Hello one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Grab your binoculars, your favorite bird guide and your quietest shoes to join us for a day in the life of your Knee High Naturalists.
Though chilly weather greeted us this morning, Spring is in the air! We are taking advantage of our snow paint while there’s still snow on the ground, painting snow on trees, making marvelous, ephemeral works of art as the temperatures begin to warm. We have fun digging, shoveling and catching up after a long week apart. We welcomed a new friend this morning and taught them how to sing our favorite Good Morning song before getting started with our day. As we walked to the pavilion, we used our best listening ears to see if we could hear any birds nearby, getting ready to find some breakfast.
As we ate, we talked about the weather for today and learned about migration, when animals move from one area to another as the seasons change to find food and habitat. We learned that lots of animals like birds and butterflies migrate, but big critters like caribous, whales and salmon migrate, too! As soon as we were done eating, we made quick work of decorating our tiny binies (tiny binoculars) to prepare for our birding hike. We used all sorts of stickers and markers to make them ours before we hit the trail. As we waited for everyone else to finish, we investigated a Canadian Snow goose and a Mallard duck—two migrating birds that can be found in Michigan. They were so soft, we could even see their little down feathers that are used to make our jackets so warm! We noticed that they have webbed feet to help them swim as they spend their time in the water.
Soon, we were all ready to rock and roll so we hit the trail and were in search of birds who could be camouflaging in the snow! We carefully made our way down the big hill, spotting ducks in the water as we got down to the river. We put up our binoculars and used them to see the ducks better, they were dark and had white on them! As we made our way down the trail, we looked for tracks and took breaks to draw in the snow. We heard a few birds and saw sea gulls flying high above us! We used a little sound machine to play duck and goose sounds, hoping the ducks in the water would hear them and quack back. Unfortunately, they didn’t feel like talking, but we had fun playing bird sounds and guessing who made them!
We found galls, little balls growing on the stems of plants around us. We learned that these are caused by insects who lay their eggs in the steam, the ball forms around them and provides a home and food until these critters are ready to hatch in the Spring. We opened one up, but didn’t find much, we think a bird may have already eaten the insect! We found more that had big holes in them, some of our friends guessed they were made by birds like wood peckers. Most of us gathered our own galls to take home and dissect with our family, we’re excited to teach them what we learned! We continued down the trail until we found a big bird nest made of leaves and a little one made of twigs—they were so cool! We finally turned around and made our way back, tired after such a big hike. We took a break at the top of the first hill and sledded like penguins down it, laughing as we zipped through the snow! When we finally made it back to the pavilion, we were a little late, a little sweaty and very tired!
Thank you all for another incredible day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists! We can’t wait to see you next week when we learn about who lives in a tree, use the sun for fun projects and more!
