What Do You See in the Clouds?

Just for fun -- What do you see?

HINT - This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count!

Scroll down AFTER you guess.

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I see a bird. Do You?

The Red Robin Returns

Those baby robins sure look hungry!

Oh, there's Mommy, now!

I have a few more ROBIN things to share today. First, The Birth of a Bird, comes from the May 5, 1952 edition of LIFE Magazine:

You can download a pdf of it HERE for FREE!

 Next, I have complied several Robin - themed poems in a printable booklet. You can download this HERE for FREE! -- Instructions for assembling are on last page.

And this, from Homeschool Bits - a FREEBIE available HERE.It has a nice little printable booklet about ROBINS. Great for younger students.

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FLASHBACK from American Primary Teacher - 1902:

NATURE STUDY.

The Robin.

BY EDITH A. ROBERTSON, NEW YORK CITY.

 

Material. A picture of the robin, blackboard drawing. A robin's nest and eggs.

Introduction. Where have the birds been all winter? Have all the birds come back? What birds have come? What are the first to arrive? What do they tell us?

Development. Our American robin must not be confounded with the English robin redbreast, although both bear the same name. It is the latter bird in whose praise so much has been written. The  American robin belongs to the Thrush family.

Migration. The robin is one of the earliest heralds of spring, coming as early as March, and is one of the latest birds to leave in the autumn, many times remaining all winter. Robins migrate singly or in flocks.

Length—about ten inches.

Head—nearly all black.

Eye—round, brown with a white ring around it.

Bill—medium length; curved; strong and yellow.

Throat—streaked with black and white.

Breast—chestnut or rusty red. The breast is brightest in the spring.

Back—dark olive gray.

Wings—brown.

Tail—black, a little rounded; outer feathers edged with white.

Legs—slender; black.

Claws—black, slender for perching.

Have children notice whether the robin hops or runs.

The Nest. It is sometimes built in the corner of a porch, but oftener it is placed upon the horizontal limb of an orchard tree. It is so large and poorly concealed that any boy can find it, yet it is seldom molested.

The masonry of the nest is rough and the material coarse, being composed of moss, dead leaves, old grass, lined with hair, and cemented with mud.

The Eggs. The eggs number four to six, and are greenish blue in color, commonly spoken of as ''robin egg blue."

Food. The robin feeds for a month or two on' strawberries and cherries, but generally on worms and insects picked out of the ground.

Song. The robin is not one of our most charming songsters, yet its carol is sweet, hearty, and melodious. Its principal song is in the morning before sunrise, when it mounts the top of some tall tree, and with its wonderful power of song, announces the coming of day.

When trained, it imitates the sounds of various birds.

In early spring the robin may be heard at noon or in the afternoon; in summer, early in the mornings.

Robin is "the bird of the morning."

Habits. The robin is hardy, noisy, frolicsome, neighborly, and domestic in his habits; strong of wing and bold in spirit. The robin courts the" society of man, following close upon the plow and the spade, often becoming quite tame.

It destroys the larvae of many insects in the soil.

The Young. The young robins stay in the nest till about eleven days old. From early morning till nearly dark the parent birds keep up a constant search for worms. The worms are beaten up to a pulp by the parent birds before fed to the young. The old birds only leave their little ones to eat and bathe.

QUESTIONS FOR DRILL.

What bird comes back in April?

How long will the robin stay?

What is the color of robin's breast?

When is robin's breast the brightest?

What is the color of robin's back?

Does robin run or hop?

What does robin eat?

Where does he build his nest?

Of what is the nest made?

How many eggs in the nest?

What is the color of the eggs?

How long do the young robins stay in the nest?

Who feeds them?

READING LESSON FOR THE BLACKBOARD.

Here is Robin.

He has a pretty red breast.

Robin is very happy. He is singing in the apple tree.

Mr. and Mrs. Robin built the nest.

It is made of leaves, grass, hair, and mud.

The nest is big and strong.

It holds five little eggs.

By and by there will be five baby robins.

Mr. and Mrs. Robin will be busy.

They will feed the little ones.

They will teach them to fly.

Then the little ones will say good-bye and fly, fly, far away.

Poems—"Sir Robin," Lucy Larcom; "The Origin of the Robin," Whittier.

Story for Reproduction—“How the Robin Got His Red Breast." Cooke's Myths.

The Red, Red Robin

In anticipation for the Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend -- we have a childhood favorite! The story behind this song: When Mama Voyager was a young girl, her daddy used to wake her and her brother up by singing this song. He didn't sound anything like Doris Day, but her version is quite energetic and happy, so I chose it for this video!

Feel Free to Sing-A-Long!

Learn More About the Robin!

Wild Bird Watching is a great website for learning about birds. The American Robin page has simple to read information and videos! Watch the mama feed her babies! 

The kidzone also has a good page about the American Robin - with printable worksheets and coloring pages.

To listen to the calls and songs of the American Robin - the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has recordings  from various states. This is a must bookmark website if you are interested in birds!

This ROBIN coloring page is from a 1930 newspaper. The article below was printed with it, and ran is several paper around the country:

Robins Stay In California All Winter
 

ROBIN RED BREAST, Oh yes, we know Robin. Every girl and boy knows robin. No one needs to tell us that it has a red breast, and that its back is dull black. Mother robin wears a duller coat and baby robin sports a speckled breast. We all know that.

Even though the robin is well known, it is interesting. We like to watch it getting its dinner. Its meals are eaten on the ground, but like all of us it likes dessert with its meals and that is usually gotten from trees and bushes. 

Insert - California paper only

If you want to know more about that you must watch it yourself for that is the one thing that people complain about when they speak of the robin.
 
They forget all about the good it does when it hops over the lawn, cocks its head to one side, listens, digs quickly with its sharp bill, and pulls out a grub or a worm. Or when it scratches the leaves, throwing them about, and gobbles up the bugs and beetles, and other insects that will come out from their hiding places at night when we are asleep, and do harm to the trees and other plants.
 
The robin is with us almost all the year Frequently we hear of one staying with us all winter. If we go hiking during the Christmas Holidays [winter] and make a list of the birds we see, we are very likely to have our robin on the list.
 
As many as fifty and more have been seen in a flock in this section during Christmas Holidays. But we have to go to some sheltered ravine in the woods to see them.
 
We say the robin goes south but it has been seen time and again, every month in the year, right around here.
 
You know the robin. Do you know its nest? It differs from other birds' nests in that it is plastered with mud.
 
You can see the robin in spring picking up wet leaves and mud, and often shaping the nest in a nice round bowl, after lining it with soft grass to make a nice place for the four or five pretty blue eggs.
 
Mother robin will sit on the eggs and spread her wings to shelter the eggs of the little ones from rain and storm.

Then comes the busy time when these little ones must be fed. There is not much time then for singing. In early spring Robin would perch on a topmost branch and call "Cheer up! Cheer up!" but now he may have these words in his little heart, while his mouth must be used for carrying food and putting it in the babies' mouths. 

End of California Insert

The robin has a song and a number of other calls that are all cheerful unless he is frightened because he or his little ones are in danger. It is worth getting up before sunrise to hear him begin the morning bird concert.

Robins like to take a bath and make use of a pan of water both for drinking and bathing, if a kind-hearted girl or boy will put one up where they can get to it. 

Robins also like to have a table set for them on a shelf or window sill where they can come for crumbs. They like soft food. 

(Copyright, 1930, for The TRIBUNE.) -- Oakland Tribune - Nov. 2, 1930

 Carrie Jacobs Bond, the author of the Robin newspaper article, was an amazing woman, who faced many challenges in a male-dominated world. After a divorce from her first husband, she married a doctor, who was hit by a snowball thrown by a child. He fell and died from his injuries. She had a son from her first marriage, and wrote music and poetry to eke out a living. Originally from Wisconsin, she later lived in California, and even had a home in La Mesa, not far from where we live! 

You can read a biography on History's Women - quite fascinating, really.

Snowball account from her Wikipedia biography.

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I have more bird articles by Carrie Jacobs Bond, which I will post at a later date. The series was from a Children's Coloring Contest that ran in many newspapers, from about 1927-1930.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Image from Cornell Lab of Ornithology  

How Many Birds Do You See?

The Great American Bird Count is a yearly activity sponsored by Cornell Lab and  Audubon. 

This years bird count is February 15-18, 2013, so get your counting fingers ready!

Image from Great American Bird Count

The Great American Bird Count is for Kids!

 There are lots of good resources to make this a fun and educational activity for everyone.

You can download this printable pdf - Guide to Common Birds --

And this one (pdf or word doc)  for keeping track of your bird count.

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eBird has a great tutorial on how to count birds. This would be a great math activity to practice estimating objects. 

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Cornell has some really awesome videos, like this one:

This is the Spoon-billed Sandpiper on her/his nest, and her babies!

Definitely worth watching with your kids -- fascinating and educational.

Why her and his? What the video and listen to the video for the answer!

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One more thing -- Participants in the Great Backyard Bird Count can win PRIZES!
Be sure to check it out -- They are giving away some nice bird-related items.

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I'll have more bird resources in the future, so if that is something you and your children are interested in, be sure to check back!

So long, for now -- Gotta fly!