| Family activity: Family Birdwatching |
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Many of us would like to spend more time with our families.
One great way to enjoy time with loved ones and simultaneously educate children (and older family members, too) is through easy backyard bird watching. It's like TV for our souls, right at home.
Backyard bird watching is a hobby shared by millions of Americans. According to the most recent survey by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 53.4 million Americans feed wild birds around their homes and 41.8 million people say they observed wild birds around their homes.
There are several ways to make the hobby more fun. One is to invest in birdfeeders and birdseed. Make sure you pick an area near trees to set up your feeding area, as birds like many roosts and angles to perch. Don't forget to replace the feed regularly. Different birds like different seed mixtures, so get a bag of mixed seeds the first time. Also, consider planting a nectar-rich flower boarder near where you'll place the feeder. Birds are drawn to the flowers.
If you'd like to photograph the birds to look up what their names might be (from the computer, or from a birding book), the Wingscapes BirdCam can capture the birds in motion outside thanks to motion activation. You can watch from indoors. The camera will store the images and accept memory cards; you download the pictures later to research more about which birds live in your own backyard. (It's available at www.wingscapes.com).
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