Red Bellied Woodpecker Homeschool Art Class

There is a short, but cute story, that goes with this bird we painted today. Back at the beginning of Winter, or close to then, a Red Bellied Woodpecker took up home in the Snag in our yard. A snag is a dead tree that is not a full tree, just part of it remains. My husband wanted to cut it down two years ago, but the kids begged him not to because birds and squirrels love it. Since it really is no threat to anything, other than it is ugly, my husband let it be. So when the woodpecker moved in, the kids were so excited. We would watch him digging out his house everyday. Then they decided to name him Jeffrey. After a while I found there was a Mrs. Jeffrey. We figured they were building a nest. Every morning at 7 sharp, Jeffrey would talk right outside my window, and wake me up. About a week ago, Jeffrey stopped talking, and yes I over slept, lol. I thought something happened to Jeffrey. The next morning again, no Jeffrey. But, as I sat there drinking my morning coffee, I thought I saw Jeffrey go into his home. Then he came out again. Then him and Mrs. Jeffrey were taking turns, and they had food, but no talking. They must have babies in there! How exciting! I can not wait to see them. I hope this doesn't mean Jeffrey will leave when the babies are grown.

Anyway, since we have been painting birds all year, we decided to paint Jeffrey who is a Red Bellied Woodpecker. Actually their head is read, and their belly and beak are are a kind of soft orange color, but I didn't name the bird. We all decided we would paint the snag, and then Jeffrey. You can see the results below. I was given a bunch of empty wine bottles. At first I was not sure what I wanted to do with them. I had done some lights in the past, but didn't really care for them all that much. Then, I got a brilliant idea. I paint on the wine bottles, then I insert a solar powered stick light. Voila garden and yard lights for night, that use no electricity. I did four that looked like lighthouses, but the stripes are a pain to paint on. So, today I painted one with Jeffrey on it. I think the rest will have animals too, or scenery, those are my favorite things to paint. I am still unsure if I want to offer them as made to order pieces in my Etsy store. They would be such a pain to ship.

Nature Scavenger Hunt #3

This is our third Earth Kids Scavenger Hunt. We have one more in three weeks, then we will be moving on to other projects. The bugs will be good and ready to bite by then. Since the springs are still flooded, I am sure the mosquitoes are having a field day lying eggs. We didn't see any, but then again I don't know what they look like. It was a beautiful, warm sunny afternoon. We had a good turnout for this meeting, and the kids had a blast. They had quite a long list of items to find. They found most of them, and a few we didn't expect to find. No Pileated Woodpeckers or White Tail Deer. Unlike Manatee Springs, where the deer come right up to the springs basically, Fanning Springs they stay in the more wooded area and trails. I have never actually seen any there the times I have been there. As you can see in the photos the water is dark and murky, so we could not see any manatee either. We did see a lot of baby fish, teeny weeny baby turtles, and a couple of medium sized turtles. The springs, when they are not flooded, are so beautiful and you can see right to the bottom of the water. Maybe for the next one they will be cleared up.  The kids had to get pictures of all the items on their list.