Helping Hands!

Snapping Turtle getting his hands a bit messy!

Winter is really packing a punch this year!  Although a beautiful sight, lots of snow, storms and cold temperatures can make winter a tough time of year!  But we are here to help out each other and the animals!

As our small little group started to arrive, we got right to work making bird feeders out of pine cones.  The more seeds you can stick into the cones the better!  Don’t worry friends who didn’t make one this week, there are plenty of supplies for you to make one next week!  Even a few left over apples to make a special treat for the birds and the squirrels! 

Inside Harrington Hall, there were birds hiding everywhere.  Did you see them right away, did you need some clues or did you use a pair of binoculars to help you zoom in?  How many of the birds you found were winter birds?  Do you remember their names?

Time to help the birds outside in their natural environment!  Where on the trail did you decide to hang your feeder?  Did you hang it up high or low?  Think of all the reasons why birds might like to visit your feeder.  Can you think of reasons why it might be tough or difficult for a bird to find and eat food in winter?  

We were tough to brave the frigid temperatures to set out our bird feeders but it was time to visit the library.  Today we made a snow globe craft called a thaumatrope.  A thaumatrope, roughly translated from ancient Greek as “wonder turn,” is the most basic of paper movies.  By simply rolling the straw in our palms, the optical illusion is created and the two images look like one.  

Eagle shows us how it works.

In the story The Big Snuggle Up by Brian Patten, Grey Squirrel challenged us to remember all the animals that were invited into a house with Old Scarecrow to get warm during a snowy winter day.  Were you able to remember them all?  Snapping Turtle was up for the challenge!  He also read us a story later in the day called It’s Really Cold Outside by Harriet Ziefert. Do you remember what the book was about?  What would you do if one of your friends didn’t want to go outside?  How would you feel?

After getting packed and ready for home it was time to take a quiet tip toe back to the trail to see if there was any snacking going on.  Much to our surprise there were some birds already munching away!  They were not afraid as we stood quietly to observe them.  Did a bird come close to taking seeds from your hands?  Which birds came to visit us?  Looking forward to visiting our feeding station again next week.  Do you think all the food will be gone?  Thank goodness there will be more Turtles next week lending a helping hand to make more feeders.  This time of year can be challenging for the animals.  Maybe by coming together in a caring way, we have all made the life of the Harrington birds just a little bit easier!

Have a look at these pictures from our day!