Birding: Let a Child Guide You

Have you ever been on a walk with a child and noted that they find coins on the ground quite often (coins that you passed right by without seeing), or that children can easily spot a bird far off in the distance, or that they notice a line of ants marching across the path carrying chewed pieces of leaves right before you would have stepped on them? Last winter my family and I took a good, long road trip from Minnesota all the way down to Grand Isle, Louisiana to escape the MN cold, but more importantly, to explore areas we’ve never been. How refreshing to see all the sights on our trip through the eyes of my children. Their excitement was contagious! Arriving at the ocean felt like seeing it for the first time myself. My kids found heaps of shells, spotted the beautiful Man O’ War, felt the push of the ocean waves as they swam toward shore, and discovered that the many quarter-sized holes in the sand were home to a type of hairy land crab. My children still get excited to tell of the treasures they unearthed on their trip. Anyhow, when we returned home from our explorations, my father-in-law had left us a section of The Wall Street Journal on our kitchen counter with a specific article circled for us to read. The article was titled, When Children Beat Adults at Seeing the World, and was written by Alison Gopnik, an American professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. In the article, Alison discusses how adults are better at focusing their attention and learning as a result, but children are better at learning about anything unattended. In other words, adults only seem to focus on objects, ideas, etc. that are at the center of their attention, whereas children also learn about and attend to things that are happening in the background. So, the next time you think a child is not paying attention (watching a bird find worms outside the school window, staring at a spider building a web during homework, or chasing a leaf during soccer practice), perhaps that child is really paying attention to more than you know, exploring more, and learning much more than you think. Perhaps this would be a good time to ask that child what he or she was looking at or thinking about. You may just learn something new too! How about testing out this idea by bringing a child birding with you? Birding is a great way to get outdoors, get into nature, and it doesn’t have to cost you a penny. According to the Audubon site, the U.S. is home to 47 million birders. If you think about it, birding is really a scavenger hunt. A scavenger hunt that you can partake in anywhere in the world and can last a lifetime. There are really only two things you need to do to begin birding: Find a green space or water source. Go on a walk. That’s it! So very simple. These are other things that may make your birding experience more fruitful: Bring along a pair of binoculars. Go to the library and rent a birding field guide. Use a checklist or nature journal to record your sightings. Download a free app for phones like the Audubon Bird Guide App. This particular app has data on 821 species of birds, more than 8,200 photos, and eight hours of bird sounds. Do a little research prior to your outing to see which birds you should be looking for at that particular time of year. Bring a child along. I’m not much for carrying anything cumbersome on my hikes, so I don’t ever take binoculars, a field guide, or a journal, but I do have my children right beside me, and they are, in my opinion, the best birding resource. They sure spot birds, insects, mushrooms, and anything else that is different or exciting with little effort. Last weekend, a few members of my family went out on our typical nature walk up at the cabin. When we returned, we noticed that the others who had stayed behind were intently looking up into the old basswood tree. The kids ran down to explore, and they excitedly came running back yelling “A mama hummingbird has a nest up in the tree by the deck!” We’ve never observed a hummingbird nest here in Minnesota. This nest just happened to be about 10 feet from the deck railing. The nest itself was not much larger than a silver dollar, and after closer inspection of the pictures I took with the camera, the nest almost seemed to glitter in green in black. We know that hummingbirds use spider webs to tie twigs and plant material together, which also makes the nests soft and stretchy. This particular hummingbird used tiny little pieces of sage-green lichen to weave into the silky-soft spider webs, along with a sparkly black substance, which we couldn’t identify. The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird seemed to perch regally in her magnificent nest. Definitely a sight to behold. I do have to note that my mother was the one to spot the sweet ruby-throated hummingbird in her nest. We have often teased my mother, in good nature, about being one of the kids. Mom has always taken this as a compliment, and I’ve always appreciated her easy-going, fun-loving personality. “You’re only as old as you feel!” Perhaps she has learned the trick to not only learning by focusing, but learning by exploring too. Thanks to this, we have been treated to watching Miss Ruby tend to her nest the last couple of weeks. I hope we’ll get to catch a glimpse of the tiny babies when they emerge from the tiny, navy bean-sized eggs. The next time you head out for a walk, bring your child, grandchild, or a friend with their child with you to see how many different birds you can spot

Get Outside And Get Into Nature: Your Mind and Body Will Thank You

My son asked me last weekend, as we were all helping to put the dock in the lake up at the family cabin, “Mom, why does Brook [our dog], love being at the cabin so much?” I answered, “Well, I imagine she loves the cabin for many of the same reasons we love being here. The extended family comes up to visit [including all of the pups], everyone is always happy and relaxed, we spend our evenings fishing, roasting marshmallows over the fire, and playing games on the deck, we share great food, and we take long walks down the dirt road and through the woods.” Do you notice a common denominator here? Yes, most of our time is spent outside. When I think about our typical day at the cabin, we usually spend no more than two hours inside. An hour for breakfast and an hour or so before bed to watch the news and have a snack. The rest of the day we play outside, we talk outside, we eat outside, and we relax outside. Happiness! This is what we feel at the cabin. This is what we feel when we are outside. Unfortunately, many people aren’t getting outside these days. In fact, according the National Wildlife Federation, children are spending half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago.  Today, children go from school to after-school activities or homework and adults go from working all day to taking care of their house/children. Increasing screen time takes away from potential outdoor time, limited green spaces in cities and suburbs can make it difficult for people to find space to enjoy the outdoors, and people are not making outdoor-time a priority in their busy lives. In an astounding new (2016) study by Persil, more than 12,000 parents of 5 to 12-year old children in 10 countries around the world (US, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, UK, US, and Vietnam) were surveyed and researchers found that children, on average, spend an hour or less of their day outside. Prisoners are allowed two hours of outdoor time each day. Our children are spending less time outside than prisoners! Persil put together an impactful video interviewing inmates about their feelings toward their outdoor time. Then, the video captured the inmates’ reactions when the interviewer told them that children around the world are getting an hour of outdoor time per day. See the two-minute video here: Free the Kids Limited outdoor time can have major consequences on not only physical health, but mental and emotional health as well. According to the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC), one in three adults and one in six children have obesity. Leading a sedentary lifestyle (too many hours sitting in school or daycare centers, no unstructured play time, too much screen time on TV, computers, and smartphones, etc.) is one of the main causes of obesity. Also, the CDC reports that the percentage of children with an ADHD diagnosis has continued to increase from 7.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2007 and to 11.0%  in 2011. Similarly, a study by Mantejano et al. found that ADHD diagnoses in adults increased more than three-fold between 2002 and 2007. Is it a coincidence that as human beings decrease the time they spend outside, physical and mental illnesses increase? Research shows that many illnesses such as obesity and ADHD can be controlled and sometimes eradicated by one simple prescription, a free prescription: nature.  Research shows that being outside: Boosts overall health5, 6, 10, 14 Decreases anxiety and depression8 Increases cognitive functioning4, 5 Increases creativity5 Increases happiness5 Increases self-awareness5 Increases self-esteem3, 5, 13 Increases the ability to focus, even in children with ADHD4, 5, 9, 13, 14 Increases energy levels11 Increases physical activity levels and decreases obesity levels5 Improves mood1, 2, 3, 14 Improves sleep12 Lowers blood pressure levels10 Is necessary for brain development7 Reduces stress1, 2, 3, 5, 14 Reduces aggression5, 14 Back to the cabin.  The day the family went up to put the dock in the lake, my husband, my mother, my children, my nephew, Brook (our dog), and I went on a two-hour walk down the dirt road and through the woods. A two-hour walk that would normally take 20 minutes had we continued walking on the road. We collected Lake Superior agates on the dirt road, and we identified spring wild flowers poking up through the crispy leaves that had fallen last fall on the forest floor. My son found a fungi we had never observed before called Devil’s Urn (a cup-shaped black fungi that is surprisingly edible), the whole family found groves of ramps (a wild onion), and collected the leaves to bring home to prepare with dinner. The kids explored the hills and valleys throughout the woods, finding treasures like glass bottles, old flower pots, and frogs in shallow, muddy puddles.  Meanwhile, the adults found an old log to sit on to discuss how wonderful it is to see the kids lost in nature. The kids were running, hopping, jumping, climbing, learning, exploring, and chatting away, oblivious to the fact that we were watching them with appreciation. Happiness all around. Make the time to get outside and get into nature. Your body and mind will thank you. Visit Get Outside often for new ideas on how to get outside and get into nature! References: Akers, A., Barton, J., Cossey, R., Gainsford, P., Griffin, M., Mikleright, D. (2012). Visual Color Perception in Green Exercise: Positive Effects on Mood and Perceived Exertion. Environmental Science and Technology. 46(16):8661-8666. Aspinall, P., Mavros, P., Coyne, R., Roe, J. (2012). The urban brain: analyzing outdoor physical activity with mobile EEG. British Journal of Sports Medicine. Barton, J., Pretty, J. (2010). What is the Best Dose of Nature and Green Exercise for Improving Mental Health? A Multi-Study Analysis. Environmental Science and Technology. 44: 3947-3955. Berman, M. G., Jonides, J., Kaplan, Stephen. (2008). The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature. Psychological Science. 19: 1207-1212. Children and Nature Network. (2012). Health Benefits to Children from contact with the Outdoor & Nature. 46