Spring Frog Calls

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Spring Frog Calls

There’s another wonderful symphony that begins as soon as the snow melts in spring.  Local frogs are looking for mates and a place to lay their eggs to keep life thriving in wetlands.  Each kind of frog or toad has its own characteristic call.  How many of these early songsters can you listen for this spring?  These calls are from the Toronto Zoo’s ‘Adopt a Pond‘ website.  It’s also a great source for more information about reptiles and amphibians.

Spring Peeper

Striped Chorus Frog

Wood Frog

Leopard Frog

Pickerel Frog

Americal Toad

To help scientists monitor the presence and abundance of these important ‘indicator species,’ try participating in a Citizen Science program where you report what you’ve heard or seen.  A good program for the Peterborough area is ‘Frog Watch Ontario‘.

A super resource for other things to look and listen for in spring is Drew Monkman’s book ‘Nature’s Year in the Kawarthas.’

Sounds of Spring

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The Sounds of Spring

Every spring we’re reminded of the joy of being alive, and life’s drive to survive and thrive. Can we join the celebration by opening our eyes, ears and hearts to the everyday miracles around us? 

Birds in Spring

Local birds are very busy in spring – finding a mate, making a nest, and getting ready to raise a family.  We are surrounded by an absolute symphony of spring birdsong, as birds (mostly males) sing to attract a mate and establish their territory.

Try training your ears in very early spring to recognize some of the most common early songsters in the Peterborough area.  Here are a few sound files from the excellent Cornell Lab of Ornithology to help you get started:

There’s an amazing resource to help you recognize nearby bird songs, especially as more and more migrants return, and the soundscape gets complex and sometimes confusing!  Try downloading the Merlin Bird ID app on your cell phone, and select ‘Sound ID’.  It will help you listen and point out sounds it recognizes, along with images of the bird that you can click for more information.

The Pathway Project has also created some useful resources for beginning birders.  Check out our ‘Common Spring Birds of Peterborough‘ checklist, which accompanies the ‘Common Winter Birds of Peterborough‘ checklist (these winter residents are still here in spring).  Here’s a recorded workshop for young children that combines the sounds and images of some of our common spring birds to help you get started.

Get outside, tune up your ears, and see how many new feathered friends you can make this spring!

Plants with Purpose

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Plants with Purpose

In early March, we hosted an excellent workshop – just after the biggest snowfall of the season!  Those who were able to dig themselves out had a real treat in store – spending the morning with two award-winning educators:  Bonnie Anderson (Outdoor Environmental Education and Healthy Active Living Coordinator for the Simcoe County Board of Education) and Sherri Owen (local artist and outdoor educator).

They shared a fascinating project that combined Indigenous plant knowledge with scientific botanical information and beautiful illustrations to create a set of plant cards to showcase important plants in their region.  And, these cards are meant to be used by classes!  They can be sorted by habitat, by height, by plant type (tree, shrub, wildflower etc.), by origin (native or non-native) or other criteria as needed.  They can be used to create a simulated garden for a particular purpose.  They could be used for a plant hunt (which of these can you find growing in the schoolyard?) or as an introduction to plants to look for as you visit different kinds of habitats.

As an added bonus, each card has not only the English and botanical names, but the plant’s name in Anishinaabemowin, French and Michif.  What a wonderful, multi-purpose resource!

Bonnie explained that the cards are not intended to be a substitute for a ‘medicine walk’, where more time would be spent exploring the many stories and uses held within each plant.

Many children aren’t ready for that kind of detail and have short attention spans.  These cards are a wonderful first step to spark interest, encourage observation and build relationships.

We had a terrific morning in spite of the weather, learning the importance of respectful interactions with plants, planning imaginary gardens together and thoroughly enjoying each other’s company.  Our thanks to Bonnie, Sherri and the Simcoe County Indigenous Education team for sharing this beautiful project with us!

To request access to a PDF of the ‘Plants with Purpose’ cards, contact cathy@pathwayproject.ca

Common Birds of PTBO

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COMMON BIRDS OF PETERBOROUGH

These are birds that are residents or have migrated back to southern Ontario in the spring. Use this checklist along with the Pathway Common Winter Birds checklist to see how many different birds you can find on your walk today. To learn more, check out this website, allaboutbirds.org

SPRING EDITION

DOWNLOAD HERE

WINTER EDITION

Ever wonder what feathered friends in your neighbourhood stay here all winter? The winter months still offer a bright array of cheerful bird friends, and most of these will be happy to visit bird feeders. Can you find all 12 of these common winter birds of Peterborough? Use this free downloadable PDF as a checklist.

DOWNLOAD HERE

To learn more about these birds, check out the website, allaboutbirds.org

Schoolyard Score Card

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Schoolyard Report Card

Schoolyards are places for playing, socializing, exploring, and sharing the land with other living things. How would your schoolyard score if you gave it a report card?

The best schoolyards build health in many ways – healthy kids as well as a healthy environment.  That means opportunities for active play, creative play, quiet reflection, social interaction and exploring the natural world.  Many schools are beginning to see their schoolyard as a habitat – welcoming many plants and animals to share the space with the students.  This also provides excellent opportunities for outdoor learning and building stewardship skills.

1. INTRODUCTORY VIDEO

Watch the video with your students to help you get started.  It explores what we mean by a ‘habitat for people’ and a ‘habitat for wildlife.’  It showcases some projects from other schools to help get your ideas flowing!

These score sheets have grade-linked opportunities to explore your schoolyard using math, science and geography skills.  Grades 3-6 will go out and measure the schoolyard and make maps of what they find.  Grades 7-8 will begin by drawing their schoolyard from memory, then use satellite images to compare with their drawings, and create accurate basemaps.

Then, using the Score Sheets, students will evaluate their schoolyard on the basis of:

a) Habitat for People

b) Environmental Health

c) Habitat for Wildlife

Download the Schoolyard Score Card below to get started!

Grade 3-6 Report Card
Grade 7-8 Report Card

 3. DISCUSSION AND FOLLOW-UP

How did your schoolyard score?  Are there things that scored well?  Are there opportunities for improvement?  Can your class play a role in improving your schoolyard’s score?

The score cards provide suggestions on simple places to begin.  Realizing that we can make positive changes in the world around us, and working together to do that, helps build hope, empowerment and leadership skills.

The Schoolyard Report Card is an activity that can build your classes’ Pathway Points and gives you an opportunity to win the monthly draw!   Don’t forget to report what you’ve done on the Pathway website pathwayproject.ca 

Learning through Monarch Milestones

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Learning through Monarch Milestones

by Sheila Potter

At the same time of year that children are beginning to feel tingles of nervousness about the impending return to school, a special generation of monarch butterfly caterpillars is munching ceaselessly, preparing for an epic adventure of their own. Known as the “super generation”, the monarch caterpillars that hatch in late summer live 8 times longer than their parents or grandparents and travel over 4000km to their overwintering home in Mexico.

This coincidence in timing offers an opportunity for teachers to greet nervous students with something that will amaze and inspire them, distracting them from their private worries and setting the tone for the entire year.

Although a September start to the school year is most often too late for students to witness the egg stage of the monarch’s life cycle, the timing is usually just right for students to see the fully-grown caterpillar turn into a gorgeous turquoise and gold chrysalis, and then emerge as a bright orange butterfly. The metamorphosis and journey of the monarchs also offers a vehicle for lessons in social studies and environmental science that become all the more real with the presence of the butterflies in the classroom. 

For teachers who are interested in undertaking this project with their class, there are many resources available to further enhance the learning experience of their students:

Citizen Science

Students can follow in the footsteps of Canadian zoologist, Dr Fred Urquhart who was the first to tag monarch butterflies and to verify that individual butterflies make the entire journey to Mexico. Monarch tagging kits can be ordered from monarchwatch.org and even very young students can easily tag the classroom butterflies before releasing them. Tag numbers and other data can be collected and entered into a database, helping to monitor the size of the monarch population that has lately been in decline due to habitat loss and other threats.

Follow Migration Patterns

Using the website, journeynorth.org/monarchs, students can observe the progress of the monarchs as they move across the continent, eventually arriving in Mexico near the end of October.

Art and cultural exchange

At journeynorth.org/symbolic-migration, teachers can purchase a “passenger ticket” so that their class can participate in an international exchange of monarch-inspired art. Each participating class mails a number of paper monarchs which spend the winter in Mexico. In the spring, the class receives roughly the same number of monarchs made by students all over North America, as well as a note from the students who are the caretakers of the paper monarchs in Mexico.

A Peterborough Project: the monarch ultra and mini-ultra

In 2019, a team of ultra runners, film-makers and pollinator advocates followed the flight of the monarch butterfly by running the same distance of 4,300km (2,671 miles) from Peterborough Ontario to central Mexico. At the same time, local schools were invited to participate in the Mini-Ultra”. Once a school registers for the Mini Monarch Ultra Program, students can start running anytime of the year. Schools are encouraged to keep track of the kilometres that the students run or walk, aiming for a total of 4,300km – the total distance monarch butterflies travel during their fall migration. You can learn more or get involved at: themonarchultra.com/mini-monarch-ultra

Teaching the teacher

Raising monarchs requires a permit and a bit of knowledge. Teachers can learn all that they need to know by taking an excellent workshop from the Monarch Teacher Network: https://trca.ca/learning/professional-development/monarch-teacher-network-canada/

 

Click on the image to download this image and enjoy learning about Monarchs through art.

Kim’s Spring Activity List

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Kim's Spring Activity Guide

Our Outdoor Activity Consultant, Kim, has rustled up some exciting Spring Activities to keep our Pathway community busy!

1. Kites

learningliftoff.com

As spring can be breezy, it’s a great time to learn about wind and make and fly a kite
 

 2. Help the Birds 

Encourage birds to nest around your property by providing mud and nesting materials.

 

MUD

  • Choose a spot at the edge of a flower or vegetable garden to establish a mud hole. Use a hose or a bucket of water to wet the earth.
  • Squish the soil using your hands, a stick or a shovel, until it reaches a muddy consistency.
  • Try to find clay soil. Don’t worry if the mud contains small bits of grass or other plant fibres. 

NEST LINING MATERIALS

  • Stuff a mesh onion bag with materials such as dead twigs, pine needles, leaves, feathers, moss, dry grass (as long as it’s chemical-free), strips of bark, and plant fluff from plants such as cattails or cottonwood.
  • Hang the bag from a clothesline or tree branch in your backyard.
  • Some materials that were previously recommended for nesting are now considered unsafe. Do not provide hair (human or animal), string, yarn or loose bits of thread, as birds can become entangled in these materials. Likewise, do not provide pieces of felt or cloth, dryer lint, plastic, tinsel, cellophane or aluminum foil; these can be choking hazards or cause internal blockage.

3. Create a Wild Bee Sanctuary

For a detailed outline visit this link at the David Suzuki Organization 

  • Fill your yard with flowers
  • Plant native
  • Go organic
  • Add water  
 

b. Make a Bee Bath

Use a shallow plate and place it at the ground level where you’ve noticed bee activity. Place a few flat stones in the plate to create landing pads or islands and safe places to crawl out should they fall in. Add fresh water but don’t submerge the stones. Birds and butterflies will use it, too. Replace the water every few days to eliminate mosquito larvae… more here

Make a bee home

Honeybees and bumblebees live in social colonies, but most wild bee species are solitary. About two-thirds of solitary nesting bees use tunnels in the ground to lay their eggs. About one-third use hollowed-out plant stems or tunnels in dead trees or fallen logs… Want to discover the best homemade housing you can make for bees in your backyard? Read more here

4. Plant a Pollinators Garden 

Check out this amazing resource from Bee City Canada on how to create a habitat. and Follow it up with the Planting for Pollinators blog from Kidsgardening.org 


5. Create a Spring Checklist 

With your kids, make a checklist of things that make you think of spring. Go on a hike in the forest, check off all of the things that you see and feel on your list. Try to ensure that the list is multi-sensory, so things like feeling the warmth of the sun and different smells of the seasons are also on the list. Feel free to add to the lists as you are walking and noticing more things.

6. Colours of Spring

Pick up some paint chips from a hardware store. On your outdoor adventure, hand them out to your kids and see if they can find matches to many different colours. They may think it’s impossible, but this gets them to really look at items to find a match. Remember to look up, blues often match the sky!

If paint chips are not available to you, crayons will work too.

7. Meet a Tree in your Neighbourhood

Have your kids pick a tree that you really get to know over time. They can get to know it in so many different ways (draw, take bark rubbings, look with a magnifier, or use a camera). In the spring, they will be looking for the buds starting to explode into leaves. Most people think that buds form in the spring, but with careful observation, you will see that buds are actually on the tree all winter!

8. Disc Golf

Get your family involved in this fun, active, burgeoning sport. Peterborough has three easily accessible, free courses for you to enjoy. The courses are at the north end of the Riverview Park and Zoo, TASS, and Hamilton Park just south of Jackson Park. In outlying areas of Peterborough, there is one at Mount Julian Viamede and Ennismore Waterfront Park. Or, you can make your own course anywhere you would like by simply identifying objects as your targets. All you need is a frisbee, or a disc, and a good arm! www.peterboroughdiscgolf.ca

9. Take a Hike

Home Sweet Home: Build or install a nest box this spring!

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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

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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!

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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.

 

  1. 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.
  2. Each player builds their squirrel nest in a protected place that they can find again.
  3. 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.
  4. Everyone checks the temperature of the water in the pot (or thermos). Write down or remember the starting temperature!
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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?
  8. 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

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Bird of the Month:

Meet the Yellow Warbler!

Yellow WarblerSummer 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

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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.

Bird Game Template

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!