Sometimes opportunities to learn about your world present themselves like when wildlife appears in your yard, in your neighborhood or in a park or other natural setting. However, when opportunities are not presented to you it is beneficial to seek out those opportunities. A lot of parks in my county have nature centers that have classes and presentations about area wildlife and our family takes advantage of these opportunities whenever we can. This past weekend was the Great Backyard Bird Count put on by the Cornell Bird Lab and Audobon Society. It’s a huge deal and people all over the world submit observations. My kids (and I) were excited to take part in this event. I explained to my kids how researchers can use the data we submit to get a picture of how birds are doing in Virginia, in the United States and all over the world.
I think my kids (and I) liked knowing that our observations had a purpose and that we were a part of something bigger than simply recording the birds we saw in our backyard. Throughout the event we didn’t observe any unusual birds or high numbers of birds but I did observe four engaged kids (and one adult).
the suburban naturalists 