Treasures from the Oregon Coast

Memories ... 

our trip to the west coast of the United States

was packed with sweet memories

I have been making a photo book 

in hopes of capturing some of the beautiful times

we shared together.

One of our favourite places was Indian Beach, in Ecola State Park.

The beach was stunning and picturesque, 

and the shifting tide allowed us to spend hours

getting lost exploring tide pools.

Being a homeschool mom, 

I couldn't help but prepare for this much anticipated event,

and I found some tide pool I.D. charts online

{you can see them pinned them here}

I laminated them {to waterproof}

and handed them out before we left home.

The charts came with us to the tides pools,

and were so helpful in identifying the treasures we saw.

From sea stars and anemone to chitons and barnacles,

here are some of our

tide pool treasures...

Here they go, with their tide pool ID sheets, ready to explore! 

Thank you Indian Beach!

Silvia

a trip to Narnia

Like most of you, my life is super busy. 

It feels crazy sometimes, 

trying to fit so many things in each week,

while longing for a slower pace.

But there are a few things that I wouldn't trade in

our morning times with God

sweet moments of connection with family

time for art and creativity

time spent in nature.

I try to carve out time for this regularly,

when life is calling me to

do more

I know heaven is calling me to 

be more.

I haven't blogged much

{I didn't blog all of May}

I have made time lately

for some of the things I love

{we need to make time for the things we love}

I'll try to show them here in the next few posts.

Recently I spent a few hours with youngest two kids

{while my older two were away for the day}

at one of our favourite, magical spots.

{a friend called it Narnia}

So they did their math, and read their chapters books

{they both happen to be reading the Chronicles of Narnia}

while in Narnia

Inevitably when we are out,

we start collecting.  

{Rocks, sticks, dandelions, anything goes}

There is something wonderful about collecting treasures from natures.

We took most of our treasures home 

and we are in the midst of using them in some fun and useful projects.  

{I'll post more about that another day.}

Lastly, here is a little beauty that stopped long enough for me to snap a few pictures of it:

It was a wonderfully peaceful, happy time,

like water to a thirsty soul.

In our little bit of Narnia.

Silvia

Banded Babies

I am always looking for unique opportunities for my family to interact with nature. Several years ago I discovered the world of bird banding and (because of our love of birds around here) ever since we then we have been hooked. Bird banding is described as “The practice of catching birds, marking them with an identifying band around the leg, and then releasing them.”  Scientists rely on banding to learn about bird behavior, migration patterns, etc.

Twice in July (in Ottawa) the public is welcome to be a part of banding Purple Martins, Canada's largest swallow. Purple Martins are community birds and there are two very large Martin bird houses by the Ottawa River that were built by a man named Peter who cares for the birds and bands them with the Innis Point Bird Observatory (see their facebook page here). This morning two of my kids & I ventured out to be a part of the action and we were delighted to see, hold and feed some new born baby Purple Martins.  Here is our story in pictures, and a few words...

We arrived and watched the parents go to and fro from their nests which are located in these homes (the male is the darker bird):

Peter lowered the first house down to have access to the baby birds:

As he opened each door, we were able to see the amazing treasures that were hidden inside:

We saw babies at all stages of development.  These little guys were only two days old!

They were so tiny and could not even yet see, but if you look closely you can see their feathers beginning (look at the head and the "wing")...

These were a few days older, still bunched up in their nests:

This one was almost ready to leave the nest:

It was amazing to watch as Peter fed the tiny birds ... he gave the one below a dragonfly that was nearly half its size & it had no trouble eating it!

And a little bit of water to wash down their meal:

 We were able to hold and handle the babies.  Here my son is trying to feed one of them:

We watched as he carefully banded the older babies:

Here Peter was checking its size to correctly assess the age:

We learned about some of their challenges ... blowflies lay their eggs in the nests and the larvae suck the baby birds' blood for food.  Peter checks each nest several times a week and cleans out all the larvae.

 Once the whole house was cleaned and the babies were cared for and banded, Peter raised it back up to its full height and the parents happily returned home:

Thanks so much to the IPBO for a great experience this morning! If this interests you, there is likely a bird observatory near you that you could get involved with.

Silvia
follow me on instagram at silviaklassen 

Because I love birds...

I just had to put up one more post about the many gorgeous birds we saw while in Florida. It was so much fun to watch my family get excited when we spotted a new bird.  I think they have caught my bird-fever!

If you are a bird-lover, you will enjoy this one!!

We saw a number of different herons either right at the mainland dock that we used or on the beach.

Black-crowned Night Heron - they normally stand hunched, but extend their neck like this one when hunting.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron - apparently these may wander into the lower Great Lakes or Ontario after breeding season!

Snowy Egret - we often saw one or two of these on the beach.  I love the yellow feet!

On the right is a Great Egret shown pictured here with a Snowy.  The Great Egret is larger than the Snowy and it has a yellow beak and black feet which is reversed in the Snowy Egret.  They are both so elegant in flight and while standing!

This is a Little Blue Heron. It is not actually little, but a bit smaller than the Great Blue Heron which is pictured next.

Great Blue Heron 

Green Heron - one of the smallest in the heron family.  It let us get very close before it jumped over to the other rope.

This is a Reddish Egret. (Actually, they are more brownish & greyish!)  This was a treat to see as there are only about 2000 pairs of them in the United States and most are in Texas.

These are Willets and we saw them feeding daily on the beach at Little Gasparilla Island.

The Double-Breasted Cormorant was a common sight on the bay side of the island.

The Osprey are nesting and this one was not too happy about how close our boat was to the pole it had made its nest on (neither was I - but that is another story).  

The next picture shows two Osprey parents in their large nest.  We saw several of these on the Island, and many in Florida in general.  At times we would see the Osprey circling about us with a large fish in its mouth - it appeared to be "showing off" its catch before it took it back to the nest.

Osprey in their nest.

Laughing Gull - they really do sound like they are laughing!

The beautiful White Ibis - there was a large group of these around a small pond on the Island.

This is a juvenile White Ibis - it still has its more camouflage colours.

The Least Tern - Florida's smallest tern.  It was difficult to get a photo of them as they are skittish. But I was able to photo one of their nests well:

Amazingly, the Least Tern just lays its egg on some shells on the beach. We took our boat over to the Island beside ours, and there we met a man who was looking for their nests in order to rope them off to protect the eggs.  We likely would not have noticed the camouflaged eggs if he hadn't first pointed them out to us.

Common Moorhen - these birds were in the same pond that the White Ibis were gathered around.

This is a Red-bellied Woodpecker. Its belly is only a little bit red, but apparently the name "Red-headed woodpecker" was already taken.  :)

Roseate Spoonbill - this was perhaps my most exciting spotting.  We had hoped to see them while in Florida and only saw them on our way out, at a stop at Myakka River State Park.  Here is another picture of this unique pink bird:

 A Roseate Spoonbill feeding - they swish their heads back and forth with their spoon-shaped beaks open, searching for food.

This is a Limpkin - in North America they are only found in Florida.  

A Wood Stork - another Myakka treat (aside from the alligators that we also saw):

I know - it's not a bird, but I thought I'd throw it in anyhow.  This one really kept his eye on us, and we returned the favour!

And lastly:

We saw these Black Skimmers (a family, I think) in South Carolina on a little drive to the Atlantic.  It was an unexpected treat as I had been thinking the day before that I wished I had seen them!

Silvia