Sounds of Spring
Plants with Purpose
Common Birds of PTBO
Schoolyard Score Card
Learning through Monarch Milestones
Kim’s Spring Activity List
Home Sweet Home: Build or install a nest box this spring!
Home Sweet Home:
Build or install a nest box this spring!
Here’s a great spring activity to try at home or at school. Nest boxes provide wonderful habitat for many kinds of birds, and having avian families in your yard gives hours of enjoyment watching these feathered miracles.
In nature, holes in trees are prime real estate for wildlife. In fact, many kinds of birds need these holes, called ‘cavities’ for building their nests and raising their young. Especially in urban areas, dead or dying trees are usually removed, leaving a scarcity of nesting sites for our bird neighbours.
Luckily, nest boxes are quite easy to build with a few simple tools and some understanding of what birds need for protection from weather and predators. While there are many specialized types of nest boxes for specific species, a good basic design is suitable for many small birds such as chickadees, wrens, and nuthatches.
Here are some basic guidelines:
- nest boxes need enough space for a nest full of baby birds and access for parents
- the correct size of the entrance hole is important; it should be near the top of the box;
- nest boxes must be cleaned out every year, so make sure you can open up the box, and reseal it safely
- don’t put a perch on your box; birds don’t need it, but perches can help predators reach the young birds
- don’t paint or put a finish on your box; birds prefer untreated, natural wood
- provide ventilation and drainage; a few small holes near the top provide ventilation, and small holes in the floor allow moisture to drain
- use a predator guard to protect the entrance hole from being chewed by squirrels or other mammals who would destroy the eggs or young birds; a metal plate or piece of thick wood are effective (see examples)
- install securely at least 6 feet from the ground; avoid nailing into trees – a pole or post are ideal
Cornell Ornithology Lab has great illustrated guidelines
Here are some plans for a simple nest box you can build from a 4 ft. piece of 1 X 6″ lumber
Chickadee Nest Box Plans from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Note: Entrance hold diameter is 1″ for House Wrens; Use 1 1/8″ diameter for Black-Capped Chickadees; 1 1/4″ for White-Breasted and Red-Breasted Nuthatches
Bird of the Month: Black-capped Chickadee
Bird of the Month: Black-capped Chickadee
While so many birds are flying to warmer places to spend the winter, the hardy little Black-capped Chickadee is preparing to stay with us all winter.
Chickadees are cheerful little birds that travel in flocks and seem to be always on the move. They have a black cap and bib, with white cheeks. They’re one of the easiest birds to attract to a winter bird feeder – a feast of black oil sunflower seeds will keep them happily visiting you all winter. You can hear their ‘chick-a-dee-dee-dee’ call all year ‘round, but on warmer days in winter, their slower ‘Dee dee’ song sounds like they’re saying ‘Honey!’ or ‘Hey, sweetie!’ That call shows that they’re feeling frisky, and thinking of warmer days and the breeding season.
Black-capped Chickadees are very friendly, curious little birds, and with a bit of patience and standing very still, you can often entice them to come and take a seed from your outstretched hand. What a memorable moment, especially for children, to be visited by these lighter-than-air feathered friends! If you’re working on Landmark 12 with young children (learn 5 birds in your neighbourhood), the Black-capped Chickadee is sure to be one of your neighbours.
Fall Fun!
Squirrel Nest Game
Eastern Grey Squirrels are the common tree squirrels found in many areas of southern Ontario, and are more often black than grey. What do they do in winter? They need to construct a well-insulated nest in tree branches or tree cavities for protection from the harsh weather.
Can you build a nest that will keep a tiny squirrel warm? This game is a great fall activity for families or school groups.
Getting Started…
For this game, every player will need a small container with lid that will be their ‘squirrel.’ Pill bottles, old film canisters or baby food jars are all ideal. Just be sure that every player’s container is the same size (kids can work in teams for larger groups). Everyone can decorate their ‘squirrel’ if they like – just make sure you can still remove and reseal the lid. You will also need a small thermometer and some warm water – set all these aside while you prepare your nest.
- Take all the players outside to find natural materials for building a nest. These could be leaves, branches, shreds of bark or paper, ‘fluff’ from seeds like milkweed, or anything you can find that you think would make a good home for your squirrel.
- Each player builds their squirrel nest in a protected place that they can find again.
- A teacher or parent heats a pot of water to body temperature (warm water from the tap is fine too). Tip for teachers: having warm water ready in a thermos can be handy for larger groups.
- Everyone checks the temperature of the water in the pot (or thermos). Write down or remember the starting temperature!
- Find your own squirrel and bring it to the pot of water. Quickly fill your ‘squirrel’ with the warm water, put the lid on snugly, and take the squirrel to the nest you have built. Carefully place it in the nest, and snuggle the nest materials around it.
- Leave your ‘squirrel’ in its nest for 30 minutes. This is a good time for a nature walk, or an autumn scavenger hunt, while you’re waiting for your ‘squirrel’ to settle in its nest.
- After 30 minutes, come back to each nest with the thermometer. Carefully remove each lid, and take the temperature of the water inside. Whose squirrel stayed the warmest? Which cooled down the most? What kinds of materials were best for keeping the squirrels warm?
- You can play this game as often as you like, trying different decorations on your ‘squirrels’, making the most creative nest, and using different materials to keep the squirrel warm.
Hope you stay warm this winter too! Staying cozy outdoors in cold weather depends on having several layers of insulation and a good windbreak. Squirrels use the same tricks!
Bird of the Month
Bird of the Month:
Meet the Yellow Warbler!
Summer is a perfect time to go searching for new feathered friends. This perky ray of sunshine is quite common in our area in spring and summer. Incredibly, the tiny Yellow Warbler flies all the way from South and Central America every spring to find places to breed in North America. Look for reddish streaks on the breast (males), a black beak and sweet black eyes in an unmarked face. Listen for its song – it sounds like it’s saying “Sweet, sweet, I’m so sweet…”
Yellow warblers feed mostly on insects, and can be found around woodland edges, streamsides and brushy areas. Look for them in late spring and early summer, as they often start their long migration south during the month of August. To learn the yellow warbler’s song, check out the Cornell birding website, ‘All About Birds.’ Getting to know the birds around you is part of LANDMARK 12 (Who Else Lives in Your Neighbourhood?).
Don’t be fooled by another common yellow bird – the American Goldfinch. Male goldfinches are also bright yellow in the summer, but they have a black cap and black wings. Goldfinches stay here for the winter, and are commonly seen all year at bird feeders.
For a bigger challenge for older children and youth, try reporting your bird sightings to eBird to help track trends in bird populations worldwide. This is LANDMARK 22 (Become a Citizen Scientist). Check out the Merlin website to help you learn to identify the birds you see. Watching birds is great fun, and a good focus for walks outdoors.
Photo by Kyle Dueck
Winter Games
Winter Games
Getting to Know Your Local Birds!
Did you know that the average child recognizes hundreds of corporate logos but fewer than 10 local plants or animals? Getting to know your ‘neighbourwood’ is an important first step in connecting with the natural world.
While some local birds fly south for the winter, many stay around, and can be a focus for lots of winter sleuthing, especially if there’s a birdfeeder nearby. Here’s an activity that exercises the memory and observation skills, in preparation for going outdoors in winter, especially with Grade 1-2 children working on Landmark 12 (Getting to Know Local Plants and Animals). Older children and adults can play too.
Winter Birds Memory Game
This idea is inspired by a Christmas gift of a game of birds from around the world, where the goal is to find matches of males and females of the same species. This version has a simpler, more local focus, based on common winter birds in the Peterborough area.
Find pictures online of any of the following birds:
- Black-capped chickadee
- White-breasted nuthatch
- Northern Cardinal
- Blue Jay
- Hairy Woodpecker
- House Sparrow
- Red-breasted nuthatch
- Rock Pigeon
- Goldfinch
- European Starling
(if you know of others in your area, include them too)
Paste the pictures into a template of squares (2.5” to 3” are ideal), and make sure you have two copies of each picture. Use card stock or bristleboard if possible, so you can’t see through the paper when they’re placed face-down. Write the name of each bird on each square.
TO PLAY:
Turn all the squares face-down on a table or other flat surface. Every player turns over two cards, saying the names of the birds on each card, then turning the cards face-down again. The goal of the game is to remember the location of each card that was turned over, so you can turn up a matched pair when it’s your turn. If you find a matched pair, you take them off the table and keep them. Whenever you find a pair, you get an extra turn. This game can be played by various numbers of people, but 2 to 5 people are best, so you don’t have to wait too long for your turn.
To make the game more permanent, you can laminate the cards so they’ll last through many games. For older children, you could make sets of local flowers, animals, insects or trees. The memory challenge of the game is a great mental workout for all ages!