Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category
Our Garden Bird List.
January 31st, 2010 | 
Author: 4 robins
1 jay
1 magpie
2 dunnocks
6 blue tits
6 great tits
2 nuthatchs, first time i have seen two together… must have been the hazel nuts we put out!!!
4 chaffinch
crows, carrion 1
Not bad going.. for 15 months worth of feeding the birds every day by Asha!
Looking forwards to next years, and I am going to find out how we can attract some different breeds and more numbers into our garden.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Conwy reserve list.
Robin
pigeons
Blackbirds
blue and great tits
Shovellers
Grey heron
canadian geese
coots
loads of other birds which we didnt recognise
We were trying to find a tufted duck, 
but we couldnt.. I believe there was some there, but we couldnt see any. We did however have a lovely day in the sun, although it was snowing when we left here, and when we got back it was sleeting!
Our trip was followed by a quick visit to llanfairfechan for a play on the swings, and to feed the ducks on the duck pond.. and the two mute swans.. (I am pleased we did a review of the which swan is it code last night) with wild duck and swan food, not bread!
Asha had a great day, and is now settling down for bed.. Her usborne sticker book has more birds filled in, 
and we have all enjoyed some sunlight.. and it was WARM.. relief.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Science….
O.k. When your 5 and a half year old asks you to do “real science” as the subject for the month.. what do you do?
Well Steve armed with two ballons, one for him and one for Asha.. supervised filling them up with water, measuring around the circumfrances writing the length down and popped them in the freezer.
A few hours later, the little scientist, got frozen items out of freezer, measured them.. and noticed with glee they had grown 2 cm each! WOW..
She then asked for a big jug of warm water, and defrosted the balls of ice, stating that it was interesting how they both ended up with holes in them, and this allowed the warm water to defrost them faster as both sides of the ice had warm water on them!
My daughter is far too scientific for me!
She then got her doll and some kitchen roll, and proceded to wash her doll with the water from the jug.. saying she was being a mummy like in india…:D
We also did a fair amount of sums today. We did a good review of the 2x table, and i was pleased to see she can still do it. We discussed adding and subtraction again, and hopefully tomorrow morning when i get up, she will have done some of that too.
We also had another look at the difference between, Whooper swans, mute swans and bewick swans, as its been a few months since we have seen any around. So wanted to get these clues back into the brain, before the weekend.
Had a lovely day at home with Steve and Asha, and we even managed a good go on the violins today… It was brilliant.
Popularity: 5% [?]
What Kind Of Gull….
An idiots guide 
O.k. the Asha’s guide to gull spotting.
Has it got red on beak… If no.. What colour are its legs… if green = Common Gull
Has it got red on beak… If yes… What colour are its legs…If yellow – Yellow Legged Gull
Has it got red on beak… If yes… What colour are its legs…If Pink – Herring Gull
If short black legs – Kittiwake.
I am sure there are other factors and Gulls which need adding to this, but as they are most of our local common Gulls. It is a hugh improvement on.. “Oh look at the seagulls Asha” We now have.. Asha what kind of Gull is it.. and Its working.. We saw a Herring Gull in town mummy today… Success!
Pink legs, grey back, small red mark on beak.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Been Collecting U tube videos for Asha again,
and found this of White Lion Cubs. Even at a few days old, you can see the power in there jaws.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Mummy. Get Rid of the CAT…
I had just got up, and was half way through my morning coffee, when there was a scream and tears, as Asha noticed that the cat had bought us a present in. One of HER birds. – A starling.
The cat carried on, after dropping it on the floor, and so did Asha’s distress, tears and total distress, that the cat has killed one of her birds. She was begging me to go and change her for a little hamster, or something which wouldnt harm her birds..
Eventually we got her settled,, though it did take many cuddles, loves and loads of re-assurance. Explanation of why the cat did it, and how it meant that she loved us, as she was bringing us a present.. we managed to get on with our day.
Later this afternoon we had a delivery from a friend of ours. Part of this delivery was the information that we have a SMEW on our river.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/smew/index.aspx
Them birds!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Them Birds.
For the last two weeks we seem to have gone through an awfull lot of bird food. In fact we have not only gone through two 2.5 kg bags of bird food, 100 fat balls and emptied our cupboards of all remaining nuts etc which were towards date.. We have also had a usefull way of disposing our kitchen waste products.
I am rather sad the snow has gone…
One of the side effects of this is that we now have had some more new comers to our garden. We have a friendly Nuthatch
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/n/nuthatch/index.aspx Who swoops into our window feeder daily. Just at dusk.. We seem to have encouraged a glut of blackbirds, which we didn’t get many off. And we have company for the great and blue tits in the name of coal tits and some other smaller birds, such as tree pipets, sparrows, and some rather tame robbins.
It also forced us to try our local farmers shop for bird seed. I am very glad we did.. £9,90 for a 25 kg sack. That at least will last us a few months, at 1/3 of the price of anywhere else!
www.familytreehouse.co.uk
Popularity: 3% [?]
May – Home Education Camp, Pengraig Farm.
One of the things that Asha got involved in was an animated video, with some of her friends.
We recently were informed of the result..
Wonderful stuff!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Asha is currently in love with small animals.
She keeps on talking about being an “animal charmer” as such i have collected a series of animal videos to share with her..
Firstly owls at Heligan center, corwall.
and now some baby herons..
Baby Pandas
and some lovely baby rabbits!!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Today I read to Asha
One of her currently favourite books “Trouble for Letang and Julie”
Its a Longman new reader book, “when nibbles gets lost in Ms Millers classroom, will anyone be able to find the hamster”
In the book you can discuss disability – Julie has some physical disabilitie. Different lifestyles – Letang nan used to own goats. Bullying, and name calling. emotions, and all the animals which we call pets.. and how different people have different pets. Julies nan used to keep cows, so Julie had a pet calf when she was younger..
Anyway, following on from our story, Asha started playing pet games… again, and my bed is now covered in soft toys, but i managed to catch her at it… just a pity she noticed, and started “acting” for the laptop.
I will embed this later, when i can remeber how to do it again… :d
Popularity: 9% [?]
Funny funny day.
I was woken this morning at 7.30 to Asha climbing in our bed.. some time later, Steve got up and made Asha and I breakfast in bed…
I then had to get ready to go to Bangor to meet Debbie, and we had planned on the rather expensive play area, or Greenwood forest. HOWEVER we decided weather wasn’t reliable enough for greenwood, and the play area was quite expensive for a day, which it would be heaving on. Also it was quite expensive for the little ones, plus food!
I had on my list of places to visit this year Pillas Palace, so we trotted over the Anglsey again.. and went to see the tarantula, centipedes, butterflys, red eared terrapin and other wonderful animals… We didnt look as much as I would have liked because of “all the legs”
We did have a great time on the bouncy castle, and indoor play area though.. and the food was very reasonable price wise.. I feel this is an area which lets foal farm down. The cafe is tooo expensive there.
Anyway.. after that we all headed back to Bangor, and did the charity shops and other such shops… I bought Asha a new pair of trainers, which actually fit her.. Yes Clarks trainers, she is size 9.5 e/f on one foot and 9 d/e on the other!! No wonder I have struggled to get her shoes to fit!
Right… going to go downstairs now, as asha should be asleep, and isnt and i have packed lunch to discuss with steve for tomorrow….
Popularity: 5% [?]
Asha and her birds.
Asha has been feeding the birds with fat balls for a few months now, and we asked a few people for bird stuff for her for her birthday, And this is the resulting pictures today from them!
And we must not forget the one on the fatballs in the tree now.
It was fantastic to watch.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Chester Zoo.
On Monday we went to chester zoo with some friends. We often go to our local zoo, and over the years we have taken 100’s of photographs of the animals in chester zoo, so we didnt take many this time, instead wanting to spend time with the company we had, and to spend time enjoying the new surroundings.
Asha had a fantastic time, but we did get a few good snaps of her being Asha.
Popularity: 6% [?]
A couple of Pictures from today.
One of the swans Asha was feeding at lake Padarn
One of the swans.
Asha playing near the stream where we ate a rather late lunch.
Playing on her birthday.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Moths, use colour to see flowers at night.
A NOCTURNAL moth has become the first animal known to see colours in the dead of night. They use this visual talent to find yellow, nectar-packed flowers in the dark, but the finding reported in New Scientist suggests that other species also use colour vision at night.
Nocturnal moths were thought to find flowers by looking for bright petals against a darker, leafy background. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 19% [?]
Wow what a learning curve today!
Asha had a great nights sleep last night, and as a result has been a really bright girl today.
This morning she was keen to go swimming and seems to have really enjoyed herself.
One thing she did which made me laugh was, the teacher was trying to get all the swimmers to swim under a hoop. It was very close to the water.. Asha – typically- lifted the hoop up so she didnt get her face wet. Why not.. she aint daft!
Tonight she insisted on having a bath “to practice putting my head under” so no soap in it :d
After a go at lying on her back with no help (it was very shallow at this point) I then added to the water and asked her what toy she would love to have in the bath if she got her face all wet.. her reply a bouncy ball… Deal done.. her face went under.
Then daddy joined in and put his head under to encourage her to continue the good work. (yay for daddies)
Anyway.. away from swimming.. We had a lovely afternoon playing with toy cars on the lounge floor and practicising the “dig it” song from her “boogie babies” dvd i got her for her birthday. We also did some art “work” o.k. at dinner Asha wanted to blow bubbles in her water, so once she had consumed enough to help her body, I added some food dies to it. We then got the white coffee filter papers out and Asha dripped the colours onto the papers.
We also noticed you could use a straw like a pipet dropper by holding your thumb on the end.. Science in the making I guess!
Todays bargain? A trip to the charity shop in Portmadog, supplied us with one copy of HIAWATHA DVD, (£2) which I have wanted for ages for Asha, and a small night light for her to paint with her glass paints (50p)
This morning before swimming she also wrote some lovely number 1’s out for me and did a lovely copy of the word “one” I just have to keep her interested in it all. We also did some Welsh on the way around, and some reading and poetry.
We have also been talking about baby animal names.. Anyway I found this link to help me out!
http://www.treasureranch.com/treasure/rzuinfofiles/terms.html
Vicki xx
Popularity: 18% [?]
Going on Safari.
Weather – damp.
Tiredness – very
Car? Grannys and Grandad.
Yep Asha went off with Granny and Grandad to knowsley and Steve and I went Birkenhead, for exciting things like Axe’s and such items. We also tried to sort out our phones to no effect.
Asha had a lovely time, though got home far too late!
Popularity: 13% [?]
Woosh…
And today its rocket making..
Plastic bottle, cork, one bycle inner tube, and a small valve. Wow the effects were fantastic.
the kids loved them, the older kids. thought they were brilliant, and all the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
At night, we had a communal food, which we got to late, as we had to nip home to feed the cat. We did however stay up far too late, and have a great evening.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Play day, but mummy I want to watch.
Along with all the unstructured and just home play things which were going on, one of the mums had made a play up with the costumes which were there.
They included things like space suits, princess costumes, and animal costumes.
Most of the children got involved, but Asha didnt want to. She tends to shy away from doing things in large groups, and I am reluctant to force her.
Anyway, when I asked her if she wanted to do the play, she replied. “no, because if i am in it, I cant watch it”
The play was wonderfull. Asha got to play with many of the great toys outside for much of today on her own, and she also locked mummy in the toilet.
It was a pit, and it needed a catch on the outside, so that the wind dosnt blow it open, however Asha thought it would be great fun to show mummy she could lock it.. Mummy wasnt impressed, and daddy had an Asha delivered to him, to deal with!
Popularity: 24% [?]
