Does anyone have any fun nature games you can play in the car?
Edit: Thank you everyone! I have got some great ideas!
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I don’t spy with my little eye: name something you can’t see but could look for. Winner gets to pick the next one. Works with anything but nature-themed ones are fun.
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Roadkill bingo. Popular choices include deer, armadillos, rabbits, possums, squirrels, and turtles
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“Botany at 55 mph”. The driver is generally exempted from IDs beyond genus level for actuarial reasons. Great for honing your tree skills. (astrobirder is a skilled player, as practiced on iNaturalist.)
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https://www.buzzfeed.com/fuelthejourney/cows-on-my-side
Some of these look easily adaptable to nature motifs.
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Fun for adults, but very annoying for teenagers in the back seat on family vacations, especially when the game is played in Latin.
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I do that! When I’m driving in New Mexico and every tree is Juniperus, Atriplex, and Prosopis, I spend hours saying those plants over and over! So fun!! (for no one except me)
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Of course you can do birding at 55 mph too
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County listing for whatever organisms you like.
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Nature alphabet! We usually play it while hiking, but I guess you can do it in the car. Instead of finding the alphabet letters on signs, you try to find something in nature that starts with the letter. We have little kids, so it generally goes something like A- acorn, B - bush, c- cloud, but I guess if you wanted to up the ante you could do scientific names. Hmm, the car version might be difficult…
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Yes! AKA Ethaning, there is a project for observations made while Ethaning (that astrobirder created) which can be found here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/road-inatting
Description for the group as follows:
“Road iNatting is the act of photographing organisms while riding as a passenger in a vehicle, typically from a car, train, or even plane. (Note: The vehicle may be stopped at a stop light etc… it doesn’t necessarily have to be in motion when the organism is photographed)”
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A lot of my observations submitted through the app are 55 mph attempts, as a passenger of course. Examples:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65986811 – Taken on Idaho Interstate so 80 mph
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63121746
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43937086
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Variant of this is the next object starts with the last letter of the previous. Name one = acorn, next name starts with n and so on.
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“What Was That Bug?” – identifying windshield splatter.
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Who eats, eats who? Is a game I like to play with my little ones in the car. I say an animal, and they (taking turns) name an organism it eats, and then they say another organism that eats that, and then another organism that that one eats, and so on.
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Nullum gratuitum prandium
Reminds me of my favourite coffee mug from 1994 by artist Ray Troll. Bought it in Ketchikan but I had the t-shirt from a few years earlier. I think now one can only get the poster or T-shirt
https://www.trollart.com/product/no-free-lunch-art-poster/
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“Who can spot the most hawks” contest
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Not all teenagers. Me and my brother are teenagers and were the best at this kind of thing.
Although we would not be so good at it if it was in Latin.
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Nature Spy. For instance, “find a bird” or “find a sign of a mammal” and so on.
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There are a few places around where you can play find a sign with a mammal or other animal - deer, elk, armadillo, elephant, kangaroo, sloth, tortoise, snake, giraffe, polar bear, and etc…
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