Sunday at the park

We headed to Blendon Woods to do some birdwatching and hiking early on Sunday morning. It was a pleasant surprise that the nature center was open with an amazing naturalist who taught us everything she knew about monarch butterflies (and let me tell you this chick was a wealth of knowledge and she was loving sharing it with my little ones!).
Although it was a little chilly (what's up with these mornings in July??) we braved the cold and took a hike through the woods and over to the pond!
My kids just loved hiking as a family and even little William kept up!
We saw lots of rare birds, we only know they were rare because a "professional birdwatcher" pointed them out to us! Can't remember their names but it was fun to find them and give my camera's zoom lens a good workout!
We didn't make it on some of the trails we wanted to try because it got to close to lunchtime and empty stomachs and hiking are not a good mix around these parts so here are some photos of what we did see... An adorable little hummingbird.

Adrienne brought her nature notebook to record what she saw. (What a good little homeschooler!)

This bright blue bird was beautiful. I wish I would've gotten a better photo. We looked up the name in the bird identification book but I can't recall the name.

Colin loved searching for all sorts of wildlife! This was his favorite part.

William stayed one step ahead of the gang! He was a trooper.

Adrienne and I thought this photo was so cool! We love the reflection.

Monarch Butterfly 101