Friday, January 16, 2015

Nature Study Outing :: Life and Death

I mentioned that we took a little hike along the coast on New Year's Day.  One wonderful thing about where we live is that there are wildflowers all year, of different sorts. These two were in bloom during our chilly outing:


And our daffodils are, right on schedule, pushing themselves up through the cold muddy ground out back.


It is so heartening to see these bits of life blooming even on cold, foggy mornings of winter.

But not all nature study is wildflowers and daffodils.  I hate to say it but dead birds have been a theme around here lately.  For whatever reason we have seen quite a few in the last few weeks!  

We have been lucky in that twice now those birds were new sights for our Life Lists, and also that each time they have still been wonderfully whole.

And now, sensitive readers, avert your eyes!

This Common Murre was washed up among the wrack:


It looks almost elegant, lying still there like that.  I have seem murres at the aquarium and afar on the rocks by the bay, but never up close on the beach.

My 5yo daughter, the daintiest little girl you'll ever meet, asked if I could "please take a picture because I want to nature journal it, Mommy--especially that black, black eye."  Okay then.

And on a similar note, my oldest daughter took these up-close-and-personal photos of another freshly-dead bird, this time at a local park, while I was busy at the other side of the playground with the babies.





The colors and the texture of the feathers are beautiful, aren't they?  She wasn't the slightest bit squeamish, and I didn't know until I browsed the photo roll that she had gotten so close.  A friend's older son chuckled when I finally noticed and said (rather proudly, I think), "Yep, she sure was right up next to him with that camera!"

Thanks to her careful photos, we were able to identify this poor guy as a Varied Thrush, which aren't super-common in our part of California.  (They come down from the northern coast during winter, but usually stop around San Francisco, so we're at the tail end of their migration area.)  We had never seen one, but I know we'll all remember his striking coloring now.

And wouldn't you know it, at this week's nature study outing, we found three (!) dead pigeons at different spots in our park.  I handed Gianna the camera again, and since they were all fascinated by the claws, she took a few close-ups.


It may not feel like it when I'm trying to make sure my toddler doesn't accidentally step on dead sea gulls (true story!), but it's a gift for my suburban children to experience the natural order of life and death in these simple weekly ventures out and about.

And as my son pointed out, it's a lot easier to identify a dead bird than a live one! ;)

12 comments:

  1. Great pics! What are Life Lists?

    Cheers

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    1. Hi, Lacey! Life lists are lists kept of birds/wildflowers/etc that you have seen over the course of your life. We had not seen a Varied Thrush or a Murre in the wild before, so we added those to our lists. People often keep year-long lists too. :)

      You can see more about our Life Lists here:
      http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/2013/04/calender-of-firsts-after.html

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. Ha! having stepped on a dead seagull I can tell you- not fun! My kids seem to have a open attitude about dead animals...sad but interesting...two of mine love finding dead insects, the other two not so much...everyone thought the amazingly smelly washed up bloated seal was fascinating...at least upwind!

    Still have not done a life list...need to get one that!

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    1. Oh my, we had our own encounter with an amazingly smelly washed up sea lion a few months ago...I didn't share any photos of it on the blog because unlike these birds, it was really gruesome! Dozens of turkey vultures circling. Photo is here, if you're curious. :)

      https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BVeZPeQY9vY/VLrerWAvr2I/AAAAAAAAYt4/qranDyjOkMI/s2048/20140825_105737.jpg

      For scale, it was about six feet long. We were all pretty amazed!

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  3. We've had a pretty death filled winter when it comes to nature study too. Just yesterday we were hiking and stumbled upon a half eaten soft shelled turtle (well, I think that's what it was). My daughter is a fairly sensitive 4 year old normally but she didn't get upset about the death; she was just annoyed that it didn't seem to follow the rules - "but it had a shell! but it was camouflaged! why did it still get eaten?" I was just glad DH was there so I could keep the 2 year old distracted during that time. He's a little too much of a hands-on explorer.

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    1. My children are the same--they respond to perceived injustice in nature at times (it had a shell!), but not so much to life taking its natural course. They are pretty fascinated with predators (birds of prey in particular) and are really interested in watching them "work"...I think nature provides an opportunity for kids to encounter and work through difficult truths in a safer environment, much the same way that fairy tales do.

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  4. Your son's comment has me laughing and laughing:)

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  5. One of our boys found a dead bird just as we were leaving school on Friday, so we had to freeze it for Monday. There is an autistic boy at our school who loves murres that he has seen in a beautiful coffee table book on birds. I may have to show him this so he can see a close up!

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    1. I am amazed at our water birds locally: the pelicans, murres, herons, and the like. They look so other-worldly!

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  6. Do I link here?
    http://www.silviacachia.com/2015/01/inspired.html

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    1. Here is the link to the post that has the link-up in it, Silvia:

      http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/2015/01/keeping-company-january-link-up.html

      At the bottom of that post, you'll see a little box that says "Add your link." Just click that and follow the steps to be added to the link-up! Thanks for joining in! :)

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