Have you ever tried photographing something outside from inside the house? Sometimes the window seems to get in the way. At the NWF site check out this article for tips on getting better pictures!
Check out https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com for other interesting bits and pieces! 🙂
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Backyard Activities | Tagged: Photographing Wildlife, Taking Photos of Outside from Inside | 
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Posted by mygrandmasue
After being a good boy in the car (Are we there yet?) for a full day’s ride from Medford, Oregon to Reno, NV, last December, Austin was rewarded with a morning of sledding! We all had great fun! He must have had 15 to 20 rides down the little incline of cleared landscape – as in – it had fewer rocks than the rest of the land! Lots of fun in the crispy, fresh air! I posted a few runs on youtube:
…another run at it….
Two
…and yet another run… I have lots of short clips but they all stop about half way down the hill because I stop the camera so I can catch him. This one runs a little further!
Threeeeeee
…and then a closer look at the nearby rocky bits that we maneuvered around for a toboggan run!
Check out https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com for more interesting things and ideas! 🙂
Leave a Comment » | Backyard Activities | Tagged: child, children, family, fun, grandchild, grandchildren, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, Green Hour, kids, play, playing, Playing with Children, Reno, Sled Ride, Toboggan Ride, Toboggan Run | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
Tonight (January 29th) is the “biggest” and brightest full moon of 2010! In an article on yahoo, by Robert Roy Britt of Space.com, “tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.”
More moonshots from spaceweather.com article: from Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece; from Bob Clark of Goldcoast, Queensland, Australia; from Marek Nikodem of Szubin, Poland; from Peter von Bagh of Porvoo, Finland; from Michael Evenmo of Eagan, Minnesota; from Tomasz Adam of StaszĂłw, Poland; from Monika Landy-Gyebnar of Veszprem, Hungary; and from Mark Seibold of Portland, Oregon.
Here’s the gallery of moon shots from space.com. Enjoy!
Check out https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com for more interesting things and ideas! 🙂
Leave a Comment » | Backyard Activities, Uncategorized | Tagged: Anthony Ayiomamitis, Bob Clark, Full Moon, Marek Nikodem, Mark Seibold, Michael Evenmo, Monika Landy-Gyebnar, Peter von Bagh, Robert Roy Britt, Tomasz Adam, Wolf Moon | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
The Duncraft Facebook page referred to this blog on 5 Ways to Winter Bird Watch with Kids which has super suggestions. Check it out!
I have other birding blogs and other child activities at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com 🙂
Leave a Comment » | Backyard Activities, Nature Activities, Places to Explore | Tagged: bird watch, bird watching, birding, birds, child, children, family, fun, grandchild, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, Identifying Birds, kids, nature, nature study, Places to Go | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
This last weekend Grandpa Ron and I saw two falling stars! Seeing one is special so we were really surprised to see two. Then I did a little research and it seems we are in the midst of two meteor shower time spans – the Taurids and the Leonids. November 10th is the start of the Leonid Meteor Shower with the peak on November 17th. Gee, we could probably see many more if we sat outside and waited for them! Here’s lots of info from universetoday.com. Becky Ramotowski in San Antonio records: ‘Shooting stars’ come out to play in her blog today. Also check out Meteor Mark.
Meteorshowersonline has a scientific page on both Taurids and Leonids. Have fun!
See more on https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com/
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Posted by mygrandmasue
Birdwatchingnow.com is a great site to learn all about birdwatching. They blogged a great article about birdwatching as a family hobby. From birdwatchingnow.com: Bird watching is growing in popularity as a hobby that gets people outdoors and increases appreciation of nature, as well as being a great stress reliever. This blog will help you to be equiped with all you need to enjoy this great recreational pastime. Also, here is an article explaining the ten steps to identify a bird from the Duncraft.com Wild Bird Blog.
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Posted by mygrandmasue
The quail indeed came back to the dust bath bowl this morning. (This is a follow-up from yesterday’s blog.) I looked for them earlier but they were not there. Then I ended up scrambling them because I didn’t expect them and they were there! The teenagers didn’t come back but one female took advantage of that and probably fluttered about for a good five minutes or so. This time I was ready with the camera.
Female Quail Fluffs Dirt On Her Back
Male Watches Female Quail Digging In
Almost Completely Buried
Male with Double Topknot
Leave a Comment » | Backyard Activities | Tagged: bird dirt bath, California Quail, quail, quail dirt bath, Reno | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
This morning we woke up to California Quail calls just outside our bedroom window. We started out watching several of the birds on the short wall but then we realized the real action was going on between the wall and the window. A whole family with teenagers were fluttering wings and scratching and flipping dirt like crazy. Five of the teenagers were in the hollow of sandy dirt by three small rocks. Dad stayed on the wall standing guard while Mom guarded the other direction. Three teenage females were scratching around the yucca while their 4 brothers and one sister did the dirt bath thing. Then two of the boys hopped onto a larger rock and pretended to be Dad and then played King of the Hill. The dad of this family has a double topknot and it looks like three boys all have double topknots, too.
Then the warning call sounded and they all scattered under the Russian Sagebrush. A squirrel ran to the dirt bath area and frantically dug further under the small rocks – like he knew he had buried his stash of stolen bird seed there somewhere! Then he frantically covered it all up again to hide his exploits and scantered away.
The birds immediately came back and started their scratching and bathing all over again. Then the squirrel came back to scare the birds away again and dug some more. This time he was letting the dirt fly everywhere as he dug frantically around the rocks again. The seed had to be there somewhere!
Then he reversed his digging one more time and took off. The birds came back and pecked and scratched – must have been that bird seed! Then after a few more wing stretches and flying dirt, Dad said it was enough and the family left to continue their morning trek across the land.
My camera was still in the car in the garage. I was afraid that if I moved across the window to go get it that it would spook them so I just watched the entertainment… Tonight my camera is ready. If they decide to go for another bath tomorrow morning, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to get some pictures! Given the look of the spot, it is a favorite one!
Leave a Comment » | Backyard Activities | Tagged: baby quail, bird dust bath, bird watching, birdwatching, California Quail, double topknot, quail, Reno | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
All kinds of ideas are available on the net for games and activities to play in your backyard with your kids or grandkids. Grandparents.com is again a great source of ideas. Nabiscoworld.com has a cute interactive website of ideas. How Stuff Works has several learning experiences outlined. FamilyFun.Go.com has Fun in the Sun activities identified. Suite101.com has a lot of yard games listed as well as several associated links. Have fun!
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Posted by mygrandmasue
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