Seasoned greetings from the staff at Ijams

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Startled, they looked towards the flock of crows to the west completely ignoring the man 
with the camera hidden in the bushes behind them.

Happy Holidays:
 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
from the staff at Ijams.

Spend time with family, someone you love, 
and/or go outside into nature. She'll always comfort you.  
And if you are very lucky, you might encounter 
a trio of well seasoned, Yule log-deers.

- Stephen Lyn Bales



(Editor's note: 2016 was so wonderfully busy, 
I didn't have time to blog about everything we did. 
Several things went unposted, 
so I will use the first few weeks of 2017 to catch up. 
Peace to you.)

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Ijams ongoing river cleanup gets well deserved coverage

Photo by Mike Steely for The Knoxville Focus

Some people come to work and do their jobs quietly, they draw little attention to themselves, they are unsung heroes. 

At Ijams, that description fits Jake Hudson and this year, AmeriCorps member Lauren Parker who are out on the river weekly doing cleanups of trash to keep the shorelines along downtown Knoxville looking tidy. 

This week Jake and Lauren got a little media attention from reporter Mike Steely in The Knoxville Focus.

Click: River cleanup

Well deserved, Jake and Lauren!

- Stephen Lyn Bales

Ijams Ed-Ventures homeschoolers complete third workshop

Hey. What ya lookin' at?

 
Three sessions of our third Ed-Ventures @ Ijams homeschool classes were held last month. We focused on the ornithology, namely backyard songbirds.

In all there are eight natural science topics that will be covered during the 2016-17 school year. In October it was entomology, i.e insects.

After a short indoor formal class on backyard birds, we moved outdoors for our biological fieldwork with binoculars. As a rule, birds do not hold still or come close. We looked for the basic dozen songbirds that are routinely seen around our homes: wrens, robins, cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches, blue jays, etc. 

This upcoming month we turn our attention to geology: rocks and minerals.

Ijams Nature Center has been connecting kids and their parents with nature since 1968.

- Stephen Lyn Bales, your birdy host

Was that a Carolina wren or a song sparrow? It was brown, did anyone get a good look?