Wednesday 28 April 2010

Herons are Huge!!!!

This was our impromptu life size heron painted this afternoon; we did this to help the children understand about the bird that they had seen on a nest high up in a tree at the nature reserve!

And this is the heron through a zoom lens!  We had gone to the nature reserve to look for signs of shrews; we didn't find any!!!! But when we investigated the persistent chuckling sound, we found huge nests containing heron hatchlings and the parents flying in and out at regular intervals to feed them.  They are big birds (up to 104cm tall) and make an impressive sight soaring out of the tree tops above!

With the help of a bird book, some cardboard, and enthusiastic painting from the children (including R who painted practically everything in his sight grey!!) our heron was born.  It is now cut out and wrapped in clingfilm in the wild area of my friend's garden, awaiting a nest to be built on Friday!!

having re-discovered my artistic side today, I might do some garden birds for my garden with the children.  fancy a go? This book has beautiful illustrations easy to copy and is a great first book for bird spotting with children:

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