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cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets
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| Posted: Feb 16 2005 at 8:08pm | IP Logged
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The discussion of finches and eggs reminded me that we had a wonderful experience this past weekend...
We went to Houston for Tim's Grandma's memorial service and ended up spending a lot of time at her house. Though her house is in the city, there are red tailed hawks building a nest in a tall pine tree in her neighbor's front yard. We got to watch the couple fly around, back and forth, and saw their large nest. The many doves and other birds in the area just had fits every time the hawks came close! The braver birds attacked. We see many hawks where we live, but never this close. It was just wonderful to observe. We watched them for so long that I thought it was a good thing these two were not nesting near our house -- we'd never get anything done! Still...I really do wish they were nesting here. 
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Meredith
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| Posted: Feb 17 2005 at 6:02pm | IP Logged
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Hi Janette, sorry to hear about your husbands mother, peace be with you family at this time.
We live on ten acres in south-central Idaho and have a red-tailed hawks nest just north of our property. We've lived here for a little over 2 years now and have so enjoyed watching the mother and her fledglings devour mice in our field. Talk about nature study in action!
Last fall I took the kids on a field trip to our local vet's office and he gave us quite a tour. In the back where they do surgery they had a red-tailed hawk in a cage they had found on the side of OUR road! It was one of the juvenile hawks with a broken wing. The kids were very interested in this and had quite the discussion with the vet about how it was *our hawk* they found. Very cool! We have some great narrations about that outing for sure.
Looking forward to hearing more about other's nature and science adventures on this awesome new board 
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
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cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets
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| Posted: Feb 18 2005 at 12:48pm | IP Logged
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Meredith,
Thanks for the prayers! It is actually my husband's grandmother that passed away -- cancer in her liver. God was merciful -- she did not suffer long.
The field trip to the vet is a great idea. My boys went a few years ago with a cub scout group, but I missed it. We have several large animal clinics in town, too, that we've never visited. And some sort of wildlife rescue service, I think. These would make great field trips!
Though we don't have hawks nesting, last spring we had a pair of screech owls. They layed an egg in our nest box, but eventually abandoned it. I was worried that it was because we made too much noise in the backyard. (The box is close to the house.) I hope that they come back this year and we can try again to observe them.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Meredith
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| Posted: Feb 18 2005 at 1:44pm | IP Logged
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Oh Janette, that would be so neat! We just finsihed up a big study of owls in January with Owl Moon and rabbit trailed in to mice, etc. Have your boys read the Poppy stories by Avi?? They're fun, a little bit of *colorful* language, but if you do them as RA's you can censor. They are quite enjoyable and have a fair amount of natural science too. My daughter did a nice drawing of a great horned owl and we found a super picture of a screech owl up close in one of our national geographic magazines that she included in her lapbook. My littlest ds calls barn owls *monkey owls*  .
Enjoying these chats and topics.
What is everyone doing pre-spring for nature study and science projects?? We still have snow on the ground and temps in the low single digits during the night. Looking forward to warmer and springier days!
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
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cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets
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| Posted: Feb 18 2005 at 1:56pm | IP Logged
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Meredith,
We studied owls a little over a year ago ("finished" not long before discovering the screech owl), but didn't read the Poppy books. I checked and our library carries them, so we'll add them to our read-aloud list.
After we finish our Lenten study, I want to study amphibians using Salamander Room and some lapbook ideas from Mary Chris.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Karen T
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| Posted: Feb 27 2005 at 10:23am | IP Logged
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Chiming in here on the hawks/owls.
We live in the suburbs but our house backs up to a wooded area that is downhill from our house. Our kitchen and living areas are "upstairs" b/c of the hill (it's a ranch in the front, but the back is 2 story with a walkout basement). B/c of the kitchen being high in the back, and the yard sloping downhill into the woods, we get quite a good view into the woods. There are owls (mostly barred owls) and hawks. Just this past week we finally got a long enough look at "our" hawk (she's been here since we moved in 6 yrs ago)to positively identify her as a red-shouldered hawk, rather than a red-tail. We've seen her nest in years past, but never saw babies. This time her nest is closer and we could see her working on it. Then we saw a smaller hawk which is also a red-shouldered, but must be a juvenile. She attacked it and drove it farther off from us. It seems too early in the year to have fledged juveniles. I don't know how long it takes them to be full-grown. Could this be one of last year's nestlings? He/she is about 1/2 the size of the adult. We abandoned math the other day and spent about an hour watching them.
Karen T
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Red tailed hawks
