March in Florida

Watching a Pair of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis)

I’m so excited for March to arrive next week!  Not only is it my little girl’s birthday month, it’s also a wonderful time to be outside in Florida!  There is a lot going on with wildlife in the month of March.  Birds are courting and nesting, reptiles are on the move again, flowers are blooming, baby mammals are being born, frogs and toads are singing when it rains, and fish are spawning.  And all of this happens while the weather is pleasant to be outside in Florida!  Here are a few March happenings that you should be able to experience with your child.

Birds

Great Egret (Ardea alba)

It’s breeding season for our big Florida birds.  Since these birds are big, you should be able to easily notice that their feathers look extra nice and fluffy at this time of year.  They are wearing their breeding plumage to attract a mate.  Strong, healthy birds are generally well-preened, full of feathers, and have additional decorative feathers just to prove to a mate that they would make a successful parent.  This is the best time to look for these big beautiful birds, and your child can even learn to identify some of them.  For example, it’s really easy to identify great blue herons (Ardea herodias), snowy egrets (Egretta thula), and green herons (Butorides virescens).

Another type of fun bird to watch for (I mean listen to) are the woodpeckers.  They are announcing their territories by banging on loud objects, such as hollowed out trees.  There are all sizes of woodpeckers, but even the smallest can easily be heard at this time of year.  If you are lucky, you’ll hear Florida’s largest woodpecker, the pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus).  Because of their size, they tend to drum very loudly on trees and can be heard from quite a distance away if there is no interference from urban noises.  On a side note, the pileated woodpecker has a distinct call that is also fun to listen to with children.  In fact, their call was often used in old Tarzan movies to help make the jungle sound more “wild.”  It’s fun to listen to the sounds of the jungle in old movies.  I often hear peacocks too.

Amphibians and Reptiles

These cold-blooded animals will finally be able to feel enough warmth from the sun to get out and be seen after a long winter cold spell.  After all, cold-blooded animals need warmth to move.  Many of them dig holes underground, hide under leaf litter, or even stay in water as much as possible to keep a little warmer when air temperatures drop.  But in March, it’s warm enough for them to leave their shelters, move around, and get ready for mating season.  

Southern Toad (Anaxyrus terrestris)

Frogs and toads start to move closer to bodies of water or areas where water will sit for a long period of time after a rain.  If it rains during the day and stops or is just drizzling at night, turn your outside lights on after the sun goes down.  After an hour or so, take your child and a flashlight outside to look for frogs and toads.  They tend to come to outdoor lights in search of food.  They eat many of the insects that are also attracted to outdoor lighting.  Don’t forget to take time to be quiet and listen to all the frog calls in your area.  How many different calls does your child hear?  If you would like to identify any of the frogs you hear, here’s a great website:  https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/Frogquiz/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.lookup

Reptiles are also enjoying the warmer weather.  In Florida, it’s a great time to spot an alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) or turtle lying on the banks of a body of water soaking in the warmth from the sun.  Snakes are commonly spotted around gardens as they come out of their winter hiding places (and we start working in our gardens to prepare them for the spring and summer).  Just be cautious when digging through leaf litter.  Even our little native Carolina or green anoles (Anolis carolinensis) are coming out to explore in the warm air.  However, they still have a lot of competition from the invasive brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) who may be seen in higher numbers in central and south Florida.  Both anole species can be observed bobbing their heads and flaring out their dewlaps in territorial, dominance, and courtship displays.  Ask your child why the anole is acting the way it is.  Help lead your child to the answer and look around for the recipient of this form of communication.  And remember, the anole may be talking to you!

Have fun exploring the wildlife in March!

Burrrrrrrr

Helping to Cover Plants

I have definitely acclimated to the Florida weather!  It’s cold!  I’m from the Midwest and have experienced my share of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and even ice storms!  And before moving south, I lived in the Northeast where I enjoyed (not really) several feet of snow during my last winter there.  But that was years ago.  So now the weather forecasters are calling for the coldest air we’ve had in Florida in four years.  That doesn’t mean much to me; except I had to cover several plants today, and it’s time to wear socks around the house.  But for my almost three year old daughter, she is experiencing her coldest day yet (and still she doesn’t want to wear a coat).  What does she think about this cold weather?

This late cold spell of the season reminds me of an old Native American story about an old man (winter) who walks the earth freezing everything he touches.  He spends the winter with the Northwind (who is also a person in the story).  They are friends.  Then eventually, Northwind gets tired and goes back up north.  Finally, a young man comes to the old man’s icy home and invites himself inside.  He is the spring and is friends with the Southwind.  Basically, the young man warms all he touches and melts the ice where the old man roamed.  The old man and the young man quarrel for a while, but the young man finally defeats the old man, sending him north.  By doing so, the young man brings back the spring.  

I suppose this cold spell is the quarrel, and old man winter is not letting go of his home just yet.  But it will happen, and we will see warmer days again soon.  Before today’s technology, stories like these were told to reassure children that even though the winter may seem long and never ending, spring will come again.  Winter will be defeated.  And I’m sure during the winter, many of these stories were told over and over again.

That’s something you can do with your children too.  Tell them stories!  One of my favorite bedtime books to read is, Sleep Little Angel by Margaret Wise Brown.  It’s a beautiful poem about enjoying each season as they come and go.  The winter verse reads,

  

          “Sleep little angel,

          The sun goes down,

          The snow is white on the frozen ground.

          The snow is soft, and softly I’ll sing

          Of stars and every quiet thing.

          I will sing of tall black trees that fret,

          Lest you forget,

          Lest you forget,

          The ice and snow are not melted yet.”

There are plenty of books about seasons and winter, but also tell stories of your own childhood.  What were your winters like when you were a child?  What did you do during the winter?  Your child will love these!  Thinking about Mom or Dad as kids is fascinating for them.

In my case, I remember snow ice cream (my favorite part of winter), telling stories around the Ben Franklin stove because the power was out due to an ice storm, taking care of the animals in the barn when it was below freezing outside, sledding down hills, and making snow angels.  Unfortunately, my daughter won’t experience these types of winters while she lives in Florida.  But she enjoys hearing the stories.

Most importantly, these stories are reassuring to young children who may be experiencing a harsh winter for the first time or feel the winter doesn’t seem to end this year.  Stories help remind children that winter will end and spring will come.  They also give ideas of how to get through the long winter, and even how to enjoy it.  So take pleasure in these cold days with your children and tell them stories!

Red Birds of Love

Cardinal Craft

“Chip.  Chip.  Chip.”  It’s that time of year again.  Our local Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) are busily building nests!  At my house, there is a pair living right outside my bedroom window alerting everyone within ear shot of their concerns with their “chip” alarm calls.  This monogamous pair is nesting in my bushes where they have nested for several years now.  The end of January and beginning of February are the start of their breeding season in Florida, which will last throughout the summer and into fall as they produce two to four clutches of eggs each year.

They, as well as other local cardinals, are also common visitors to my bird feeder throughout the day.  If you live in the central to eastern half of North America, you probably have cardinals visiting your feeders as well.  This, along with being easily identified, makes them a great introductory bird for young bird watchers.  And since it’s Valentine’s weekend, we’re all about the courting behaviors and loving families. 

Female Cardinal at Our Bird Feeder

My daughter and I have started watching our cardinal family visiting the bird feeder.  It’s a great opportunity to teach her how to be quiet and still, since she is rewarded for those behaviors with more frequent visits from the birds.  She’s also learning that whispering is a better way to talk to me when watching wildlife.  Besides the “chip” call, cardinals also have a variety of other songs that we listen to from a distance while waiting for birds to come to our feeder.  I have the iBirds Plus app for my iPod which we use to help identify bird songs.  And soon, we will see the parent birds bringing their young to the bird feeder, so we can watch how the mommy and daddy birds take care of their babies.  It really is a great time of year to start teaching your little bird watchers!

For fun, we made a cardinal craft out of a red paper plate and red paper napkins.  I love using supplies I already have at home for crafts, and I just happened to have red party plates and red napkins left over from a party.  But if you don’t have those, you can always paint any paper plate red that you already have and use red construction paper.  You’ll also need black paint or black markers, a small piece of scrap yellow or orange pipe cleaner for the beak, and tape.  

Here’s what we did:

Folding the Tail Diagonally

1. Fold the red paper plate in half.
2. Take a square of red paper and fold it diagonally, accordion-style (Folding accordion-style was a new concept for my almost three-year-old, so we took a little time to practice this new way of folding.  It’s a great dexterity activity for this age-group.).  Then fold it in half.  This is the tail of the bird. 
3. Tape the tail to one end of the paper plate under the fold of the plate.
4. Take two more squares of red paper and fold them accordion-style, length-wise.  These will be the wings.
5. Fold the wings in half so the accordion fold fans out on one end.  Tape the other end of the wings to each side of the folded paper plate so that the fan of each wing opens toward the tail end.
6. Take the black marker or black paint and make the eyes and black mask on the face of the cardinal (opposite end from the tail).
7. Fold the scrap of orange or yellow pipe cleaner in half so that it is between a half inch and an inch long.  Tape the pipe cleaner under the paper plate fold at the head end.

Folding Paper Accordion-Style

More Practice Folding

Have a happy Valentine's Day!

Cardinal Craft