Autumn 2010 OHC #2: Birds-Geese and Ducks

Autumn Series #2
Bird Study: The Goose

“And there is not a more interesting sight anywhere in the autumn landscape than the wedge-shaped flock of these long-necked birds with their leader at the front apex.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 133

Inside Preparation Work:
1. Read pages 130-135 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 34). Take special note of the fact that the northern migration of wild geese takes place in April and May, and the southern journey is from October to December. (Check this website for a map of where Canada Geese live in North America.)

2. Listen to the sound of Canada Geese and Snow Geese. Many times we will hear a goose before we see it flying overhead. Use your sense of hearing to help you identify a goose when the opportunity arises.

Comparison Ideas:

Compare a Goose to a Duck

• What do ducks eat and what do geese eat? (Hint: Where do they look for food?)
• Compare the duck’s and the goose’s beak, the length of their legs, and the shape of their necks.
• Compare the color of their feathers, beak, eyes, and feet.
• Do they both swim in the same way? How about flying?
• Are there some feathers on the ground to observe and compare?
• What does each bird sound like?
• Are they friendly, shy, or aggressive?

Outdoor Hour Time:
Take the opportunity during this challenge to find a local duck pond and check to see if there are any geese visiting at this time. You also might try a local farm that may have geese and ducks for you to observe. Use your Outdoor Hour time to observe geese and/or ducks with the suggestions from the Handbook of Nature Study as well as those suggested above. Help your child to find words to compare the goose to some other bird they already know as far as shape, size, and habits.

If you do not have any geese or ducks to observe, you can observe any of your backyard birds and make some comparisons. This activity is one that can be done with any bird at any time. Work on your observation skills a little each week to sharpen your child’s awareness of their own surroundings.

Follow-Up Activity:
Take a few minutes to talk briefly about what you saw during your Outdoor Hour time. If you observed geese and/or ducks, use the gentle reminder questions in the list above to stimulate a little conversation. Your child can also record their observations in their own blank nature journal or use the notebook page from the ebook for convenience. You may wish to pull up the website listed in the preparation work to view more photos of geese to make sketching a little easier.

If you did not observe a goose or duck, you can still complete a nature journal page or notebook page for any bird you did observe. Use your field guide or AllAboutBirds.org to glean more information if desired.


You are welcome to submit any of you blog Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Entries for the current month are due on 11/29/12.

Special Instructions for the remainder of the Autumn 2010 Outdoor Hour Challenges: 
If you completed the Summer 2010 series of Outdoor Hour Challenges, your family worked on using their senses to observe things carefully during your nature study. Each challenge gave ways for you to think about using your sense of taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight to more keenly become aware of the surroundings.

For the Autumn 2010 series of Outdoor Hour Challenges, I will be helping you to use another skill in observing: comparing and contrasting. Many times in our nature study it can be helpful to begin to see the similarities and differences between two objects. Anna Botsford-Comstock uses comparing and contrasting in many of her question sets in the lessons found in the Handbook of Nature Study. She uses these questions as a means of helping the child learn to see more clearly the object under study. I have found in our family’s nature study that being about to compare an unfamiliar subject with a familiar one helps us identify it using a field guide. Keen observation skills help us to be more thorough in learning all we can about a subject even from an early age. There will be suggestions in many of the challenges to work on this skill of comparing two objects you find during your nature study and I hope they will give your child a new way to learn about what is in their very own backyard and neighborhood.