The Mourning of the Dove

In addition to all the other birds in our back yard, we have had a pair of doves. One day, my girls were upset telling me that a hawk was eating a dove. They want to shoot that hawk and I would like to help them. You might too after you read this. 

A couple days later I was watching our bird feeder and sitting in the same feeder dish was a male quail and a dove. That was strange because usually, the male quail will make all the other birds get out of the dish so he can eat. But this was not the case. The dove was just sitting there and it looked like they were really having a conversation. To my surprise I saw the quail pick up some scraps of bread that my daughter had put in there earlier that morning and toss it toward the dove. It kept doing this several times but the dove wasn't interested in the food. I realized then that that dove was really mourning the loss of its mate. I wanted to cry. I did cry. It was the saddest sight and reminded me of this 18th century Old English Ballad, Fare Thee Well (also used in the movie, "Fly Away Home".)

Fare thee well my own true love

And farewell for a while.

I’m going away, but I’ll be back

If I go ten thousand miles.

Ten thousand miles, my own true love,

Ten thousand miles or more,

And the rocks may melt and the seas may burn,

If I should not return.

Oh don’t you see that lonesome dove,

Sitting on an ivy tree,

She’s weeping for her own true love

Just as I shall weep for mine.

Oh come back my own true love

And stay a while with me

For if I had a friend all on this earth,

You’ve been a friend to me.

 Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Our Own Backyard Birds

With Spring having sprung here, the birds are just bursting with new songs of joy! My daughters and I are really enjoying them, too. I thought I would share some of the pictures of our birds that we've taken.

Spotted Towee (Pipilo maculatus)

White-crowned Sparrow - (Zonotrichia leucophrys)

Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Curve-billed Thrasher, (Toxostoma curvirostre)

Great-tailed Grackle or Mexican Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 

Gambel's Quail, (Callipepla gambelii)

It's so amazing to watch the birds and see how they interact with each other. Most of the birds come early in the morning and again in the early evening. There is always a quail posted up on duty - the watchman in the tower - like this last picture above. Usually a male, alerts everyone when it is safe to come out and when it's time to go back to the bushes.

One time, I was watching all the birds happily eating and flitting about - one bossing another letting the other know that piece of bread or seed belonged to him. All of a sudden every bird, whether quail, jay or otherwise disappeared. As I continued to watch, I saw a great big hawk circling the area. After a while, it circled away to hunt somewhere else and then the quail at its post of duty once again let everyone know it was safe.

Interestingly, we have one more critter very much in tune with the birds...

Our one rabbit comes with the birds every morning and every evening fertilizing our lawn for us.

Gambel's Quail

I just love birds! Here are some pictures of our quail that come and eat and drink from the little pools of water that our sprinkler left after it stopped. 

First, this one above is seen first, spying out the area to make sure it's safe. Then, suddenly the ground comes alive with lots of family members making their way out of the bushes slowly waddling along.

The little babies come running gracefully right along with their elders trying to keep up. These pictured are the babies that have grown. My! They sure grow fast!

I'm still getting used to my camera and I've zoomed in pretty far. Eventually, when the weather gets a little warmer, I want to try to get closer. I took these from inside the house.

Once the quail have had their fill, they slowly make their way back to the bushes.

One day, as I was watching all the birds, I noticed a hawk flying over head. It was amazing to see all the birds; quail, jaybirds, and all of them suddenly disappear into the bushes! I watched as the hawk circled around and around close to the tops of the bushes and then finally I could see it fly off in the distance. Then, one bird sounded the "ok" and most of the birds came back, except the quail. I guess they figured they had had enough food for the day.

As I watch these beautiful creatures, I thought about the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness for forty years and how God gave them quail to eat. I can't help but hope they weren't as beautiful as these.

For the Birds

Do you have one of those field guides by Roger Tory Peterson? The one to help identify birds?

 Have you ever wondered about who Mr. Peterson was? How he came to be the author of such a book? I never even thought about it until the other day when Lydia brought home a book from the library particularly for Grace, our bird lover. It was such a cold windy day and I wasn’t feeling very well. My husband sat on the couch with me and some of our children nestled around us as he read to us, “For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson” written by Peggy Thomas and illustrated by Laura Jacques. I love big colorful pictures and the illustrations in this book are amazing! And I love it when my husband reads to us!

The book is about “Professor Nuts Peterson” as some of the kids at his school called him. The story starts out when he was a young boy with very few friends preferring the more friendly creatures from nature. As Roger grows, so does his love for birds and art. When he was older, he was drafted in the army and continued his art even then… in the bathroom!

There is a wealth of information in this book. It left me a host of key words to further our studies:

*  Bird-Lore magazine, a Junior Audubon leaflet

*  “Two Little Savages” by Ernest Thompson Seton

*  Louis Agassiz Fuertes, another famous bird artist

*  DDT a pesticide banned in 1972

*  It also makes me want to go and visit the American Museum of Natural History   

    in New York

*  The book uses lots of metaphors throughout that are easily understood by
    young audiences.

*  And especially, it makes me want to study the birds even closer!

It sure inspired us to get out our own copy out of Peterson's "A Field Guide to Western Birds" copyrighted in 1961 (orig 1941). I have illustrated my own dust cover for our book.

For my birthday, my husband bought me a nice camera and I hope to make great use of it zooming in closer at the birds who come to eat from our feeder.

Astronomy Treats

I don't like to use the word "bribe" but sometimes giving my children an incentive really makes a difference.  In science, I use Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy, by Jeanie Fulbright along with the Notebooking Journal (an AWESOME invention). When filling in the answers to the "What Do You Remember" questions for each chapter, I have some expectations.  Being very partial to the Charlotte Mason method, I do not want slip shod work turned in.  I expect each of my children to answer the questions to the very BEST of their ability (which, since we review the chapters quite often AND I allow them to find the answers in the book if they don't remember, I expect them to get the answers right.)  Their work must have neat handwriting, and written in complete sentences. Unfortunately, not all my "students" were doing their best.  So, I came up with a plan that has really helped.  Now, instead of dreading those questions, they can't WAIT to do them.

We go over the answers together and then..... it's treat time! I will only give them treats IF they do their best.  Needless to say, I haven't had to deny anyone of their much earned reward.  I thought I'd share a list of the treats that I came up with.  They are all very sweet treats - something I don't always do, but I guess since it's only every other week, I allow it. I wish I had come up with it BEFORE we got started as we haven't used all of my brilliant ideas.  Do you use incentives for your children?

Lesson 1         What is Astronomy?      

Make a universe cake! w/ chocolate icing background, make planets using colored icing, sprinkle star-shaped sprinkles, colored balls for moons

Lesson 2        The Sun        

**Melt Hershey bar as indicated in the lesson using magnifying glass over graham cracker

Lesson 3          Mercury                      

**Edible Marine 10 (sugar wafers, grahams, pretzels,

Lesson 4          Venus                          

Red Hots

Lesson 5          Earth                           

Crush Oreo cookies into some chocolate pudding, mix, put more on top and add gummy worms (earth worms)

Lesson 6          Moon                          

Moon pies

Lesson 7          Mars                           

Mars Bars

Lesson 8          Space Rocks               

Pop Rocks

Lesson 9          Jupiter                         

Jaw Breaker

Lesson 10        Saturn                         

candy necklaces or gummy peach rings

Lesson 11        Uranus & Neptune      

Green & Blue Cotton Candy

Lesson 12        Pluto & Kuiper Belt     

**Homemade Ice Cream from lesson

Lesson 13        Stars & Galaxies          

Starburst candy

Lesson 14        Space Travel               

Astronaut Food Packs

** Indicates that this treat is already a part of the lesson mentioned either in the book or the notebook Journal