The Bird Feeding Experiment - December 16, 2020

In December the boys decided to conduct an experiment to see what food items might be most attractive to the birds in our area. They set out items such as grapes, apples, sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, peanuts, and peanut butter. 

They even prepared a chart to document which species came to participate in the experiment. They expected birds such as Nuthatch, Titmouse, Junco, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Blue Jay, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Bird, Cardinal, Robin, Dove, Northern Flicker, Goldfinch, and Chickadee. 

Then they set up to watch what would happen. Helen was a little irritated that they set up their experiment on her balcony instead of their own, but she got over it. 

In addition to their list of possible bird species, they also prepared a camera to take photos of the eaters. One species they hadn't planned on were the squirrels. In fact, the squirrels were probably the most frequent guests at the experiment. At one point several of our plastic "plates" were missing - as squirrels had carried them off. 

Although the squirrels proved to be a bit destructive to the experiment, it was still heartening to this homeschool momma to observe the enthusiasm and scientific initiative in my boys (when I was a kid, I could not have identified even half of those kinds of birds!). They set up the whole thing on their own and patiently observed and took notes for multiple days. It's great to see that desire to learn and discover naturally occurring!