Late winter, and love is already in the air! This is when our owl's are on the prowl looking for that perfect life-long partner. Soon nesting will begin, so owl's are hungry and looking for high calorie snacks. We began our day preparing delicious food for our own owl. Apparently they like muffins!
Keen ears are the trademark feature of most owl's, so we tested this out. With two Screech Owl's blindfolded in the nest and a circle of trees (kids) standing tall, we let loose a mouse. Ask about how this game felt for mouse, owls and trees when careful listening makes the difference between hunger and survival.
As we set off to hunt for our own Screech Owls, Beaver's eagle eye spotted a bald eagle in the trees! As we made some noise, the eagle would look around. The eagle was enjoying the sunshine and great views from the top of this spruce as he roosted there until we hiked back an hour later.
Along the pond trail we found 12 hiding in the trees. Larch shared some information that he knew about owls with all of us. They eat mice, crayfish, reptiles, voles, shrews and insects. Willow shared that screech owls are about 20-25 cm tall or 8 inches. These crafty birds can nest in hollow stumps, nesting boxes or woodpecker holes. See what you can find out from your child about the diet, habitat and behaviours of these small raptors.
Then our favourite time of day, wander time in Mystery Forest. Many enjoyed tossing and skipping rocks into the pond as well as playing more rounds of the Camouflage game. Owl made a delicious cedar double layer cake and Crow found around 60 walnuts. Larch made his own arrow out of materials that he found.
At library time, two books about raptors were shared with us by Grey Squirrel. Once again, she treated us to a fun activity booklet to take home. Ask your child about a program where families can ask for trees to plant. Get in touch if you want to find out more.
Our afternoon was spend on the west side of the pond, spending time with our tree friends and visiting Cedar Hideaway. See if you can gather some stories about changes noticed in tree friends and favourite places around the pond.
The old Mill is a perfect place to do woodworking. We worked on sanding, whittling, and planning designs to carve into our walking sticks. Those walking sticks are really coming along!
We just had a little time to add Screech Owl to our journals today with plans to finish up next week. Nature journals will come home over our winter break so they can be shared with family and friends. Thanks to Tamarack, Willow and Heron for leading the learning adventure today. Dragonfly, Coyote and Raccoon are looking forward to seeing the gang next week. Happy owl prowling this weekend Forest Friends:).
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