If you find your family staying at home to avoid contact with others, Wild Birds Unlimited invites you to discover the joys of bird feeding. Birds are always near-by and inviting them into your backyard is an excellent way to enjoy nature and relax. Below are five helpful tips for connecting with the natural world:

1.    Put up a Hummingbird Feeder – Setting up a hummingbird feeder near your home gives an up-close-and-personal view of this amazing bird. You can make your own nectar to fill your hummingbird feeder, four parts water to one part sugar. This can be one cup of water and a quarter cup of sugar. Use only table sugar and never honey, other sugars or artificial sweeteners.

2.    Bird Watching / I Spy a Bird – Watch the birds for a week, and make a list of all the birds you see and where you see them (field, forest, yard, or park).

3.    Listen & Observe Nature – By cupping their hands behind their ears for better hearing, guide your child to identify sounds made by insects, birds or mammals. Help them learn to identify birds they see and hear in their yard.

4.    Help Birds to Build their Nests – Lend a helping hand to the birds by supplying them with simple nesting materials. Put out some mud, moss, small twigs, straw, and see which birds use the different materials for their nest.

5.    Make an Observation Blind for Watching Backyard Wildlife – Because getting close to birds can be a challenge, drop a sheet with some cut out observation holes around some lawn chairs or over a cardboard box and let your children get a sneak peek as they approach your bird feeder or bird bath.

For more exciting ways to connect your children with nature visit, http://www.wbu.com/pathwaysforkids/activities.html.

Also, here's a link to a program I heard this morning, March 21, 2020 called Nature in the Time of Covid -9.  It's a podcast from Living on Earth with some talk about good ideas for keeping the kids entertained using nature!