Early Morning Birding With Friends

 Bird watching is one of our favorite things to do during the cooler winter months here in Florida

.  Although our main intention is always to watch the birds, study their habits, discover new and never-seen species...  we always come home with more than what we intended. We find surprising colonies of certain types, like on a trail we visited at Wekiva Springs State Park not too long ago.  We saw many varieties of woodpeckers, and a disheveled Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that was number 178 in my Life List! 

Today at a trail near Lake Jesup, we recorded eighteen species, nothing unusual.  Emily and I met our friends for an early morning hike.  We had a great time even checking out all the interesting tracks left behind in the mud - raccoon, some large bird tracks, deer, and maybe even a bear... although I think that one belonged to a big dog.  On our way out we heard the distinctive growl of a gator only a few feet away from our trail.  We didn't linger...   I learned this morning that Lake Jesup has a history of being the place where nuisance gators get dumped from all over the state.  No wonder there were warning signs about gators and snakes by the trailhead. 

Birding - a science field trip and a nice way to start the day and spend time with friends!

UF Law & Florida Natural History Museum

Last weekend, we took a trip up to Gainesville and visited the Florida natural History Museum at the University of Florida.  They had several interesting exhibits there, but what we really liked the most was the butterfly garden and immense collection of butterflies from around the world.

Not only was the size and diversity of the butterflies in the garden impressive, but so were all the beautiful plants.  This could also be called an enclosed botanical garden...  

We all enjoyed this part of the museum very much.

Another reason for the trip was Michael's interest in UF Law.  He went to an orientation type lecture, got to speak with current students and admissions advisors, and got a tour of the campus.

**Fall 2017 update - Michael was admitted to UF Law with a FULL SCHOLARHIP -- Way to go, Michael!!!

One of the many cases on display, beautiful!

Science Project - Birds!

Emily has been recording her bird sightings in the backyard in her journal this summer, building a nice collection of drawings and observations, and having lots of fun with it. 

This week, we installed our new bird feeders, and we've all been enjoying watching the birds which congregate around it, especially early in the morning and late in the evening. 

Our science curriculum for 2014-2015 will be Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.  So, out bird studies will extend through next year.
 
Living in Florida makes this project especially fun, as we have so many species to study year round.  Nevertheless,   I signed up for the Cornell University Birdfeeder Project starting this Fall.  We are also recording our logs on ebird, their amazing website where thousands of people from around the world contribute their sightings. 

Cornell has a number of projects and resources on their website:

All About Birds is an online guide to birds and bird watching. It provides information about birding basics, live video feed from bird cams, informational videos, and more.

• Check out these amazing animated maps, created with eBird data.
• The Homeschooler’s Guide to Project FeederWatch is a free eight-page teaching resource that contains ideas for families participating in Project FeederWatch. 
• BirdSleuth: Science Investigator’s Kit for Homeschoolers is a ready-to-go kit of resources and student activities designed to foster scientific and creative thinking. 

There are also three free modules to download for teaching the scientific method and graphing data called Investigating Evidence.

For field trips this year, I have planned several outings to county parks, and one longer trip to the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge  on Sanibel Island.  We are blessed to live very close to one of the county's best bird habitats - Edward Medard Park.  There are birding groups organized each Fall which I hope to join with to learn more about bird watching, etc.

Learning About Bees & Honey

The big excitement at our home the last few days has been our honey harvest of this weekend.  We got our first beehives back in April and had been anticipating the day we would get to taste their honey.  This weekend was it. 


We had friends over and made a fieldtrip out of it, and we are taking a  break from our regular science curriculum to work on a bee unit.

I found a complete, free honeybee lapbook at Homeschool Share. 

We watched Moody's City of Bees video and read library books about bees.

I had fun drawing on the board while explaining the parts of the bee and the shapes of the cells in the honey comb.  The girls used my board sketches to draw copy their own pictures for bee cover pages for their lapbooks.

We also watched this nice video about queen bees.


Follow the link to read more about our honey harvest.

These are the books and video we used for our bee study.



Now you can go visit the Homeschool Chick's Hip Homeschool Hop and see what other homeschoolers are doing this week.

Field Trip to Cayo Costa

I thought I'd share some of the pictures from our trip to Cayo Costa, and it has been hard to pick just a few.  We had a really good time!  The weather was perfect, the beach was beautiful, the trails were interesting and beautifully kept.

 We had the beach to ourselves most of the time.  There are miles of beaches there, and because the island is only accessible by boat, there aren't many people there.

 The kids swam from morning till evening....

There were dozens of different types of birds around us all the time.

We enjoyed taking hikes on the trails, discovering new native plants, and even a pioneer cemetery...

Pioneer Cemetery

 There were no letterboxes in Cayo Costa, so we planted one near the cemetery.  Letterboxing is one of our favorite things to do together.  We've discovered many interesting places in our letterboxing expeditions.  Letterboxers like to lead you to beautiful, out-of-the-way sites that are not well advertised, and Cayo Costa fits that description well.


Michael's first catch

 The beach was teeming with fish...  We saw large schools of them jumping out of the water.  We caught enough to make a meal out of them.

Cabbage Palm (Sabal palmetto)- Florida native, source of edible swamp cabbage

See our cabin in the background?

 I took this picture when we were about to leave.  We had a hammock on the porch and a few chairs, plus towels hanging on the line which provided shade in the afternoon.  The cabins are rustic, with three bunk beds and a picnic table inside.  There is no electricity or running water in the cabins; however, there are bathrooms and showers available there.

Osprey - sea hawk or fish eagle

  Did I mention the bird population?  We watched as the ospreys, pelicans, and seagulls fished their meals out of the water.

Scrub Morning Glory Bonamia grandiflora

Native wildflowers decorated the landscape.  These morning glories were scattered everywhere.  They are an endangered species.  It was good to see how the rangers have been taking care of this island and its native plants and animals.  Maybe this is what the entire state of Florida was like just 100 years ago. 



wild coffee (Psychotria nervosa)

There were numerous cacti and sea grapes with their edible fruits along the trails. We also found several wild coffee bushes, like this one, loaded with berries.

One of the things Cayo Costa  is known for is the abundance of shells along its beaches, and it didn't disappoint.  The girls came home with a big bag to add to their collection.  They also found many sea urchin shells, which they will be writing about in their nature journals this week.

We never caught sight of Ol' Henry, but that's not a bad thing.  We've already made reservations to go back  next year!

Here are my top ten favorite things about Cayo Costa:

1. It is remote - This means less crowds, noise, pollution, and more wildlife

2. The wildlife - It was like being on a safari...

3. The combination of beach and hiking trails - It gave us two very different things to do

4. It is a state park - there is always a park ranger on call

5. It was close to home - Only a three hour drive

6. It was inexpensive - Even though we had to pay the ferry which added to the cost...

7. The cabins - I don't really like tent, trailer, or RV camping.  RV camping generally means generator noise, plus it usually brings crowds

8. Privacy - The cabins had lots of space between them.

9. Great fishing

10. Nice beach - clear water, lots of shells, calm waters...

I'm linking with Hip Homeschool Hop, and Top Ten Tuesday today.

Museum Day - Ybor City

All together at the Old Ybor City bakery, now Ybor City Historical Museum

Last Saturday, we took advantage of the Smithsonian Magazine's Free Museum Day to visit Ybor City's Historical Museum.  It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon, learning about local history - a good fieldtrip opportunity.

In honor of the many immigrants that came to Ybor in the 19th century

Thousands relocated to Ybor with the promise of labor and affordable housing.  They worked in the cigar factories, the booming local industry in those days.

Reflections

Michael and Michelle patiently waited as I took some shots of this Seminole Indian, or so they thought...

The old bakery's oven

The museum was housed in the old Ybor bakery, which burned down in 1833.  All that was left standing was the outer bricks on the building and the oven.


Cigar workers

The 'lectore'

Cigar worker's house

The park ranger gave us a tour of one of the old houses where the tobacco workers lived and gave us some interesting facts about why they came to Ybor City. The cigar factory owners offered inexpensive house loans at zero interest to be paid in eight years. 

Kitchen

Courtship room

 He also told us this was the "courtship room."  I thought that was interesting.  It sounded like people really gave their daughters an opportunity to entertain their suitors in a much safer environment than today's daughters have. 

Garden

Each house had its own garden plot where they grew most, if not all, of the vegetables they ate.



Outhouse

...and I'm glad we don't have these any more!

Linking with Five Minutes for Mom