Green Hour Challenge #10 Outdoor Picnic

I know the Challenge for the week is to go on an outdoor picnic but somehow I forgot to photograph that part of our outing. We went to one of our many parks and sat at a picnic table and gave everyone a sandwich and some apples. We sat listening to the birds around us and the kids playing on the playground as we ate. I made the mistake of telling the kids I brought along a little lunch for the birds too. I had packed a small bag of bird seed for each of them. They quickly dropped their food and grabbed the bags and went out to try to feed the birds.
They went and scattered some seeds under a tree where we had seen a few birds before. Then I told them they needed to come back to the table and watch to see if any birds came to eat their offering. They wouldn't come if we were too near.
While we finished our lunch we watched as some black birds came and nibbled on some of the seeds the kids had scattered.
When finished we took a little walk out around the grassy area of the park to see what we could see.
I was surprised to see these cute little yellow birds. I guess I haven't paid much attention to birds because I hadn't ever seen these little guys before. I think they are some kind of Gold Finch. I would have to get a better look at them. I only saw them from below.
While on our stroll around the park we noticed this tree with these strange balls on the tree. I haven't been able to figure out what kid of tree it is.We of course had to scatter a few more seeds around this tree as well. I am thinking it is some kind of oak tree but I could be all wrong. I am so novice at this tree identification. I haven't found any tree, in any of the field guides we have, that has those balls on it. A lot of the trees in our neighborhoods aren't native to the area so give me a little more trouble sometimes.

It is hard to miss these very friendly birds in the park. They will come right up to the table if they know you have food for them.

And since we seem to have shifted our focus a bit to birds recently I thought I would include some of the other birds and things we saw today on our walk.
As we walked out of our drive way, Sophie pointed out the morning dove that was sitting on the neighbors roof.
We had seen one the other day while out "chalking" on the driveway. I had pointed it out and told her it was a dove. We had gone inside and looked it up in our field guide to find out exactly which kind. Sophie remembered it was called a morning dove.
While out walking we found the cutest little pine cones covering someone's driveway.
We collected a number of them and filled our pockets with them to take home. I have relented and we bring some of our treasures into the house. There is a glass mason jar filled with small rocks, cones and nuts that we find.
Here is the tree they are from. I will have to try to identify it more specifically then fir or spruce. Some kind of conifer tree is all I know. I may need to go walk by it again.
Henry found this little rollie pollie pill bug on the side walk and wouldn't put it down. He took it home with him and played with it for awhile.
Poor little rolled up critter.
Californian Poppies are still going strong in our neighborhood!
These really looked lovely in the wild patch of someone's yard mixed in with the purple flowers.