The last couple of days I’ve taken each of my kids to a nearby field which houses the radio towers for a local radio station. I had never actually walked around in there before for various reasons, but it is really a fascinating place! This plot of land is essentially virgin meadow, with conservation land behind it. I think they mow it occasionally (maybe every few years) to keep trees from growing up around the towers, but other than that, it is pretty much untouched. What a great place! My daughter and I found at least 9 different species of grass and innumerable kinds of beetles, and a bunch of wildflowers I had never seen before. My son got to walk about halfway around the area with a little butterfly happily perched on his finger. We also saw a bluebird and a bobolink, both of which are uncommon around here due to loss of habitat.
At any rate, this inspired me to do some searching on the internet, and I came across this great site: http://www.backyardnature.net/
The owner of the site has done a great job of compiling resources for people who want to engage in home nature study. I can see it being a great resource for homeschoolers, as well as adults who want to start a systematic home study.
Great stuff Robin. I enjoy taking a walk in the local park and seeing nature all around - even the search pattern of a blackbird searching for worms is a delight! Nature is right there on our doorsteps (literally, when the ants come swarming).
I think if all kids were exposed to nature in this way, their curiosity would override any fear or disgust, and later on they won’t be afraid of spiders and the like.
For some twenty odd years my mom belong to a network of backyard birders, that would call in their findings on a monthly basis to some government organization. The variety of birds on her list was amazing, always keeping the bird book and her sheet by the kitchen sink window. She also reported what kind of butterflies, toads and frogs that were in her garden. It was a very animal, insect friendly garden much to the chargin of her neighbours but not that wild.
Although we live in the city limits - we have a wooded area backing up to our yard. We are also in between a major city “forest” and a cemetary - so we’re kinda a wildlife waystop.
We have raccoons, possum, squirrels, all sorts of birds, deer, an occasional ground hog, and lots of bunnies visit our yard. The raccoons do get to be a bit much, especially when they destroy the bird feeders trying to get them open. The deer were eating my hostas every year, but so far haven’t done so this year. We had a bunny make her nest right in the middle of our front yard this year.
As for insects - the only thing I really hate are mosquitos (I do NOT need the “Mosquito Magnet” - I am one), and, of course, we had the 17 year cicada’s last year. I’ve been trying to get both bats and purple martins to establish themselves, but haven’t had much luck so far. We have a permanent seep (if you look at the topo maps, I think it’s actually a sink hole) in the woods behind us, so it’s almost impossible to stop the darn mosquitos from being there.
We don’t have frogs, toads, etc - I think too many in our area have their lawns treated (we don’t - we have clover, hense the bunnies).
The basswood trees around my apartment building are blooming right now. Little downhanging yellow-green clusters; lovely scent, deceptively heady. I’ll just stand under 'em and inhale for a bit but I have to mind what the neighbors might be thinking if they notice me loitering about…
We used to keep our backyard in NC as natural as possible (we had a small garden plot, but the rest was just woods…we even left downed trees where they fell, in order to provide habitat). It was just wonderful back there! We had a resident black racer (who kept the copperheads away), and all kinds of birds, tortoises, you name it! The highlight, though, was when a frog laid her eggs in my daughter’s little wading pool. We had such a wonderful summer watching the tadpoles develop and gradually become tiny little frogs hopping off to start their own families!
