For the birds...

We attended a wonderful family workshop held at a county metro park, which inspired a new enjoyment.( And a great gift idea for a bird watcher like my cousin Tuesday. ) At the workshop, we built an attractive wooden bird feeder which was pre cut and cost us just $5 total to attend and build. Painting was done at home and was a Mommy midnight hour job.

(Bird feeder painted and ready for gift giving)
The Naturalist who hosted, had a great table display with pamphlets and samples of bird seed with taxidermist birds for the children to see up close.
Those pamphlets were the spark and start of a great idea.
A bird feeder/ Bird watching journal!(A journal to accompany the Bird feeder above)
I had an old 3 ring binder that we covered in fabric similar to the one I listed in the gift idea post- link here for How To. A great family project- the kids will enjoy the decorating part.
We adorned the binder with cardboard letters (scrap book supplies) and made felt cut out birds to finish off the look as seen in the above photo. **We have not finished our personal journal/bird watch binder, so the example used here is one intended for Tuesday's gift since it is complete.**
The next step was hole punch the hand out papers and calender. My favorite handout was the full color 2 sided sheet of various birds more common to our area.( Here is a link to the Ohio wild life department to print out the bird pamphlets and Field check list which I have included in our Binder. Be sure to check out the one on building various bird houses and feeders. There are multiple pages of printables, so be sure to scroll down and go through all 6 pages).
I suggest making a color bird sheet customized to your area by doing a 'Net search for your local metro parks and wild life department. They may even have some already made up for you or piece one together with the information they have on their sites. This is a great tool for the younger or beginner bird watchers. When they see a bird at the feeder, they will want to look in the book to see which one matches. Be sure to make a check list *like this one* perfect for younger children.
Now for the journal pages, I have found a few sites which have printable pages to choose from. I have customized our sheets to have more lines and less "sketch space". This link has many many choices to print out. This is the site I used for our bird feeder journal pages and was able to customize very easily with more lines.
In a later post, we will be using this link again for a project I am working on for the children's Spring gifts.
If your feeling real froggy, maybe start counting birds and participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count at this site*.
Our bird feeder has not seen any action as of yet, but we were told it could take a week or two before the word gets out about our feed station.
I encourage everyone to locate their local county/state park department and ask about the programs they offer. In our county, they send out a *booklet which gives a day by day account of events. *
There are so many free programs and low cost events available to all of us. I encourage you to find yours and take full advantage of the knowledge and great experiences they can offer.
Until next time~

Sweetest dreams , ~Tammie