How We Do Science

So...Chad learned that he should never send Luke and I on a "quick" errand.   We are too distracted by birds.   We pulled over several times to take pictures and try to identify what we were seeing.  I love how Luke's passion for birding has rubbed off on all of us.   One of the birds we've been seeing out by our place are Meadowlarks.   I've never been able to get a picture of one but did today...it's just not very good.   But, I wanted to be able to make sure that's what I'm seeing and I'm pretty sure it is.  

We have lots of these little guys in our yard.   They are fun to watch too.  

This is probably going to seem crazy to anyone seeing this, but....oh well.  :)   Today, as Luke and I were on our way home, I noticed a Kestrel on the side of the road.   They are one of our favorite birds and we see them often out here.   So...we stopped to take a look.  It looked fresh and just had some blood coming from the back of it's head...almost like it was shot with a bb or something.   So...I put it on top of our car since we were so close to home.  Does that make me really crazy????  I just thought that it would be a great opportunity for our kids to get to have a really close-up look at one of their favorite animals.   They were all so excited to see it...but, also sad for it and couldn't imagine what had happened.   We got the idea to collect some of it's feathers for our nature box and also to use it for science.   They measured it's wingspan and studied it's beak and talons.  Then, the kids buried it and marked the spot.  They are going to check on it periodically.  They will get to witness it's decomposition and they are very excited about having the skeleton eventually.  Ethan want's to use wire to put it together and display in their room.  I think to most people it will seem weird, but, my kids were so taken with God's artistry.  As they spread it's wings they were literally in awe at how beautiful it was.   I love that they were so excited about it.