“Birding” with Kids

I’ve long realized that birding with others has both advantages and disadvantages, that it’s a different experience when you’re out with others. This seems particularly true when you’re walking with three kids under the age of 8 as I did several times while in Colorado.

For instance, it appears that when you’re shorter you’re more apt to notice small animals on the ground, like this grasshopper that grandpa would never have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out by Sidney, the youngest of all:

Grasshopper

The same goes for this little frog/toad, shown at least two or three times its actual size:

small frog/toad

Grandpa actually spotted this little muskrat,

Muskrat eating leaf

but it got a lot more attention than I would have ever have given it.

I’m not sure who spotted this wooly caterpillar, but Jen was the one who was most excited because she remembered seeing them as a child. After she picked it up, Logan was excited

Looking at caterpillar

about “holding” it, even though the girls apparently wanted nothing to do with it.

"Wooly" caterpillar

Of course, just because we saw so many little things doesn’t mean that we weren’t
also impressed by the larger wildlife we saw:

Buck

5 thoughts on ““Birding” with Kids”

  1. So what is the message of the woolly worm stripes? Will the winter be severe or not? I never can remember how it goes.

  2. I’m sure the winter in Colorado will be “severe” compared to our winters in Washington and California, Mary, though I don’t remember the exact forecast either.

  3. Wonderful post, Loren.

    It’s been overcast here, with smoky air from fires in B.C., so seeing these pictures does me good.

    Along with the Monarch butterfly, the small creatures I remember from my early childhood are grasshoppers, frogs and caterpillars.

    Before I ever saw a frog, though, I remember the excitement of holding the Horned Toads that we caught and released in the desert in the San Joaquin Valley in Central California. That was between 1954 and 1957, when I between 4 and 7 years of age.

    A fine portrait of Logan!

  4. It’s easy to forget that the world around us looks very different from a child’s perspective vs. ours. I think the lucky adults are the ones who manage to keep some of that.

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