Nature Study, Outdoor Hour Challenge #1 . . .

For our nature study this week, we spent some time exploring a rocky bank of a reservoir. The kids had a ball looking at the world around them. They skipped rocks in the water, turned over rocks looking for anything, watched bald eagles flying over head or fighting with golden eagles, and hunting for crawdads in the muddy reservoir bottoms below a dock. It was difficult to pull them away. I think it was a good thing we were camped there for the weekend, so they could go back again and again. It was extremely hard to choose just two things to study for this week, but we did. Here are a few pictures:

This inlet was a prime spot to look for great rocks and crawdads.



Our resident rock lover with her own "Rock Shoppe". You can see the piles of rocks around her separated by physical characteristics. Any of these rocks could have been yours if you had a rock to trade that enticed her.



"Crabby" the crawdad. No we didn't bring it home, it was sent to a neighbor for care. This was as big as my hand. The kids were fascinated by it.

The kids' Nature Journal pages about our trip. The first is for a crawdad, the second a bald eagle, and the third a crawdad.

We will spend some time this week finding information about crawdads and bald eagles. Everyone is very excited! Yes, the fighting eagles comment is true. We watched 2 bald eagles and 2 golden eagles fighting for a few minutes. When we left, they were still chasing one another. Isn't nature great!!