Thursday, April 26, 2012

Spring Nature Table: Birds, Eggs, Nests part 3


It is hard to believe we are close to the end of April.  Spring is blooming around here and I've been meaning to post about our spring nature table. No surprise, my kids have really enjoyed our bird watching so after Lent I decided to take down the crosses and decorate our board with a beautiful set of California bird eggs & a few nests.


A few months back I found an Etsy shop (oneeyedog) that had ornamental bird eggs.  I contacted the owner and asked if she could send me the eggs with the corresponding bird names.  She was kind enough to suggest creating a set of popular California bird eggs just for us.  They turned out just wonderful, thanks Scarlett:


Our table also has a few wood pieces for my little ones.  I ordered from another neat Etsy shop filled with the creation of a homeschooling family, The Fig and Thimble, a life cycle cube and a set of bird/nest matching game (the squares come in an adorable recycled fabric pouch; you can see it hanging under our board).  Their art work is just beautiful and if you want to know more about them visit Kimberlee's blog Pondered in My Heart.  They're amazing and wonderful:


And as you know, the table couldn't be complete without our book basket filled with some great titles:


And our field guides:
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post: the kids have been enjoying watching the birds in our backyard and are starting to branch out into learning about their eggs and even becoming fascinated with their nests.  Here are some gorgeous birds we've been able to catch in our backyard with our camera this spring:




We've also been paying close attention to all those White Crowned Sparrows that enjoyed our homemade bird feeders.  My eight year old observed lots of activity near one of our bushes and decided to quietly get closer to the scene.  She discovered a nest within the bush and was just thrilled.  We either couldn't see from our angle or were too late to capture any eggs in it:


Mind you, my spring nature table book list doesn't include our selection of John James Audubon; which we focused on last spring.  This study included a bird watching field trip with a naturalist and a trip to the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology Museum.  This was really a great place to visit; we might have to go again.  I've been working on this post all week and when I read Dawn's birthday wish to Mr. Audubon this morning;  I knew in his honor I just had to post today!  Check out some of her suggested titles and links about Mr. Audubon .

8 comments:

Dawn said...

This is a lovely post, Jenny! Thank you so much for calling my attention to it, and for the kind link. :)

Blessings,
~ Dawn

Jenny said...

Sweet of you Dawn, I'm glad you could visit : D

Collette said...

I just when you post about your nature table - you do such a lovely job putting all of your themes together! Those eggs on your board are fantastic...and I love the matching game. Going to go check out the etsy shops next. Thank you so much for sharing these things - you are inspiring me to make a little table for my children, too!! :)
Have a lovely Thursday!
♥Collette

Collette said...

Oh my, the Fig & Thimble is awesome! Thanks for that link!!

The Academy of the Good Shepherd said...

I always enjoy hearing what you have to say here, and at 4real! I would like to pass the "Versatile Blogger Award" on to you if I may! The details are here, at my blog -
http://www.academyofthegoodshepherd.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-first-blogger-award.html

Blessings!
Becky

Bobby Jo said...

Thanks for the booklist!
Bobby Jo

Kelly said...

Hi again, Jenny! Wow, I LOVE your nature table! One of my goals over the summer is to work on ramping up our nature studies. I bet this would really go a long way to help. How frequently do you change out your table? Thanks for sharing that!

Jenny said...

Hi Kelly, I'm so glad you found this useful. I just starting doing this and so far I'm changing the table each season. So every few months; we pick a topic they seem to be naturally interested in. Then I try to set it up with what we have and add through out the season any new discoveries.