Sunday Snapshots: Bird Day

After a week full of....ummmmm...challenges, the weekend was lovely!  (Thank you to all of my sweet friends who offered words of encouragement!) 

This Sunday was deemed Bird Day at our house, as we had decided to once again participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count. 

Can you believe that the girls even dressed for the occasion?  (I can.)

Our bird-y excitement actually began on our drive home from church. 

We were driving along a rural road when Bekah gasped.  She had seen a hawk perched in a dead branch, in a tree very near the edge of the road!  So we did what any homeschool family would do.  Ron put the car in reverse (after determining that there were no other cars along the road!), and back we went to see the hawk.  We think that it was either a sharp-shinned hawk or a Cooper's hawk.  He looked at us for a few seconds, then decided that we were disturbing his hunt for lunch, and flew away. 

A few miles later, we saw a small flock of wild turkeys in a field. 

Unfortunately, we had neither time to observe for 15 minutes (to be included in the GBBC) nor a camera with which to record our sightings, so home we came.  

Here is the part where I reveal our cookies.  (Snicker.) 

I had shown you an image that I found online of some gorgeous decorated bird cookies, and I asked (publicly) Kati if she thought that we could make some.  I think I set the bar too high, folks!

We decided to make only one type of bird, the eastern bluebird...but as we began to decorate them on Saturday, we began to giggle.  Ours were ~ahem~ not quite like the picture.  In fact, the more we iced, the funnier it became!  When all was said and done, we thought that they were cute, and and that one could tell that they were bluebirds.  I said that our birds were fine; they were just not "works of art" as those in my picture.  Bekah insisted that they were simply Impressionist art. 

After dessert, we counted.  Eight of us were counting, so we had to spread out all over the house.  I got involved in the counting and scribbling down the data called to me...and forgot to take pictures!  This shot of Gavin was a "reenactment."  You can see that I had already put the tea tray and utensil crock back where he had been sitting.  I didn't make the poor boy count for 15 minutes while hanging off the edge of the counter!

One of the highlights of the day (who knew?) was dissecting the owl pellet!  The crowd grew and thinned and grew again, with Gavin and Bekah being the die-hard scientists.  They kept at it for-ev-er, and with great enthusiasm.  They were thrilled with each discovery of a tiny bone.  I so wish that I had had more pellets so that they each could have had one, but this was the last one I had from a purchase that I made years ago.  Perhaps I should order a fresh supply.

One exciting find was this interesting bit that we non-scientists declared a skeleton.  Another (not photographed) was the pair of mandibles each with a row of teeth so tiny, my 51-year-old eyes could only see through a magnifying glass.

When all the bird activity was completed, the children scurried off to prepare for Act IV of the serial play that they've been presenting.  But alas, the versatile actor Benjamin was not in the mood to be Grandmary, so his understudy was called in... 

...his mama!

Kristin is a good sport!