Saturday, April 19, 2008 Birding Posted in Home Schooling Homeschooling doesn't just teach the kids but also us mums too. James & I have had a delightful time with Exploring Creation - Zoology 1 - flying Creatures of the First day. Ok, ok friends whom know us yes Brent just about swallowed his teeth when I brought such a heavy Christian book into our home. But if you skip the religious content (Warning there is a lot) it is a very good book! Fellow kiwi hsers haven't used it as they think it is all about American birds - yes there is a lot but it's more about the makeup of a bird rather than species. James & I have had a lot of fun learning with this book. A real thumbs up. We are up to chiropterology next (Study of bats - see I told you I have learnt heaps from this book!) I digress - one thing that we learned was that birding is a hobby. IE recording birds that visit your property or a list of birds that you see in your lifetime. We are very lucky where we live we have lots of different birds daily visit us - but James & I have been making an effort to really look at what is arriving. We are leaving out bread - trying to remember at 10am to put it out (not doing too good) I shared how Brent's mum used to feed her backyard birds at 3pm every afternoon. They came for miles. Plus her magpies who brought their babies every year & were hand fed beef. I just love visitors tracker - I can click on it daily & see who has visited my blog - I then can go visit their blog. This is how I found Blogger Scattered Seed And in America you have a system called E Bird where you can record all the birds that visit - how fun!! I tried to see if there was for Nzer's as I am sure James would of enjoyed keying in this information. But I can't seem to find one for us. I have had a lovely few cups of tea looking around Scattered Seeds blog & this post I enjoyed I often read how USA winters are so harsh - I bet the birds sure appreciated some nice tucker. I'm going to ask Jan to share some basic tips to make birdfeeders - So we can make some for our garden. I've a huge container of sunflower seeds we will be more than happy to share with the garden birds - from our sunflowers we grew this year. I've also googled more on birding in NZ & found some cool web sites http://www.nzbirds.com/birding/birdwatching.html http://www.birdingnz.co.nz/newzealandbirds.php Click here to see my most love - hate bird that lives with us a Pukeko So when we get my new camera maybe we can get some good photos of NZ birds to share - I do think NZ has beautiful birds. • Post A Comment! • Send to a Friend! Comments Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Visitors! Posted by birdlady Hi, there. I'm a visitor from Canada. Thanks for the links to NZ birds - I will be spending some time looking at your native species - so fascinating! I am fostering a small parrot currently for a friend who has moved to Auckland, NZ for two years with her husband, who has taken a work assignment there. I love your little pet parrot (she's an Alexandrine or an Indian Ringneck?? - hard to tell from the photo) - she looks adorable - they just love to be member of the family. I loved to see her playing with the puzzle pieces and perching in the branches of the tree!!! How cute! We have 8 parrots currently - they certainly are entertaining and keep us busy! I have added your blog to one of my favourites and added you as a friend - hope this OK? BTW, I also love your farm animal photos! It's just coming into spring here, so it's neat reading about how you are entering the autumn season there in NZ! Blessings! Audrey • Permanent Link Saturday, April 19, 2008 - birding Posted by jan m Hi Leanne, I posted a response to your question on my site. I just discovered your nice references to my blog - thank you. I find that scattering seed or bread works best very early in the morning, here, anyway. I get the most bird visitors between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m. What I basically said about the feeders is that anything will work that will hold seed and is accessible to the birds. I have suet hanging in a mesh bag that originally came with onions. It's fun to imagine new ways to offer food to the birds. Here I offer sunflower seed, cracked corn, peanuts, millet, and suet. I plan to check the NZ sites - thanks for the link. • Permanent Link