Silent Winter Weather Walk

This week I realized that I had been hibernating just like the winter animals even though the weather has been extremely mild and dry out here on the prairie this year.  But not today…today was a blast! We got out on our “silent winter weather walk”. It was one of the closest days to winter weather we have had this season. It was 30′ with a 10 mile an hour north wind so it felt like 21′, but we weren’t turning back. We had our sights set on a new piece of woods to explore, everyone was well, and we had been away from our nature studies for too long!  We had been reading, however, some great nature study books this winter, The Adventures of Buster Bear and Blacky the Crow so in honor of these books by Thornton Burgess, we have chosen code names from our readings.

We have been studying red-tailed hawks from the Handbook of Nature Study (pages 104-107) so we were on a mission to get a picture of one of the many that live in our area. The red-tailed hawk has a bad reputation for being an enemy to farmers, but these birds prefer mice, gophers, and reptiles to poultry. The Cooper’s hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk are actually the “chicken hawks.” Driving to our new spot, Blacky the Crow, spotted a red-tailed hawk on the fence, “probably watching for something eatable to stir within the range of their keen vision.” We got close enough to get a great picture. We could see his powerful talons and sharp beak. So beautiful. Mission accomplished.

Next we went rambling through the woods to observe nature with all our senses.

Mrs. Redwing (that’s me)

1. Red-tailed hawk feather in the leaves
2. Finally, a shagbark hickory has been found
3. Big oak hit by lightning

Blacky the Crow

1. A pretty red-tailed hawk on the fence
2. The biting wind rustling through the trees at the top of the knoll
3. Two white tail deer crossing the road in front of us

Sammy Jay

1. Children laughing, running down the hill
2. An old deer stand in the middle of the forest
3. A cold winter day

Merry Little Breeze

1. Children’s voices
2. A blackberry patch
3. Felt the wind

These woods had definitely been explored by other happy children because we found an old, broken, red sled. My little explorers lost no time putting the sled to good use sliding down the wooded hill of dirt and leaves just as if there were snow on a winter day. Proof that kids can adapt to almost anything and be creative.

Winter weather. Check

Picture of a red tailed hawk. Check

A wild blackberry patch to visit in the spring. Check

Found a new tree species for our notebooks. Check

Lots of fun exploring and discovering. Check

Silent winter weather walk…well nobody’s perfect:)