Saturday, June 19, 2010

our little naturalists

Last summer we waited until frost to begin to carve a path out of the woods so we could more fully explore our woodlot. However, I've been very impatient to work on the project and have had to bribe children to come with me into the woods to hack and tie yellow flagging tape around trees. Charlie and Maggie have both refused to go with me again because of the ever-circling deerflies. They have never experienced blackfly season, so I'm a little nervous about how that will pan out, perhaps they will lock themselves in the house and refuse to go out the entire spring and summer. I guess it is a good thing they really like to play in the snow then.

We have seen our share of wildlife (other than bugs) this week. On my first run in almost a year, this morning I looked up and saw a hawk sitting on the electrical line right over my head. A large family of wild turkeys regularly stroll through the fields looking for bugs and berries to eat. Charlie even saw his first hummingbird and rescued it from certain death on Friday evening. He went in the new house to look for sawdust for his various dump trucks and tractors and came running out to the swingset, "I think there is a hummingbird in the house, it has a long beak and is really little!" Sure enough, there was a frantic bird beating himself against one of the windows in a desperate attempt to get through the glass. I quickly opened the window and gently shooed him outside. Since the builder won't return until Monday, the tiny creature would not have survived 2 days of brutal 90 degree heat without food or water. While we haven't seen any moose or bears in the woods (and likely never will), the children have spent more time outside among the wild creatures this week than they ever did in suburbia.

1 comment:

Jamie {See Jamie blog} said...

It's hard sometimes to get kids outside. We've been having HOT weather lately, too, and even I don't want to venture out unless I absolutely have to. But then there's fall... aaaah!