Tales of Urban Nature
Part 1: Beauty in Bird Watching
“But Beauty is everywhere— in white clouds against the blue, in the gray bole of the beech, the play of a kitten, the lovely flight and beautiful colouring of birds, in the hills and the valleys and the streams, in the wind-flower and
the blossom of the broom." (Vol 4)
~Charlotte Mason
Although I’ve always been a “stop and smell the roses” kind of girl, for my daughter’s first 2 years of formal instruction in a traditional school, I was rushing her by God’s creation in the mornings because I had to get her to school on time. Then I was rushing home so she could get started on homework right away. Sadly, the only habit I formed within her was to NOT appreciate nature.
But God in His infinite mercy, convinced me to homeschool and in His faithfulness, introduced me to Charlotte Mason. One of the subjects that most attracted me to Miss Mason’s methods was Nature Study.
Originally, being in nature was what I had envisioned homeschooling to be about, where you learn science firsthand. But with Charlotte Mason, Nature Study has become so much more.
During the difficult transition from traditional school to homeschool, Nature Study was healing for us. It was where we were most free and directly experiencing God’s beauty.
Nature Study was healing for us.
In our homeschool, Nature Study also:
- evolved us from just admiring beauty to carefully observing everything around us
- went from teacher-directed to child-led, where my daughter makes her own discoveries
- quieted me down as the teacher who imparts knowledge and, instead, now I give guidance when needed as well as answer questions when asked (probably the most challenging aspect of nature study for me because I want to point out all the awesome things I see AND know)
We live in NYC so we have to be a bit more intentional in our Nature Study but God’s beauty is EVERYWHERE, like in the nest of robin eggs we found outside our building one spring.
God's beauty is everywhere!
In hopes of helping others discover urban nature, I wrote about different ways to explore nature in the city in my blog post “Finding Beauty Amidst Concrete: Parts 1 &2 ”.
Nature Journaling has taken us to the next level of careful observation. I can’t tell you how inside I do cartwheels every time my girl excitedly grabs her nature journal to paint what cool discovery she made and records her mental images with careful detail.
Not that it has all been easy either. There were times my girl didn’t want to have discussions on nature or paint observations from memory or even go outside if it wasn’t with a group of friends (only child issues).
But I followed Miss Mason’s advice of talking less and letting my girl make her own discoveries. I pushed through her complaints and worked on forming new habits outdoors. I did a lot of praying for the Holy Spirit to speak to my girl’s heart.
Little by little, a miraculous transformation happened and my girl began to connect with nature…without me.
For Part 1 of this series, I’ll focus on some nature breakthroughs of us finding beauty in bird watching. I share with you as a form of encouragement.
Northern Mockingbird
We’ve been bird watching since my daughter was 2 years old but she doesn’t really remember. Then at some point, she got tired of my over-enthusiasm on nature walks and became uninterested with birds or anything else nature-related.
So I learned from Miss Mason to be more subtle in my reactions and let my girl make her own discoveries.
“The teachers are careful not to make these nature walks an opportunity for scientific instruction, as we wish the children’s attention to be given to observation with very little direction. In this way they lay up that store of ‘common information’ which Huxley considered should precede science teaching; and, what is much more important, they learn to know and delight in natural objects as in the familiar faces of friends. The nature-walk should not be made the occasion to impart a sort of Tit-Bits miscellany of scientific information. The study of science should be pursued in an ordered sequence, which is not possible or desirable in a walk.” (Charlotte Mason, School Education, pg 237)
Little by little, my daughter gained interest again, pointing out various aspects of nature like tiny, beautiful flowers that some would consider weeds, certain aspects of trees that helped her distinguish one from another or, my favorite: birds!!
One example is the time we went on a simple nature walk in our neighborhood. My girl said to me, “Do you hear that bird Mami? It just made 3 different calls but it’s the same bird. It must be a mockingbird.”
Truth be told, I had not noticed the calls. But as we walked closer in the direction of its song, sure enough, it was a mockingbird! My reluctant bird watcher identified a bird by its call and not its appearance!
She was so happy afterwards and even impressed herself. Lol
Northern Cardinal
Here was another nature breakthrough for my daughter (and me)!
A couple of days ago, my girl spotted a Northern Cardinal right by our building. These birds love to hide in our city trees so we rarely get to see them. I couldn’t believe that she was even able to spot him deep in the leaves.
But as she got closer to take pictures, she said to me, “I hear that call every morning when I wake up.”
Honestly, I was so excited that she was getting great pics before the cardinal flew away that I wasn’t even paying attention to its call.
After that, we heard its call everywhere.
The next morning, as we read our devotionals on the terrace, we were surrounded by the cardinal’s serenade. It was like our live worship music.
Now, though I don’t see the cardinal often, I hear his call everywhere. There are sooo many sermons in there.
House Sparrow
During quarantine, it was a struggle to get my daughter to even want to go outside. Maybe it was because she’s an only child at home and could no longer have a play date outside so it seemed pointless to her. I know there was some fear of going in and out of our building, feeling like she was needlessly being exposed to Covid.
Regardless, she fought me tooth and nail about nature walks. The rainy and cold weather didn’t help either.
But on those rare, nice days, I “forced” her to go outside, praying that the Holy Spirit would work it out, as He always does.
On this particular day, her negative mood was changed within 5 minutes of being in the presence of blooming cherry blossoms.
She started to observe the trees, pick up fallen flowers from the ground and dig a little garden for them.
Elsewhere, she spotted these hidden little wildflowers and her excitement grew.
The kicker was when we saw a little sparrow struggling to pull a cotton strip off a shrub. No matter how hard she pulled, it was too tangled within the branches.
We got closer to remove it and though the sparrow flew away, she lingered close by, keeping an eye on her finding. We untangled it but left it lightly hanging. Then we stepped back to our building and watched from a safe distance to see if the mama sparrow would return.
She sure did!! Not even a minute later, she flew to the same spot and easily scooped up the cotton strip. She then flew high into a Callery Pear Tree, disappearing within the safe covering of its tiny white flowers.
My daughter was overjoyed at having helped a mama bird build her nest!! We rushed upstairs and she excitedly told her dad all about it before painting it in her nature journal. He and I just gave each other that look that said, “And she didn’t want to go outside?!”
Like I wrote earlier:
the Holy Spirit always works it out.
Now, House Sparrows are feisty and resilient little birds. I think of them as the “Napoleons” of the bird world. They can thrive pretty much anywhere humans live and take what they need from other birds, like food or nests, in order to survive. But they’re still cute and fun to watch.
And their nests are fun to find too! It took us a while to figure out there was an “apartment building” of nests in our garage. It’s hard to see in the pic below but there’s a nest on almost every level between the building and the side gutter, which I circled for you. The nests go all the way to the top. We’ve even seen European Starlings building nests on some of those “apartment floors”.
My girl also found nests in the light fixtures outside of our building. (If you look closely, you can see some dried vegetation hanging out.)
We never bought a bird feeder for our terrace because my husband didn’t want it to attract pigeons, which would then poop all over our space. But my daughter created a simple pine cone feeder with peanut butter, nuts and seeds. She then hung it up with string and it’s perfect for small birds because they’re the only ones small enough to stand on the feeder without it moving too much. Now we have House Sparrows as well as House Finches visiting us every morning. We believe there’s a sparrow family creating a nest under our bench but we don’t want to disturb them. My girl is over the moon about it and is even turning her father, the one who would sometimes make bird jokes about me, into a “bird watcher”, since even he can’t resist watching them for long periods of time. He’s recording videos of them and admitted to starting to distinguish between birds calls!
Mourning Dove
Sometimes sparrows reuse their nests and there are times other birds do a makeover.
This used to be a messy sparrow’s nest outside our building. I mean, when I say “messy”, it was MESSY, with twigs sticking out all over the place and random things used to build the nest, like pieces of Clorox wipes (remnants of Covid, I guess).
Then this Mourning Dove came along and, as my daughter put it, “renovated” her new home.
We watched her (or him) as they cleaned and neatened it up.
Then we waited for the new arrivals, which turned out to be an “only”. She was one proud mama!
But the story doesn’t stop there. The following year, the winter had done away with much of the nest and I was sure it had seen its last clutch of eggs laid in it.
To my amazement, this worn out nest is now home to a new pair of mourning doves…or they may be the same pair from last year. They can barely fit in what’s left but they’re making it work. And the cherry blossoms have just added to the old nest charm.
Nature lets nothing go to waste. Even what appears to be old and useless can help bring new life into the world. (There’s definitely a sermon or 2 in there.)
American Robin
Despite the storms and winds these past couple of weeks that left remnants on the ground of what were once nests, hers survived the rain and high winds.
Maybe it was the care she took in building her nest, ensuring its strength and protection for her babies to come.
Or maybe it was the strategic location she chose to bring her young into the world.
Regardless, she’s stood firm, preparing for their arrival.
Amazing all the little lessons we can learn from God’s creation.
Sometimes we drive to nature preserves near and far, but, oh, how I love capturing moments like this with my girl right in our own city neighborhood:
Don’t these trees look ordinary to you? They sure did to my girl and me.
Well, in just these few pines, we observed:
•American Robins
•Common Grackles
•Mourning Doves
•European Starlings
•House Sparrows
•1 House Finch and
•1 Rock Dove
(We also saw a Red Winged Blackbird and a Blue Jay a few feet away in deciduous trees. )
But the kicker was when we spotted not just 1 but 2 huge nests in these trees!! We couldn’t believe it! We had never seen such big nests in the city. I’m assuming they’re Red-Tailed Hawk nests because those are the biggest birds we see in the area.
I have to say, I was also surprised that the nests were so close to a building. However, once we spotted it, it took us about 10 minutes to find it again. It was in search of the first one, that my daughter spotted the second one. They were both super camouflaged.
Urban Bird Study Guide
If you’re interested in learning more about bird watching and the feathered friends that can be found in city areas, my daughter and I created this cool Urban Bird Study Guide.
Beautifully designed with original artwork by my daughter and photos by Bronx Birder Conor Coen, Feathered Friends of the City: An Urban Bird Study is intended to help your child become familiar with some of the birds common to most cities across North America, though some can also be found all across the globe.
It encompasses the following:
We hope through this study guide, your child will form lasting relationships with the feathered friends they’ll meet here.
Up Next: Part 2 of “Tales of Urban Nature: Discovering the Delight“
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