Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
Can You Name These Birds?
Some of them show up with springtime.
Others, quiet during winter, get busy as soon as the temperature warms up!
Photo: Wikipedia, Dendroica cerulea from Highland Park, NJ, United States
Clue: the colour of its breast
Photo: Wikipedia, Black-capped Chickadee
Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada -- 2005 December
Clue: its name sounds like its song
Photo: Wikipédia, Alan D. Wilson, www.naturespicsonline.com
Photo: Les merveilles de la nature : les oiseaux, from the web site ‘‘Jésus est mon sauveur’’
Clue: one does not make a spring
Clue: the red spot on its wing
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Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
American Robin
The American Robin, also known as the robin, is a migratory songbird. It is named
after the European Robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related. It is among the first birds to sing at dawn.
It is one of the first North American bird species to lay eggs, and normally has two to three broods per breeding season.
Have you ever found blue eggshells on your lawn?
Can you identify the robin’s song?
Have you noticed how a robbin moves when on the ground?
Chickadee
This bird has a short dark bill, short rounded wings, and a long tail. Sexes look alike
(males are slightly larger). At bird feeders, Black-capped Chickadees tolerate human
approach. In fact, during the winter, many individuals accustomed to human habitation will readily accept seed from a person’s hand.
Did chickadees follow you as you were out for a walk in a wooded area?
Have you ever seen a chickadee all by itself?
Swallow
The Barn Swallow is a long-distance migrating bird which normally uses man-made
structures to breed. Its insect-eating habits mean that it is tolerated by man. Many
literary references are describing the arrival of swallows as a symbol of spring. The
outer tail feathers are elongated; giving the distinctive deeply forked “swallow tail”.
Did you live someplace where swallows nested?
Have you seen one lately? The species decline worries biologists.
Red-winged Blackbird
The Red-winged Blackbird gets its name from the mainly black adult male’s distinctive red shoulder patches, or “epaulets”, The Red-winged Blackbird aggressively
defends its territory from other animals. It will attack much larger birds. Males have
been known to swoop at humans who encroach upon their nesting territory during
breeding season.
Source : Wikipédia
Have you ever seen a red-winged blackbird attack a crow in flight?
Have you experienced being its target as you were out for a walk?
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Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
Do You Know Proverbs About Springtime?
Here are a few, can you put the sentences back in order?
One does not spring
make a swallow.
has come Spring when you
foot can put three your on
daisies.
A cold late
a Easter, long spring.
What Do You Think About This?
In spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to
what the woman has been thinking all winter!
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Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
One swallow does not
make a spring.
Spring has come when you
can put your foot on three
daisies.
A late Easter,
a long cold spring.
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Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
OUT
IN
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Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
Can You Unscramble These Words?
1. msosoBl
1. 6 . o w e s F r l
6. 2. Wram
2. 7. letM
7. 3. rBsid
3. 8. nPtal
8. 4. ofDaidlf
4. 9. hcatH
9. 5. woGr
5. 10. iPncci
10. Match These Words And Create A Compound Word.
Draw a line connecting one word to the other.
BUTTER
LADY
TA D
POLE
SHINE
F LY
RAIN
PA C K
BASE
BIRD
BACK
BALL
BLUE
BOW
SUN
BUG
Answers on page 8
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Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
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1
5
3
6
4
8
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HORIZONTAL
VERTICAL
1.
The state of flowering.
2.
The light of the sun.
4.
The act of cultivating or tending
a garden.
3.
Having the appearance, freshness,
vitality, etc., of youth.
7.
Popeye’s favourite.
5.
Size or stage of development.
9.
The season of renewal.
6.
A weedy plant with edible, notched
leaves, yellow flowers, and rounded
clusters of white, hairy seeds.
8.
A usually cold dish consisting
of vegetables.
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Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
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B L O S S O M
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Y
U
O
N G
U
L
T
N A C H
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G A R D E N I
A
R
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O
N
S P I
W
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F
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S P R I
N G T I
S
M E
S
Answers For Games On Page 6
The unscrambled words:
1.Blossom
2.Warm
3.Birds
4.Daffodil
5.Grow
6.Flowers
7.Melt
8.Plant
9.Hatch
10.Picnic
The compound words:
Butterfly
Ladybug
Tadpole
Rainbow
Baseball
Backpack
Bluebird
Sunshine
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Your Canadian Resource for Senior Activities May 2014
Spring Fever!
Spring
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: Oh word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are plowmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: Oh word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
By William Shakespeare
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