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Budding Birder (1 Viewer)

SueO

Well-known member
My husband and I are home in California for awhile taking a break from life aboard our sailboat in Panama. For about six weeks of our visit I was at my daughter's house. I was there to help her after she had her baby. Part of that help was watching my three year old grandson. To get him out of the house so mommy and baby could sleep, I took him to the neighborhood park a few times to walk and look for birds and bugs. It's a good park with natural areas and a seasonal creek. I pointed out pollywogs and dragonflies and, of course, birds. On one outing, I caught a pollywog in a glass so he could see it up close. It was just developing legs and he was quite interested in it.
My grandson just turned three in June, but it seems the outings with 'neema' have had an impact. My daughter took him to get his hair trimmed and the cosmotologist kept up a banter to keep him from squirming too much. She mentioned Halloween coming and asked if asked him if he liked Halloween and what was he going to be.
He said, "A birder."
The woman looked at my daughter, "Did he say birder?"
Bonnie says yes as she's thinking, "A birder?"
"What's a birder?", the hairdresser asked.
"Neema", he says.
Bonnie cracked up. She couldn't believe he had picked up on the term 'birder'.

Another time they were driving home from somewhere and they passed the street where the park is. Bonnie said he was blabbing away in his car seat in the back. At first she didn't understand what he was going on about. She focused in and he was saying,"Dragonfly, pollywogs, butterflies, birdies, gopher, neema."

We go back to Panama and Peregrine at the end of the month for what I hope will be the final leg of our circumnavigation. I'm going to miss my little birder.
 

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Whenever Brenda and I visit the grandkids, I usually take them out to a park, conservation area or some other birding venue for a little nature walk (birding). Perhaps some of this will "rub off" on them. But it seems that the highlight of the outing is when Grandpa takes them over to someplace where Ice Cream is served and we all have a cool treat!
 
I started my grand-daughter Jessica off fairly early. She was born in Vancouver and was 3 weeks old by the time I we got over there. In order to let Angharadh get some rest I'd get up early ( first light-ish) bathe and dress Jessica in something warm and take her into the back garden, with a cup of coffee, and show her all the birds and stuff around. It must have worked because for the following 10 years she's got progressively 'more addicted' ( Angharadh's phrase :eek!: ) to wildlife and has got all the trees and shrubs in the garden either with feeders on or staked out for insects and stuff. "Corrupt them young and they stay that way for life". :clap::clap::clap: for meeeeeeeeeeeee :t:

Chris
 
I started my grand-daughter Jessica off fairly early. She was born in Vancouver and was 3 weeks old by the time I we got over there. In order to let Angharadh get some rest I'd get up early ( first light-ish) bathe and dress Jessica in something warm and take her into the back garden, with a cup of coffee, and show her all the birds and stuff around. It must have worked because for the following 10 years she's got progressively 'more addicted' ( Angharadh's phrase :eek!: ) to wildlife and has got all the trees and shrubs in the garden either with feeders on or staked out for insects and stuff. "Corrupt them young and they stay that way for life". :clap::clap::clap: for meeeeeeeeeeeee :t:

Chris

Way to go Chris. Corrupt them to enjoy the warmth of the sun on their skin and the sound of the wind rattling the leaves and the smell of the earth when the rain meets it, and the scream of a Red Tailed Hawk as it soars above. Much better than the sound of electronics and fluorescent light on the skin. Of course, I know not everybody has Red-tails, but you know what I mean.
Cheers
 
Well done, Neema!

What's a pollywog??
I call them tadpoles/pollywogs interchangeably but I guess pollywog must come to my mind first. Maybe I just like the sound of it better? Never considered it really or thought that someone wouldn't know the word pollywog. Strange. I don't know if I call them pollywogs because of my parents or because that's what they were called in Canada where I would have had my first encounters. I looked the name up on Wikipedia and it wasn't mentioned that pollywog or polliwog was archaic, but they did have a another name from Middle English: Polwygle.
I think I like polwygle the best! Thanks for the lesson, H.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadpole

Some good photos of one of the cutest things on the planet are on the wiki site.
Sue
 
My youngest son, who was 18 months at the time, impeached me with grunts and pointing to come to the balcony to watch a flock of Cranes flying over our house. Unforgettable! I believe he's alsoo the youngest person to have seen Flamingos in the province of Lleida.

Steve
 
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