For Christmas, I got this book entitled The Naturalist’s Notebook.  It encourages us all to be backyard naturalists, taking note of what is happening in our own small worlds.

He gives ten guidelines for how to grow as a naturalist:

1. Cultivate curiosity.
2. Learn the names and taxonomy of plants and animals around you.
3. Become familiar with their basic ecology.
4. Go on walks with knowledgeable naturalists and take notes.
5. Ask how and why questions.
6. Scrutinize, touch, smell, listen and measure.
7. Conduct simple experiments.
8. Teach others.
9. Analyze your observations.
10. Put knowledge into action.

I am just beginning my journey as a naturalist.  I think I have the curiosity thing down.  I go outside and I’m intrigued by so many things that I see.  I like collecting specimens and bringing them home as little treasures.  Sometimes I like to draw the things I find or look them up if I don’t know what they are.

I had an opportunity for some close scrutiny when I found this dead cardinal in my garden a few weeks ago.

We have loads of cardinals here at the farm.  They don’t seem to migrate as they’re here throughout the winter.  They LOVE the black sunflower seed I fill the bird feeders with.  Sometimes you’ll see 15-20 of them at a time, lined up on the fence and scattered in the yard.  The males are bright red and the females are usually brown.  That’s about all I know about them so I looked them up on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to learn more.

First of all, this bird’s official name is the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).  It belongs to the Order Passeriformes and the Family Cardinalidae.  Some other birds who fall into this same order and family are Buntings, Tanagers, and Grosbeaks.

They are considered large songbirds, with a long tail, prominent crest and short thick beak.  A raised and pointed crest usually means are cardinal is agitated, while a lowered and barely visible one is often seen when resting.

Cardinals are fiercely protective of their territory, often leading them to peck at their own reflections in windows for hours.  I wonder if this guy got into some kind of territory dispute or if he simply died of natural causes.  There’s weren’t any windows near him though he may have fought with another cardinal as there are so many around.

They eat mainly seeds and fruit, with some insects (like beetles, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers, cicadas, flies, centipedes, spiders, butterflies, and moths) for snacks.  Common fruits and seeds they like are dogwood, wild grape, buckwheat, grasses, sedges, mulberry, hackberry, blackberry, sumac, tulip-tree and corn.  Around here they would have a lot of wild grapes, grasses, mulberries and corn.

Though cardinals typically move around in pairs during breeding season, in fall and winter they form large flocks of 12-24 birds, as we are seeing around the bird feeders here lately.  Mating pairs may stay together through winter, but many split up by the next spring.

 

Check out his feet!  You can see how he sits on branches with ease with those long claws to help him grip into whatever he lands on.

Cardinals can live 15+ years!  There’s an estimated 120 million of them in America and Mexico.

Finally, their calls.  I always thought cardinals sounded like they were saying: birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie.  Apparently they have loads of different songs and calls.  You can listen to some of them on the Cornell site.

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Well, returning to my list for growing as a naturalist, I think I have succeeded in a few areas with this Northern Cardinal research:

1. Cultivate curiosity.
2. Learn the names and taxonomy of plants and animals around you.
3. Become familiar with their basic ecology.
4. Go on walks with knowledgeable naturalists and take notes.
5. Ask how and why questions.
6. Scrutinize, touch, smell, listen and measure.
7. Conduct simple experiments.
8. Teach others.
9. Analyze your observations.
10. Put knowledge into action.

 

I think these guidelines will help enrich my knowledge of my place and add some interest to my walks.

What did you notice in your piece of the world today?