This month's theme for the Canadian Homeschool Blogging Team is to write five posts about something Canadian!
I am choosing to focus on Canadian Nature Study. My family and I loved observing nature, whether it is in our own backyard or when we visit a park or nature trail.
Over the years I have written many blog posts about nature study and at times it has been part of our homeschool routine. Nature has been part of our lives and has brought a lot of wonder and enjoyment to us.
Over the course of the five posts, I will be sharing with you some of my favourites from my blog archives, with a focus for each post on a particular field of nature study.
Part One of this series was about wildflowers: Canadian Nature: Wildflowers.
Part two of the Canadian Nature series is all about birds!
We have enjoyed watching birds wherever we have lived or visited in Canada.
Here are some of my favourite bird sightings from Prince Edward Island and Ontario. In addition to the links that will bring you to my past bird posts, I have included links to Cornell Lab of Ornithology for each bird. Their website All About Birds is a wonderful resource to learn more about birds, listen to them, see videos and photos. We have used it often for our own nature studies.
The Great Blue Heron is a migratory bird and visits the island from April to October. PEI has the largest nesting colonies of these birds in North America. Great Blue Herons are so majestic looking. They move slowly in the water. Their wing span in flight is big and they seem to be barely moving in flight, they only take deep wing beats.
I often see them by the water's edge when driving by certain spots near where we live. I've also noticed them by the small river on the nature trail near our home. They are often in groups of two or three.
I have two blog posts about the Great Blue Heron in my archives:
~ Great Blue Heron along Wrights Creek Nature Trail
~ Summer Nature Study at the Pond (bottom of post)
Visit All About Birds Great Blue Heron for more info. I especially like the video of the heron fishing.The American Goldfinch is a really adorable small bird with mostly yellow feathers. They often visit bird feeders in pairs or small groups. They have a beautiful song.
You can read a little more and see a pair of these beautiful birds at American Goldfinch in our Garden.
All About Birds American Goldfinch has several videos, check out the one with the male singing!
The Blue Jay is Prince Edward Island's official provincial bird. When we lived in Ontario, Blue Jays were a bit more rare to see, but here on the island these beautiful blue birds are a common sight. They can get noisy too, and they can imitate songs of other birds! Both male and female look the same.
See Blue Jays in our Backyard for more photos and also in part of this post: American Robin & Blue Jays ~ Backyard Birds.
Read more about this songbird at All About Birds Blue Jay.
Finally, I love watching Black-Capped Chickadees! These cute little birds are pretty amazing to watch and stay here all winter, looking for food by picking at tree trunks for insect eggs.
I had shared more information about the Black-Capped Chickadee at this post: Black-Capped Chickadee ~ In Our Backyard.
Read and listen to the Black-Capped Chickadee at the Cornell Lab.
I will be writing three more posts focusing on Canadian Nature during this month of July, as part of the monthly posts for the Canadian Homeschool Blogging Team.
I am choosing to focus on Canadian Nature Study. My family and I loved observing nature, whether it is in our own backyard or when we visit a park or nature trail.
Over the years I have written many blog posts about nature study and at times it has been part of our homeschool routine. Nature has been part of our lives and has brought a lot of wonder and enjoyment to us.
Over the course of the five posts, I will be sharing with you some of my favourites from my blog archives, with a focus for each post on a particular field of nature study.
Part One of this series was about wildflowers: Canadian Nature: Wildflowers.
We have enjoyed watching birds wherever we have lived or visited in Canada.
Here are some of my favourite bird sightings from Prince Edward Island and Ontario. In addition to the links that will bring you to my past bird posts, I have included links to Cornell Lab of Ornithology for each bird. Their website All About Birds is a wonderful resource to learn more about birds, listen to them, see videos and photos. We have used it often for our own nature studies.
The Great Blue Heron is a migratory bird and visits the island from April to October. PEI has the largest nesting colonies of these birds in North America. Great Blue Herons are so majestic looking. They move slowly in the water. Their wing span in flight is big and they seem to be barely moving in flight, they only take deep wing beats.
I often see them by the water's edge when driving by certain spots near where we live. I've also noticed them by the small river on the nature trail near our home. They are often in groups of two or three.
 |
| Great Blue Heron |
I have two blog posts about the Great Blue Heron in my archives:
~ Great Blue Heron along Wrights Creek Nature Trail
~ Summer Nature Study at the Pond (bottom of post)
Visit All About Birds Great Blue Heron for more info. I especially like the video of the heron fishing.The American Goldfinch is a really adorable small bird with mostly yellow feathers. They often visit bird feeders in pairs or small groups. They have a beautiful song.
 |
| Goldfinch |
You can read a little more and see a pair of these beautiful birds at American Goldfinch in our Garden.
All About Birds American Goldfinch has several videos, check out the one with the male singing!
The Blue Jay is Prince Edward Island's official provincial bird. When we lived in Ontario, Blue Jays were a bit more rare to see, but here on the island these beautiful blue birds are a common sight. They can get noisy too, and they can imitate songs of other birds! Both male and female look the same.
 |
| Two Blue Jays |
See Blue Jays in our Backyard for more photos and also in part of this post: American Robin & Blue Jays ~ Backyard Birds.
Read more about this songbird at All About Birds Blue Jay.
Finally, I love watching Black-Capped Chickadees! These cute little birds are pretty amazing to watch and stay here all winter, looking for food by picking at tree trunks for insect eggs.
 |
| Black-Capped Chickadee |
I had shared more information about the Black-Capped Chickadee at this post: Black-Capped Chickadee ~ In Our Backyard.
Read and listen to the Black-Capped Chickadee at the Cornell Lab.
I will be writing three more posts focusing on Canadian Nature during this month of July, as part of the monthly posts for the Canadian Homeschool Blogging Team.
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