Birding

Late winter and early spring are great times for birding. No scrubby underbrush, no leafy tree cover, no mosquitos.....

Ways for families to add birding to their nature study

• Supply food and water for birds outside your home
• Spend time watching birds (at home or maybe behind a bird blind like the one at Jester Park), potentially with the following options:
• sketching birds
• photographing birds
• observing with binoculars
• using a field guide or recordings

• Talk with an experienced birder (search for educational programs such as the one next week in Des Moines)
• Start a life list
• Read picture books about birds. Park packs are free and have great choices for titles.

The Iowa Ornithologists Union has a website where people give reviews of Iowa birding sites. I found a review for Raccoon River Park. The park was divided into habitats and the reviewer listed birds seen, and the potential for ones he did not see. You can double-check with the geocaching.com search box to find birding areas that are also geocaching sites -- it could be a two-for-one outing!

Brown Creeper Sighting

I have been preparing for a Celebrate Urban Birds weekend, at the suggestion of a fellow home school mom. Our kit just arrived today, and it reminded me that we saw a brown creeper yesterday.

I watched it creep up and around our ash tree, thinking, "What kind of nuthatch is that?" Then it dawned on me that it was not a nuthatch. I tried to point the bird out to my daughters for what seemed like forever before they saw it on our ash tree. The feathers make a perfect camouflage.

We feel quite special after reading that brown creepers are rarely seen. Rather, they are heard, like many birds. I am not sure if the creeper was interested in our suet. I read that they are mostly insectivorous, and "A" and I noted that it was pecking as it crept up the tree trunk. The bird eventually left for the evergreen coverage of either our back tree or the neighbor's hedge. They blend in together and share space along the fence.

Celebrate Urban Birds looks interesting. You are asked to ID only 15 different kinds of birds, and there is a survey form to fill in. Much easier than when we participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count a few years ago. That covered every kind of the bird you saw, and data was entered online. Paper is quite convenient -- when I see the paper sitting out, I remember to look for birds.

We've seen northern flickers at the base of our trees and on the ground, and our usual family of cardinals at our feeder and in our trees. We know it is the same family because one of the three is whitish. It looks chalky with a red bill. We've seen it since we moved here.

Happy birding, everyone!