The kids and I will be very casually studying birds this summer. We last studied them when Ben was in about second grade. My plans are simply to read about a bird from the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock once or twice a week, try to spot one in nature and then sketch the bird in our nature notebooks. Our new home is such a great source for bird watching, because of the woods, pond and creek. We have several feeders around the property so it shouldn't be hard to spot a variety of species at any given time.
For a little inspiration to start off our bird sketching, I read aloud The Boy Who Drew Birds which is a picture book about John James Audubon. As usually happens with this type of study, we also learned a few other things and got to talking about migration, bird banding and the art of John James Audubon.
I will probably post their drawings each week, just for my own enjoyment and record keeping. I hope you enjoy them, too.
