Can you find the bird? activity

 I recently went away for vacation and saw a ton of birds, and there were a few pictures that I got, but the problem was that when I looked at them, it was hard to find the bird I had taken the picture of! I did eventually find them all, and so I turned it into an activity to see who else can find the bird. If you find more birds in the photos that I didn't see please post it in the comments. Here are the pictures with the type of bird and the number of birds you are trying to find beneath the photo:

Type: Spotted Towhee

Number: 1

Type: Black-Capped Chickadee

Number: 1

Type: American Crow

Number: 1

Type: Steller's Jay

Number: 1

-Kate

If You Really Love Nature: Three Fun Activities For Becoming a Better Naturalist

 Bonjour, my fellow nature lovers! Up here in the Rocky Mountains, the trees (and the ground) are covered in about a foot of snow. I guess the clouds floating above the mountains don't care whether it's October or December! This article is mostly pointed at unprofessional naturalists (like me) to help them learn more about nature and becoming better naturalists. What is an "unprofessional naturalist"? An unprofessional naturalist is someone who loves and likes to learn about nature - the age range is 1-1,000 plus years! Anyway.... let's get started!

1. Spend ten minutes a day on Zooniverse. (see Three Fun Activates for Naturalists Both Young and Old in my Be a Naturalist label)

If everyone spent just ten minutes a day on Zooniverse, imagine how much work could get done! What do you learn on Zooniverse? You learn.... observation skills, identification skills, as well as all about the subject you're doing a project on!

2. Do mail-in Junior Ranger booklets.

These are sooo fun! I love doing Junior Ranger booklets, but you can't go everywhere! Here's a link to an article that has a list of all the national and state parks that will mail you your patch and booklet: http://craftknife.blogspot.com/2018/06/heres-every-national-park-junior-ranger.html What will you learn? You will learn.... observation skills, and more, depending on the activities, as well as all about the national/state park you are doing the booklet on.

3. Read your field guide!!!!!!

Seriously people, this is so much over looked. Just read it! What do you learn? You learn..... all about whatever your field guide is about!

Okay everyone, there you are! Have fun! Remember to comment and tell me your favorite activity! 

-Lili

Weekly (that part is a lie) Nature Challenge Fifth Anniversary!!!

Howdy Wilderness lovers! It's mid fall, and most of the birds have finished migrating by now. I have yet to sight some of our winter-only visitors, but I'm sure they'll come along soon. How has your fall been? What was your favorite migration sighting? (Mine was a Loggerhead Shrike.) Post your answers (and questions) in the comments below! Now, onto the Nature Challenge.....

In honor of the anniversary, this challenge is to find, and check up on regularly, a new, nature-related blog. Here are some of my favorites:

Appleton Wildlife Diary

Alex posts quite often, (probably more often than me!) and almost always has a few photos to show us. I love hearing about his day to day adventures with wildlife.

Nature Mentor

This is a really cool blog, and is especially great for unprofessional, wannabe naturalists. (Like me.) I learned a lot from this blog.

Audubon

Okay, so I'm not sure whether this actually counts as a blog, as it's more like a website, but they have really cool informative articles all the time, all about birds.

I hope you found this post useful and informative yourself! Until next time!

-Lili

Weekly Nature Challenge #4..... And Cool Wildlife Sightings!

Happy fall y'all! I hope you are having a great fall so far. I sure am! I mean, all those migrating birds you guys - so many new ones to identify... I thought I might tell about two cool wildlife sightings I saw. (I won't be posting the pics until I my phone gets full though.) Drumroll please..... A fox and a moose - all in the same day!!! Believe it or not, this actually only the second time I've seen one, despite the fact that I live in Colorado. This one was a big male, and we saw him in the neighbor's yard right across the fence. I was really impressed by his size! We see quite a few foxes, although it was still a cool sighting. Wildflowers the deer and her shyer twin, Columbine, who by now has lost her spots and some of her shyness, are doing well. The bold twin, Daisy.... not so much. Unfortunately, she disappeared. Part of being a deer is that their are always lots of predators. At least someone got a good meal.... Anyway, onto the Nature Challenge!

Weekly (kind of..... not really) Nature Challenge #4

Daily Wildlife List!

I tried recording wildlife for a week....oof. Daily works much better, plus, you can skip a day if you want. A young naturalist I know very well (let's call him Vin) keeps a Wildlife Observation Notebook, and he is probably a LOT better at writing in it every day then I am. Here is page out of it: 

Day 27 Sep. 2020

 Nuthatch, chickadee, squirrel. (Sketches of a nuthatch chickadee, and squirrel.) 

Chickadees are often in bird parties. (Note, Vin and I call it a bird party when multiple species of birds stay flock together in the same area for a short to medium amount of time)

Nuthatches often hack away at trees.

Great, right? He is only seven, so I was impressed. Anyway, I hope that inspires you and gives you some ideas, so until next time everyone! Happy wildlife watching!

-Lili

A Government Lab is Killing Cats. Let's SHUT IT DOWN!

I know that this is not really about wild animals, but it's about animals, so I am sharing it. I didn't know that something this horrible could even be happening, and I am glad I found out! I found it on the channel of Kitten Lady, (which, by the way I highly recommend) and I immediately filled in the form! Please, please, please fill in the form. You don't have to donate, but if you can, that would be great. Its shameful that things like that are happening here in the US, and this should be stopped immediately!

Animal lovers, if you care about cats, please act now!

-Lili

Weekly Nature Challenge #3 and Some Photos!

 Hi (again) everyone! Here's the second post. First of all....

Weekly Nature Challenge #3: Daily Pics

For this Weekly Nature Challenge, I want you to try to take a picture of nature every day, whether you keep this up for a week or five years doesn't matter. Neither does it matter what the picture is about, as long as its of nature. From a beautiful sunset, to a a cool bug, to a pretty bird, everything nature is go. Have fun, and be sure to share your favorite pictures with me in the comments!

                                            Prairie Dogs

                                                 Canada Geese

                                                              Aspen Tree

                                       Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel from my wildlife cam

                                                -Lili

Three Fun Activities for Naturalists Both Young and Old

 Hi everyone! As I haven't written in a while, I am going to publish two posts. This one is about three fun activities for naturalists: both young and old, professional and unprofessional. They are all tried and true by me, so I hope you will something to suit you.

Zooniverse

I love, love, love this app! It's free at the App Store, and has something for everyone. Basically, it's a community science base, with tons of projects. My personal favorite are a group of projects titled Snapshot Safari where users are asked to identify images from a ton of different parks and reserves in Africa, in two different workflows. In the first workflow, users are simply asked to say whether or not their are any animals in the image. In the second workflow, users identify the animal/s in the image. After a certain amount of people have identified an animal as the same thing, the image is saved somewhere and the data used for scientific research. Its an awesome app - fun educational, and, plus, it helps science!

Window Wildlife

Pretty simple. I love this activity, because even people living in an apartment with no park near bye can do it. Basically just sit at your window and watch any wildlife you see - from the Mourning Doves on the wires, too the deer in the forest, to the fly buzzing around on you windowsill. Of course, you can always increase your chances of seeing wildlife. A bird seed, suet, or hummingbird feeder hung outside your window can attract lots of birds. A window box with flowers and possibly even some vegetables can attract lots of cool insects, like bees or butterflies. If you have Monarchs, you could even plant some milkweed to help them during their annual migration!

Wildearth

Wildearth is actually kind of like a TV show. Long story short, it's a live safari that streams form seven until ten in the morning every day on Youtube. It usually had about three to five different "guides", all from different parks and reserves in Africa. You get to see a lot of cool animals, and you can even ask questions in the Live Chat Box! I love watching this, although I rarely watch it all three hours long!

Okay everyone, I hope you learned something from that, and have a nice rest of your week! Watch for wildlife!

-Lili