Hiking and Birding at the Lake

 

Today the teacher thought we should go on our first hike at the local lake.  We looked for signs of summer and of fall.  We noticed that some trees were green, but they were starting to turn yellow.  We saw big cracks in the ground, so we know that we need rain again.  We saw some animals too.  We saw the yellow butterfly, a big, black horsefly, a baby fish, a Painted Turtle, a garter snake, lots of grasshoppers, two squirrels, one girl had a bee on her back and of course we saw a lot of birds.  Well, at least the teacher did.  We brought along our binoculars and the children are learning how to use them.  Some of the birds we saw: American Robins, sparrows, Yellow Warbler, lots of Chimney Swifts, a Belted Kingfisher, Mourning Dove, Cedar Waxwing and  some saw Barn Swallows. 

 

We went across the bridge and we looked at the weeping willow tree.  Then onto "Grasshopper Land", which is the brush pile west of the cemetery and its loaded with grasshoppers.

 

We talked about what nature is and on our walk back to the school one of the boys said, "I really LOVE nature!"