued that I hopped online to find a video and more information. I blogged about my findings, and you, too, can learn more by popping over to that post. And in A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth (which is a tweak of mine; AO schedules volume 2 for Year 5), we tried our hand at a project that depicts the moon's gravitational pull on the ocean tides.


Gravitational pull project.

Our geographical study of gravity nicely coincided with our recent readings from Sir Robert S. Ball's Great Astronomers and its biography of Sir Isaac Newton. While we'd been following along quite adequately until last week, Ball's writings on Newton's gravitational studies are too esoteric even for me. We managed to understand that Newton proved mathematically Kepler's laws of observation regarding planetary movement in our solar system; but I felt we needed a bit more explanation. Turning to the online world once more, I found what I was looking for at Physics4Kids. Here's the link to the article we found most helpful.

Miss Priss has been making strides with Math Mammoth, but then I found (via Blossom at North Laurel Home & School; thanks, Blossom!) cK12.org, the home of "customizable, free, curriculum-aligned content for K-12." So we did some work in their sixth grade math program, which was a review for her. I only wish they offered a teacher's edition of this flexbook! It would save me some time. Tiny Girl began a geometry segment in MEP math, working with perimeter, area, and volume of solid figures.

We also got a handle on direct objects with our new grammar program. Read my post on that here. And we also began a new online and free French program, provided by our library system.

But it's not all been work, work, work! We managed to get in some Christmas decorating. Our tree is in all its glory, the Christmas village bedecks the top of the piano, the stockings are hung, and the nativities are gracing our foyer dresser and bookcase. Both Tiny Girl's advent garland and our advent candle, a gift from our friends from Germany who visited for Thanksgiving, add to our time of preparation.

 


My first nativity, a gift from my mother many years ago.



A smaller, funkier nativity, another gift from my mama.




Our Christmas village, a mix of Dollar Tree finds and handpainted treasures from Michael's.

 

Miss Priss, still sporting her purple cast, decorating the tree.


Today was our second morning of hard frost. Miss Priss was so taken with the hoary world that she ventured out for a few photos.

A sweet gum ball leaf in the grass, both silvered with frost



Look at the lacy edges of these tiny leaves!



Tonight I will be cutting out and baking Christmas cookies for our Girl Scout troop to decorate at Sunday's meeting. We each eat one or two, but we give the majority to a local charity for women and children. A double batch of dough chills in the fridge while I type. Perhaps this will be the kick-off to my Christmas baking bonanza! If you need something to get you started, I'll post the recipe in the next couple of days.

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