We learn in different ways and these apps appeal to the type of learner who learns by doing – or a kinesthetic learner. Instead of reading or listening to facts, you LIVE the facts!

In most of these apps, you move through a world by tapping or dragging your finger. Often you can play these games without the ability to read, making them appealing to younger children.

Here are my kids’ favorite apps of this type:

• BeBee the Bee - This was my son’s favorite app of ALL the apps we tested. You are Bebee flying around gathering pollen and nectar. When you see a flower, you tap above it and pollinate the flower. You also have to avoid obstacles such as other bees, thorns and dragonflies. My son was already familiar with the concept of pollination so I don’t know if he really learned a lot by playing this game, but he kept asking to play it because he enjoys games where he moves through a world gathering points. My daughter enjoyed this game as well. There is a free version of this app and you can unlock more levels for $1.99 or $2.99.

BeBee the Bee app

• Great Migrations HD – In this app, you learn about migrations of species such as monarchs, salmon, zebras and red crabs. You start with monarchs. One somewhat humorous aspect of this app is that if you have your sound on, the whole time it is playing some very dramatic scary music, like you might hear at the most dramatic moment of a movie. While migrations are definitely dramatic, that gets tiring and in fact, at one point, Nora got so stressed when her monarchs started to die that she said, “I just can’t do this!” I suggested we turn off the sound and then she enjoyed the game very much. She would take the role of the lead monarch, and she would experiment with the wind patterns, predators such as spiders and other obstacles to move her monarch friends to safety. She really enjoyed this game. This app costs $0.99.

Great Migrations app

• Isopod: The Roly Poly Science Game  – You are a “roly poly,” one of those tiny bugs that rolls into a ball when threatened. To play, you hold your iPad in two hands and slowly manipulate it back and forth as if the roly poly was a marble on the surface of the iPad, and you were trying to roll it back and forth. You have goals to bump into some types of insects to win, and avoid others to lose. The insects in the game are realistically drawn and their real Latin names are given. The predator/prey relationships are shown, although some insects have special powers like giving you more health. I found this game exciting because I don’t normally use an iPad this way, and it took practice. My son liked it more than my daughter. Both my kids love bugs, but it would not be a good choice if you are scared of spiders or find it creepy to listen to them chomping on insects. This app costs $1.99.

Isopod: The Roly Poly Science Game app

• Pocket Frogs – This was my daughter’s favorite app of all the ones we tested. It took us a minute to figure this out, but then she was collecting frogs, breeding them and making eggs in her frog nursery. She was completely excited about learning about frogs and managing her froggy world. The sound that the frogs make when they hop around in the pond is completely adorable, and this is coming from a parent who listened to it for a very long time. As Nora got more advanced with the game, she was strategizing which frogs to breed to create the cutest frog possible. This is a free app.

Pocket Frogs app

• Wild Kratts Creature Power – My son is a huge Wild Kratts fan. A few years ago, he became so interested that he and his dad designed costumes like the ones in this show out of cardboard and ribbon, so he could be a cheetah and have super powers. So I was quite sure the app would be a huge hit for him. Sure enough, he loved it. Even though it is not designed for iPad yet, we downloaded it to the iPad and it just didn’t fill the screen. But that didn’t stop Russell. By putting on his creature power suits, he could live like a bee, raccoon and elephant. This app costs $2.99.

Wild Kratts Creatures App – Bee

One feature he loved was that I could take his photo with the iPad and his face would be put into a graphic so it looked like he was wearing one of the power suits.

Wild Kratts Creatures App – My son’s face with the bee body

Which Wildlife and Nature Apps Does Your Family Enjoy?

We’d love to hear about your experiences with these apps or others. Of course nothing connects children with nature and wildlife more than time outside, so be sure to balance your screen time and green time today.

Also, I want to put in a plug for National Wildlife Federation’s award-winning kids’ magazines, because my kids love them. When you subscribe to our magazines, it helps National Wildlife Federation continue our work of engaging children to care about nature! Subscribe to Ranger Rick and Ranger Rick Jr. magazines today!

And be sure to check out National Wildlife Federation’s animal and nature apps for kids!

I read to my kids each night, but this week, we read a book that really made a difference to us.

Wild Wings by Gill Lewis

My friend Helen took this photo near Sanibel Island, located off the west coast of Florida.

How an Osprey Brought Our Family Together

I started reading this book to my daughter Nora. Nearby, my husband and son worked on a puzzle. Often I read one book to Nora and one to my son Russell because they like different topics. But this time, the book was so interesting; soon I could see that all of them were listening.

The evenings passed. It has never happened that all four of us were completely enthralled with a book, and it felt very cozy. We would sit in the living room with only a few lamps on, feeling warm in the winter night.

We came to the final chapters. There was a part that was particularly moving (which I won’t give away) and I felt tears come to my eyes. I looked up at my husband and there were tears in his eyes too. I cry easily, but it was surprising to see this on my husband’s face. My kids were looking back and forth between us. I managed to read the book to the end.

When we looked at each other, this pause felt like a different type of “wildlife moment.” Our family spends time outside and cultivates our love of nature. But I realized this moment was special in its own way. Children remember and internalize values when their parents show vulnerability or pause. Life can be a rush of tasks and decisions. That look across our family told the perfect unspoken story.

Here is a related quote that I love:

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other is wings.” — Hodding Carter, Jr.

I would suggest reading the book Wild Wings, or more importantly, slow down with those you love. It’s winter, it’s time to snuggle.

Osprey Activities for Your Family

• Purchase Wild Wings through this link and support National Wildlife Federation.
• Download this coloring page and fact sheet about ospreys.
• Check out this Ranger Rick Adventure comic when he learns about ospreys in the Everglades.
• At my kids’ school, the grade five class is watching osprey migrations via the DFYI Osprey project.
• Get tips on watching birds of prey during Hawk Watch each fall.
• Download this activity worksheet about birds of prey.
• Purchase a bird watching kit from National Wildlife Federation and support our work.

How NWF is Helping Ospreys:

• Chesapeake Bay- NWF works to protect water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, home to many ospreys.
• Gulf of Mexico – NWF works to address the BP Oil Spill in osprey habitat such as Bon Secour Refuge.
• Michigan – NWF works to address the Enbridge oil spill, which affected osprey habitat.
• North Carolina – NWF certified a Community Wildlife Habitat where they built osprey platforms.
• Tribal Lands – NWF’s Tribal Lands program works with tribes to protect osprey habitat, such as the White Mountain Apache.

What You Can Do for Ospreys:

Ospreys rely on healthy waterways for their diet of fish. Take action to protect America’s waterways for ospreys and other water-loving wildlife.

Information about Ospreys:

• Read this National Wildlife article about the status of ospreys in North America.
• The Red Lake Band of the Chippewa has made conserving wildlife and habitat one of its top priorities, including osprey habitat.

Osprey Photos from the 2011 National Wildlife^® Photo Contest

See more osprey photos from the photo contest.

Note: Apologies for the ads at the start of some of these videos. I promise it’s worth the wait! 

1. Lobsters Marching Away From Stormy Waters

The combination of the soldier-like crustaceans, David Attenborough’s narration, and the heroic orchestral music make this one of my favorite migration movies. Brace yourself, though, for one scene that shows a spiny lobster meeting a gruesome end at the hands (fins?) of a trigger fish.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. Wildebeests — Millions of Them — Migrating in East Africa

In the spring, 1.5 million wildebeests join zebras and other animals to walk across the Serengeti to escape drought. The females make the 1000-mile trip just after giving birth!

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. Monarch Butterflies — They Fly 50-80 Miles Per Day

Can you believe 300 million monarchs fly 2,500 miles to Southern California and Mexico? No wonder they hibernate once they get there. (Oprah narrates this one!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. Thousands of Noisy Snow Geese

Though not a true video, I like this narrated photo slide show about the North American snow geese migration. Informative!

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. Eels Slithering to Sea

Here’s one that shows migrating eels getting tricked by a predator: humans! I’m glad the fishermen let the big ones make it to the ocean.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can help migrating animals by turning your yard in a haven for wildlife. Certify your habitat!

NWF Program Coordinator, Chris Hilke, inspects fish canal at Red Brook-Century Bog complex, MA

NWF’s Northeast Regional Center is working with a broad coalition of partners to help sea run brook trout or “salters” at Massachusetts Red Brook-Century Bog complex adapt to the impacts of climate change. Red Brook is a unique spring-fed, cold water, coastal stream that flows roughly 4.5 miles through several former cranberry bogs from its headwaters in Plymouth, MA to the ocean.

“Red Brook is one of the few coastal streams in Massachusetts that supports anadromous fish (migratory fish which hatch in freshwater, make their way to sea to grow, and return as adults to spawn), and is home to one of the last remaining native sea-run brook trout fisheries in the eastern United States”. (Trustees of Reservations)

This one-of-a-kind fishery is under serious threat from climate change. Warming water temperatures and a degraded habitat threaten the long-term survival of these salters. Without a concerted conservation effort it is likely that this unique coastal plain fishery would disappear like so many others along the Massachusetts coastline and beyond.

Fortunately, fifteen state, federal and non-governmental organizations are working together to implement strategies that will help these salters adapt to a changing climate. The efforts include restoring old cranberry bogs to wetlands, stabilizing water flow to prevent thermal “hot spots”, improving water quality, removing several levees, berms, small dams, and dikes, and planting native riparian species along the restored stream channel.

The coalition of partners includes; DFG’s Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) and Trout Unlimited, MassWildlife, A.D. Makepeace, The Trustees of Reservations, the National Wildlife Federation, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the USGS, American Rivers, the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, University of Massachusetts Boston, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the towns of Wareham, Plymouth, and Bourne, and DFG’s Division of Marine Fisheries.

The Red Brook-Century Bog initiative has moved beyond partner outreach and into an intensive monitoring phase that will inform which suite of future adaptation strategies will be most effective. The Northeast Regional Center is involved in this process of helping to identify which restoration strategies would be most appropriate.

The exercise of identifying a suite of “climate-smart” strategies is extremely useful at Red Brook and elsewhere as resource managers struggle to implement their projects under the threat of climate change. In many ways, determining these climate-smart recommendations serves to elevate Red Brook as a “showcase” demonstration site for on-the-ground climate adaptation in riverine systems.

To learn more about the development of climate-smart adaptation strategies in the northeast contact me at hilkec@nwf.org.

Kids team at the 2011 World Series of Birding

It’s the biggest event you have never heard of.  Hundreds of people from all over the world gather each year in Cape May, New Jersey for a competitive birding event hosted by NWF’s New Jersey affiliate, New Jersey Audubon called “The World Series of Birding.”

Seriously.  No Seriously.  (I spent a lot of time saying that to my friends and co-workers in the weeks leading up to the big day).

Birding for 24 hours straight after spending several days and nights scouting the birds you will eventually count.  As the parent of a long-time competitive birder, I have to admit even I thought this sounded kind of extreme and certainly not much fun.  So of course when my daughter asked if I would go with her this year, I said yes.

A team of four high school kids, two dedicated expert birding coaches and I headed off in cars packed full of spotting scopes, bird books and energy drinks to Cape May for three days of scouting before the “big day.”  Teams come from all over the world to this location during this week in May to witness (and catalogue) one of the largest concentrations of migratory song-birds and shore birds on the East Coast.  So popular is this event each year that it almost becomes un-noteworthy to see a group of binocular-wearing, foreign-accented birders standing around the coffee pot of a rural New Jersey convenience store discussing the sighting of an elusive barn owl at 3:00 in the morning.

The event is teams of kids and adults crisscrossing the state for 24 hours with well-scouted and strategically mapped routes working to locate and identify the highest number of individual bird species.  It kind of reminded me of the movie “Twister” with competitive teams racing around, except with considerably less chance of your car getting sucked into a category 5 funnel cloud.

My job was the driver – and my team of kids were responsible for scouting the birds days in advance, designing a route that took into account previous sightings, sun position, tides, and weather -  and of course finding, identifying and recording each species.

For me, it was an opportunity to learn from the kids – but even more enjoyable, it was an opportunity to witness the blossoming of a deeper appreciation of wildlife and the environment for a group of kids that I have watched grow up.

They would debate birdcalls, discuss most favorable habitats, and talk excitedly at the opportunity to meet fabled ornithologist and author Pete Dunne.

These kids not only love birds, but in the process they have developed a deeper understanding of what is necessary to protect them:  clean air, clean water, protected open space and native food and habitat.

It is also a much-needed opportunity for them to really connect with the natural world, which in today’s technology-saturated environment becomes very challenging.  But sitting in the pre-dawn forest  listening for the calls of a whip-poor-will or great horned owl, scanning a vast wind-swept marsh late in the evening for a low-flying northern harrier, or walking quietly along a stream hoping to hear the sweet call of a Kentucky Warbler – you simply can’t help to feel a connection to the landscape around you.

Today there is a grave threat in our own homes, our schools and our communities that threatens generations of conservation progress and victories – the threat of a generation of children entirely disconnected from nature.   Not only does this have health, academic and behavior consequences, but we are also in danger of producing a generation of Americans with no appreciation for nature and therefore no inclination to protect it.

Jacques Cousteau reminded us that “people only protect what they love” – and for these kids, the experience provided by the “world series” will undoubtedly result in a lifetime of attention to the environment which they came to love.

Ruby-throated hummingbird

After Pat Neuhaus read in the December/January issue of National Wildlife that out-of-range-and-season sightings of hummingbirds are becoming increasingly common, he put out his sugar-water feeders. The next day, a hummingbird arrived in his South Carolina yard.

“I hope to go by his house this weekend to try to band this hummer,” says Doreen Cubie, a licensed bander and author of the feature that inspired Neuhaus to take action. Bob Sargent of the Hummer/Bird Study Group put the two in touch after the homeowner reported his sighting. Both Cubie and Sargent are part of a coalition studying the apparent shifts in the cold-weather ranges of several hummingbird species.

“Bob Sargent emailed me to say he has received nearly 700 replies so far from people who read the hummingbird article and have hummingbirds in their yards now,” reports Cubie. “Pretty amazing, really. Because of these contacts from National Wildlife readers, wintering hummingbirds have been banded in Pennsylvania, Michigan and in several places in the Southeast.”

Report winter hummingbirds: If you have a sugar-water feeder out and spot a hummingbird, the Hummer/Bird Study Group would like hear from you. Contact the group at rubythroat@aol.com.

Find out more: Read “The Hummingbirds of Winter” by Doreen Cubie, then check out her tips for attracting these avian pollinators to your garden.

Photo Credit: Belinda Serata

It’s not in the Guinness book but on Oct. 11, 2008 volunteers and scientists from Hawkwatch International set a world record for logging the most peregrine falcons ever seen in a single day, 638.

The count took place during the 10th-annual raptor migration count at Curry Hammock State Park on Little Crawl Key in the Florida Keys; the last year before funding disappeared; five years short of having data that provides reasonably precise estimates of population trends, according to researchers.

Raptors that migrate through the Keys come from as far away as New England, Canada and the Midwest. Eight species are counted (others are “noted”): osprey, northern harrier, sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper’s hawk, broad-winged hawk, American kestrel, merlin and peregrine falcon.
To discover changes in population trends will require at least 10-15 consecutive years of data, according to Ernesto Ruelas, postdoctoral fellow and Raptor Population Index project manager for the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA). Hence the disappointment at losing 2009 and the excitement over HMANA restarting the count for 2010.

“The importance of the Curry Hammock site, and the Florida Keys in general, is it’s the last point on the Atlantic seaboard where you can track the migration before the birds head off to Cuba, the Yucatan Peninsula, the West Indies and Central and South America,” said Ruelas.

Though no oil flowed onto the shores of the Florida Keys and South Florida — an estimated 206 million gallons of oil were pushed into the Gulf of Mexico — trend analyses of raptor migration will become especially important.

“In 2004 and 2005 we started to consolidate the data and develop tools for analysis,” said Ruelas. “Right now we can use long-term data to figure out how populations are doing, but to find the causes why populations are going up or down requires further research. In many cases we can connect the dots with other sites and data sets to understand population trends.”

The connect-the-dots approach will include postulating about food sources, especially those impacted by the spill. Ospreys, of course, feed on fish. Merlins, small falcons sometimes called pigeon hawks, will attack shore birds like sandpipers. Migrating raptors feed on birds or small mammals, supplementing their diets with reptiles and frogs, which populate coastal wetlands and offshore islands.

If over the next five or so years, migration counts continue and show a marked decrease, one might conclude the oil spill has claimed victims from hundreds, even thousands of miles distant.

Miguel Ferrer, an ornithologist at Spain’s Doñana National Park, told a recent gathering of about 200 scientists that about 70 percent of the world’s migrating birds, 20 billion in total, have changed their migration habits over the past few decades. Some birds have stopped migrating altogether.

“Long-distance migrators are traveling shorter distances; shorter-distance migrators are becoming sedentary,” Ferrer said. “That has a knock-on effect on almost everything they do, from breeding habits to feeding habits to their genetic diversity, which in turn affects other organisms in their food chain. It’s a huge behavioral change, forced on them by rising temperatures.”

The biggest reason behind this behavioral shift is climate change.

“Climate change and environmental change are simultaneously forcing migratory birds to adapt extremely quickly”, says Ian Newton, a Royal Society member and longtime researcher.

The adaptation process was necessary during the Ice Age, when species needed to change habits in order to adapt to a changing climate. However, if this adaptation process is needed much faster than previously, the process may be no where near as successful.

“Average annual temperatures are moving northward at a rate of four kilometers (about 2 miles) a year,” Mr Ferrer estimates, “so the normal summer temperature in your city 12 months ago is now normal four kilometers further north. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s 20 times quicker than temperatures changed in the last Ice Age. At the same time, because birds are migrating less, one traditional path for genetic development, when they strayed from their migration paths by accident and had to adapt, is being closed off.”

Tuesday Tweets, the second article in our National Wildlife Week series, hopes that after you retweet this blog post you’ll shut it down and take your lunch break outside. But first, check out these birds that make ridiculously long migrations annually.

Running on Empty

Ruby-throated hummingbirds are tiny—they are about three inches long and weigh less than 0.2 ounces. But that doesn’t stop these mighty little birds during their yearly migration! In early spring, ruby-throats leave their wintering sites throughout Mexico and Central America to migrate all the way to the eastern United States and southeast Canada. In this migration, many will fly 500 miles nonstop over the Gulf of Mexico without eating or drinking.

With Love from Chile

While ruby-throats travel far for their size, barn swallows travel far no matter how you look at it. Barn swallows migrate from South America to the United States, traveling at distances upwards of 600 miles a day. A barn swallow you see nesting on a bridge in Idaho could have traveled all the way from Chile or Argentina.

Winner

Did you know that the Arctic tern travels between both poles every year? That is more than 44,000 miles roundtrip!

Get Moving

Watch for birds near you with Wildlife Watch, which provides lists of animals in your region.

Look for a place to birdwatch with Nature Find, the online database of nature sites across the country. You just need to pop in your zip code to get started.

Bird lovers can get more birding tips and bird behavior stories in the birds section of National Wildlife Magazine online.

Check out this Today Show appearance with NWF naturalist David Mizejewski as he showcases backyard critters like the screech owl, a toad, and a box turtle!

References:

Yale Environment 360

All About Birds by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Hummingbirds.net

eNature.com

Photo Credit: Warren Cooke, Lesser Goldfinch – Tucson, Arizona