I've got my work cut out for me this weekend. I can't even remember what I ordered, let alone where I thought it would all go. Fruit bushes, that much I remember!
There was no time to open the box today, however. We were too busy down at the stream.
We discovered animal tracks in the mud:
Someone suggested we try making our own:
We came home good and muddy:
We'd forgotten to bring our field bags with us today, so we sketched the tracks from a photo later:
We knew these tracks--dog and raccoon. But we've been frustrated by attempts to identify other tracks we've found using the books I have on the subject. Any recommendations for good track identification guides?
Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree!
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3 comments:
i love the little shoes all lines up! (no tracks in the house!) : )
Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking by Tom Brown has tons of info on identifying tracks (not just who's they are, but what they were doing when they left them) and bunches of GREAT observation activities, many of which would be awesome with kids. if i remember right he even has a section specific to kids.
my last partner and i did a self designed tracking class based on this book, i still remember some of the activities as incredibly eye-opening. like one was person A ties a string through the woods, draped along the ground. then person B gets blindfolded and crawls along through the woods, following the string, experiencing everything with all senses except the eyes. really cool. i remember a somewhat religious experience with a birch tree....
tom brown can get much too woo-ey in some of his other books for my taste. but i remember this one being pretty hands-on and practical. i'd really recommend it.
I'm going to look up that book and put it on my wish list. We went on a nature walk a couple of months ago and I didn't have any books on tracks.
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