How to Make 6-Sided Snowflakes – A Fun Activity for Kids and Adults Creating paper snowflakes can be a fun family activity for inexpensively decorating your house for the winter and for the Holidays. Younger children can create simple snowflakes with help from an adult, and older children and adults can start to create more intricate, lacy patterns. […]
The Science Behind Snowflakes and Snow Crystals Have you ever taken a really good look at individual snowflakes when you’ve been out while it’s snowing? If so, you’ll have noticed that their appearance can vary from snowfall to snowfall. Sometimes snow comes down as beautiful tiny, lacy six-sided crystals, and sometimes it comes down in needle-like or columnar shapes, or […]
What Gives Northern Cardinals Their Red Color? The Northern Cardinal is one of my favorite birds because of its cheery, bright red plumage. It adds a welcome touch of color during our gray Michigan winters, and it’s common at our bird feeders all year round. Cardinals are common in the eastern and southern U.S. and […]
Learn to Identify Birds by Their Songs and Calls Do you enjoy listening to bird songs and calls? Birding by ear (listening to, and identifying birds by their songs and calls) is a great way to locate birds, and often the easiest way to identify birds. And bird song identification adds to our overall enjoyment of […]
Squirrels Love Our Backyard! We’re lucky to be sharing our southeast Michigan backyard with a large variety of wildlife (of the small sort!), including three species of tree squirrels, and chipmunks, which are also in the squirrel family. We enjoy watching the squirrels’ antics around our yard — chasing each other through the lawn and […]
Migration of the American Robin The American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is one of my favorite backyard birds because it symbolizes the return of spring and the feeling of ease during our pleasant summers here in southeast Michigan. I love seeing the first group of robins hopping around on our yard in early spring, searching about […]