We spent an afternoon at the beach on Monday. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time. We were also able to enjoy a little nature study!
We first noticed the beautiful Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies. We first saw one flying around on the sand, then a second one came along. These appear to be both male, since the females have more blue than yellow. They look like they were playing around, but maybe they were fighting? Either way, they were very interesting to observe.
Shortly after we arrived, the female Mallard ducks came. These ducks are obviously used to people and know that people = food. They were not scared of us and came very close, especially while we are having snacks! We noticed that they were making their rounds on the beach, walking around everyone's beach blankets looking for food! We had brought a plain bread bun and some plain low-salt tortilla chips, so we shared a little of those with them. They were more and more friendly after that! They even walked right up on our beach blanket and ate our of our hands. I kept on thinking that we shouldn't feed them this people food, but they were probably picking up worse things on the beach.
It was really interesting to see how each duck had her own personality. Adrienne gave them some names. Some didn't hesitate to come right up to us. One even tried to take a bite out of Andre's apple while he was holding it! Others didn't come as close but still stayed around to get food. They continued walking around the beach, checking out everyone else, but kept coming back to our spot. They also went to the lake to drink and swim. We watched them duck under water. Some children chased them off the beach, so we also saw them flying and landing in the water.
An afternoon at the beach is always fun, playing in the lake and making sand castles. Being able to observe nature made our day even better!
Thursday 25 August 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Labels
Fun
home learning
book sharing monday
family
books
wordless wednesday
nature
journey north
art
wrap-up
weekly report
Reading
nature study
holidays
photography
science
geography
sketch tuesday
canada
homeschool report
Me
pets
quilting
cooking
for our earth
DPP
Movies
outdoor challenge
sewing
exploring
get outdoors
Fairy
outdoor hour
Iditarod
birthday
challenge
math
summer
celeste
journey north 2009
100books
Dragon
Lego
music
Princess
animals
halloween
home
journey north 2010
lapbook
NaNoWriMo
author fiesta
field trip
public school
wreck this journal
poetry
12 secrets
baking
birds
blogs
journey north 2011
spring
city
curriculum
fitness
gardening
moving
black history month
bugs
earth hour
journey north 2012
planning
reading my library
shutter sisters
sled dogs
this moment
travel
unschooling
December
board games
calendar quilt
lego quest
swap
air cadets
feeding my family
food revolution
hockey
library
recipes
what works
air show
author study
award
backyard bird count
camping
dr seuss
father's day
pirates
roald dahl
space
sports
what my children are reading
year 5
Ballet
DQS6
St Patrick's Day
TED talks
arnosky
basketball
biographies
eating clean
for others
geocaching
happiness
mail
medical
memory monday
orion
poems
science rendezvous
scree-free week 2011
skating
spelling
winter solstice
winterfest
youtube
2010 olympics
Charlottetown
PEI
Patricia Polacco
Rant
appreciation
book
collecting
good deeds
helping others
hooping
hunger games
jamie oliver
maze
nat
orchestra
peace
quilt-along
screen-free week
snail
stamps
the next chapter book club
video games
wilderness wednesday
wish wednesday
world news
writing
Great photo's. Looks like a lovely spot :-)
ReplyDeleteGorgeous butterfly!
ReplyDelete