Summer Bug Explorations

Boys being boys, and my having two of them means that we've seen a lot of bugs this summer.  We have had so many cicadas in our yard.  You never know where you're going to find their exoskeletons!  We've had them on the side of our garden boots, my husband's car tire, the house, etc.  My son, the expert, tells me these are common Dog Day cicadas.  I have to say, they are huge and quite impressive!  These guys can measure up to 2" in length.  Its especially cool when you find one in the midst of hatching out of its shell.  I found just such a specimen early one morning.

I came across him just as he was starting to emerge.  He's belly up at this point.  My little expert also tells me that this is a male because of his little cymbal flaps for making the super loud noise they're famous for.  Its how he attacks his mate.  Some people say the sound reminds them of a power saw.  It is certainly loud enough.  See how tiny his little wings are?

Just a few minutes later, his wings have fully unfurled and are almost dry.  He also somehow managed to flip over so he's not belly up any longer.

Now he's just waiting to fully dry before flying off, leaving his empty shell behind.  His color will darken and he'll turn either brown or black.  They vary greatly in color.  He will only live for a few weeks at best, but he'll be very busy during that time trying to continue the species.  Very cool!

This particular bug would make a great subject for any budding bug enthusiasts to study.  They are found everywhere, they big and impressive, and they don't bite.  There are lots of different species and some live underground for as many as 17 years!  You could create your own unit study, notebook pages, or even a lap book.  Happy learning!

What is it with bees and pools?

I wish somebody would please explain to me why it is that I have literally hundreds of honey bees at my pool every day?  We have a beekeeper about 1/4 of a mile from our house and apparently their favorite watering hole is our pool.  I've heard that its the chlorine.  At first, the kids were terrified of being stung.  However, after explaining that honey bees are generally very unlikely to sting unless threatened, they've gotten used to them.  Haley even goes so far as to let them land on her hand!  Their favorite landing spot is my float.  You can generally find around 25 bees on it at any given time.

Having them so close and in such great numbers does allow us to study them.  We have enjoyed many days sitting really still in the pool watching a bee slurp up pool water.  Unfortunately, some of the bees fall in and drown.  I do my best to rescue as many as I can, but inevitably I miss a few.  Why all this talk of bees...maybe because we haven't done much else of interest over the past few days.  Here's a closeup of one of our "pool bees".  Cool huh?

P.S.  Haley says to be sure to look for the hair on her eyeball.

Garden Fun with Loofahs!

We've had a raised bed garden in our backyard for several years now.  Earlier this spring we had several varieties of lettuce, a few strawberry plants, and 4 tomato plants.  One of our dogs seemed to think the garden soil was the very best place in our entire yard to sleep.  He ruined two of the tomato plants, dug up my spinach and lettuce, and basically ruined the garden.  So, I finally convinced my husband to build a fence around the garden to keep him out.  At this point it was late in the season, and we only had two tomato plants and one strawberry plant left.  So, I decided to just do something for fun in the garden this year.  When I was a child, my German grandmother had loofah vines growing on a fence in her backyard.  I have vivid memories of picking the loofahs, taking them home, and using the loofah sponges in the bath.  In discussing loofahs with friends lately, I'm amazed at how few people seem to know what I'm talking about.  Surely you've seen or used a loofah at some point in your life?

We ordered seeds online and in just a few weeks we had vines growing up our fence.  It took quite some time, but we finally were rewarded with big yellow flowers about two weeks ago.  Kinda pretty, aren't they?

So we've watched and waited to see our first loofah gourd appear.  On Monday I finally found one!  In looking more closely, we actually have about four loofahs already.  They are growing like crazy and get bigger every day.

We have enjoyed watching the vines twist and climb on anything and everything around.  Good thing the birds are done with the house for the season...I think the loofah vine is going to overtake it soon!

As I mentioned earlier, we also have two tomato plants that survived the dog.  Nobody in our family actually eats tomatoes except my husband.  We just grow them for fun.  We haven't had much luck with them this year though.  Could be because the kids keep picking the green ones before they're ripe.  While I was out admiring our loofah gourds this week I found this interesting looking caterpillar on one of the tomato plants.  In looking closer, it seems he had a friend with him, as there were actually two on one of the plants.

After taking his picture and showing the kids, we scoured our Field Guide to Butterflies to figure out what he was.  Turns out he's not exactly considered a good type of caterpillar.  He's a tomato hornworm.  They are actually garden pests.  He and his buddy will most likely devour every green leaf on the tomato.  Oh well...at least somebody will enjoy them.  They don't even turn into a pretty butterfly.  They end up as a somewhat nondescript moth.  Bummer...

Visitors...

Last night we had a very unique visitor to our house.  Never in the twelve years we've lived here have we had a visitor of this kind.  We've had opossums, wild turkeys, deer, snakes, hawks, but never this!

It was about 11:00 pm and I let our three dogs out to "do their business" before bed and they ran out started barking like crazy right beside the house.  I turned on the porch light and this terrified little face is looking up at me.

 

Poor little guy was just hungry and apparently came to our yard because of the cat food bowl on our porch.  He thought we were asleep for the night.  He got away from the dogs by climbing up the side of the house between the house and the fence.  He got himself wedged in and couldn't go up or down.  After quickly getting the dogs inside, snapping a couple of pictures, I got a broom and used the handle to give him a little boost up and in an instant he was gone.  I'm just so thankful that the dogs didn't catch him.  Is he cute, or what?

Not so Wordless Wednesday

Okay, I just had to post another somewhat freaky looking bug picture for you guys. What is it with me and bugs you ask? No idea! One would think that I actually like bugs or something! I really don't. I'm actually a bit bug phobic. But, I do love to take pictures and bugs are always in abundance and make great photographic subjects.

Back to my original thought which is....drum roll please...

Last week I posted a picture of this very strange bug on my hydrangea bush. After submitting the picture to a bug identification site, we later found out that it was a juvenile wheel bug. Well...this bug is apparently his daddy...or mommy, as the case may be. He was hanging out on the side of our pool.

Speaking of yuck, here's another one I found that very day on the side of our pool no less. It was very small, but due to its resemblance to a black widow I wasn't willing to take any chances. I squished it. He was right there out in plain sight where any of my kids could have brushed him, or her.

When I showed the picture to my husband he said he didn't think it was a black widow at all. Well, me being the know it all that I am, I did some research. It was a juvenile. There are actually several varieties and not all of them have the hourglass we expect. So, if you see a shiny black spider with red on it at all, squish it. There are even some varieties that are brown. Yeah, I'm not a fan of black widows.

Ominous Skies!

Ever since the F4 tornado ripped through my town in April, I'm a bit leary of storms. There have just been so many bad tornadoes all over the country this year. We have had some nasty weather over the past few weeks here, but no tornadoes thank goodness. Here are a couple of pictures I took from my front porch this afternoon. Ominous skies!!

I was just waiting and watching to see a tornado drop out of the sky. It didn't, but the pictures really don't do it justice.

Our babies have hatched!

If you missed my earlier post, we have mockingbirds nesting in our front yard. The nest is low enough that we can easily look in and keep an eye on their progress. I posted a picture of the nest with its four little blue speckled eggs. After watching them all week long, we finally have something new to report. Yesterday we had two babies and two eggs. Today all four babies have hatched. They are so ugly, they're cute! I'll post more pictures as they get bigger and look like something besides fuzzy blobs with big yellow beaks.

Are they cute or what?

Nature Studies from home...

Lately we've been hearing some rather interesting sounds coming from the trees around our house. We have an abundance of Periodical Cicadas that just came above ground for the first time in 13 years. The boys love them, but Haley is seriously freaked out by them. I personally think any bug that lives for 13 years is something worth learning about. Plus, they are harmless to humans. So, aside from the fact that they are HUGE, have red eyes, are VERY noisy, flying everywhere, and generally making a nuisance of themselves, they're kinda cool.

Check out this cool caterpillar that we found! He was very similar to the inch worms we're all familiar with, only much BIGGER! Ryan loves caterpillars and is fearless in picking them up. He picked this one up and played with him for a bit before sending him on his way. No idea what kind he is...

Next are our resident bluebirds which I love. Mr. Bluebird comes right up on the deck and sits on the hanger for our bird feeder. He likes to eat the cat food out of the bowl on the deck rail. This has allowed me to get some awesome close up pictures of him!

Last are the four little eggs we discovered in a tree in our front yard. They're mockingbird eggs. We've been watching them for days to see when they hatch. Mommy Mockingbird does not like us watching however!

How cool is it that we're currently studying birds? We're using Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. What a great opportunity to have some hands on learning with them so close! I'll keep you posted to see when they hatch.

Happy day, happy day!!!

We are so excited to find that we have bluebirds successfully nesting in one of our nest boxes again this year. Last year we had an awful experience with the house sparrows in our yard. We have 4 bluebird nest boxes located on the fence around our back yard. Every year the house sparrows take over most if not all of the nest boxes. Last year the bluebirds successful fought for and won one of the nest boxes. We were so excited when we found the eggs, only to be heart broken a few weeks later when we saw the house sparrows start attacking the bluebirds and then finding the newborn baby bluebirds killed and thrown on the ground below the nest box. The house sparrows then proceeded to move in and lay eggs of their own.

My husband and I removed the house sparrow nest immediately and evicted them from the box. Shortly after that the bluebirds took the house over again and once again laid eggs. I was prepared for them this time and had done extensive research on how to help them raise their family without the house sparrows attacking them. We installed a sparrow spooker on the nest box and prayed it would work. It did!! They raised three healthy baby bluebirds last year.

This year they somehow managed to move into one of the boxes without much of a fight from the sparrows. They were too busy fighting off the resident starlings who decided they wanted the middle box that the house sparrows were nesting in. We have house sparrows in 3 of the 4 boxes, but somehow the bluebirds got one box. Sunday we took out a ladder and flashlight to look in the nest box. There were 4 little bright blue eggs in the box. So out came the sparrow spooker again to keep the sparrows at bay. This year the bluebirds went back in the box without so much as a look at the spooker attached. Don't quite know why it works, but it does. So now we're all anxiously awaiting the birth of our new bluebird babies in the next few weeks. Please keep their safety in your prayers!!

You know spring has arrived when...

Lately, our weather has very "spring like". Gorgeous warm sunny days, clear blue skies, birds singing, and thunder storms. But, some signs that I always look for that mean spring has arrived at our house are...

Dogwoods in full bloom...

Birds fighting over our bird houses...

Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird back in residence...and one of my personal favorites...

Hummingbirds back from their winter migrations!! What makes you really think spring at your house?

Venomous or Not?

Okay, in my last post I asked for comments about what kind of snake everyone thought this was. Nobody's jumping it to try to guess so I suppose I'll have to tell. After lots and lots of research, and taking tons of pictures so I could blow them up in my photo editing software to determine whether his pupils were in fact round or not, we are fairly certain that this is a Brown Snake. What a boring name for such a cute little guy, huh? Never even knew there was such a thing. Better yet...he's non-venomous! So, after several hours spent enjoying and learning all about this particular variety of snake, we set him free in the woods behind my house. Watch out garden slugs and earth worms...he's probably hungry!!

Nature Studies with a Surprise Visitor!

Today we had an impromptu lesson on just how to handle a snake and most importantly, how to identify it and determine whether or not its venomous.

I'm inside trying to get caught up on orders (aka bows), when Haley and Adam come tearing inside screaming about a snake in our yard. We have lived here for almost 12 years and this is the first time we've had a snake in our yard. We've seen them next door, but not in our yard. Apparently, Adam moved something with his foot (no shoes on at the time), and underneath was a small snake. He showed me where he found it and I got a look at its tail as it slithered away. I promptly searched and searched and couldn't find it anywhere. Not to be deterred, I left for a few minutes and then went to look again. Finally, success! I found him all curled up in a patch of grass. Here he is after I picked him up with a stick and contained him for pictures.

After examining him and not being 100% sure of what he was, I placed him in a 10 gallon glass aquarium with lots of leaves for cover. My husband wanted to see him when he got home and the kids were having a great time watching him.

By the way, this snake was only about 9 or 10 inches long. He was tiny! Anybody want to guess what kind of snake he is? I know, but I thought it would be fun to see what you guys think. I'll post what it is (or what we think it is) in a couple days. By the way, he was safely returned to the wild (outside of my yard) this evening.

Nature Club

Today we had our monthly Nature Club meeting.  We met at a local hiking trail that we'd never visited before.  Aside from its proximity to the interstate, it was a beautiful area.  Didn't exactly see much in the way of wildlife, but the leaves were pretty and the weather was gorgeous.  The kids seemed to have a great time.  We started out our meeting with a discussion about beavers.  This trail was supposed to go by a beaver pond, but we weren't sure exactly where the pond was because it is all dried up.  We didn't see any evidence of beavers at all.  We did however find an old walking bridge that used to span the creek in that exact spot since the early 1900's.  The only part remaining is the wires that supported it.  It was interesting to read about the history of the town and times gone by.  Here are some of the highlights of our hike.

Off we go on our hike.  The trail is very nice and was covered in gravel most all of the way.  The city has done a great job with it.

 We did manage to get the kids to stop long enough for a group picture by the creek.

 The middle section of the trail had a really nice boardwalk over what I assume would be a wetland area during wet seasons of the year.  I think the beaver pond was in this area as well, but we couldn't be sure.

 Haley and Ryan stopped to admire the small waterfall.

 The kids seemed more enthused with the big dirt pile by the trail than the trail itself!

 At the end of the trail we managed to get the kids to pose for another picture on some fallen logs.

I thought this tree was really interesting in the way that it grew.  It was really tall and really curved.  Not sure why it grew this way, but it sure was neat.

I don't know if the kids learned much today, but we did get out and enjoy the gorgeous day, and certainly walked off some energy.  A good day all around!

Family Fun!

Whoever said that weekends were for relaxing, hasn't been around my house lately!  Saturday, the boy's Cub Scout troop had a fishing derby at a supposedly stocked pond.  My husband and the twins headed off bright and early expecting to catch lots of fish...no such luck.  My husband didn't think that any of the several hundred scouts attending caught any fish at all.  They ended up weighing some of the few turtles that were caught in order to award prizes.  My boys ended up with just the patch for attending and nothing more.

So...being the nice (and fishing obsessed) daddy he is, Glen took the boys to a pond near our house.  Haley and I joined them and had a nice afternoon catching fish, observing nature and spending time together.  When I got home I realized that I had taken 62 pictures in one afternoon.  Yeah, I like taking pictures!  So, I thought I would share some of the highlights from our day.  First the fishing...

Adam with one of the many fish he caught and released.

Ryan made daddy hold his fish.

Haley and the boys got so completely muddy we had to change clothes and lose the shoes.  YUCK!  While the boys were fishing, Haley and I checked out the local flora and fauna...

Morning glory in bloom.

Great blue heron print in the mud.

Golden rod???

Dragonfly eating some sort of insect.

 

 

Giant dragonfly that was apparently dying.  He let us hold him forever and then eventually died.  We couldn't find anything wrong with him so I'm thinking it was maybe old age?  We took him home for further study.

Isn't he cool?

Ryan made friends with a fuzzy catterpillar.

Red tailed hawk that lives near the pond.

We had a great day, caught lots of fish, saw all kinds of critters, got nice and dirty and slept really good last night!  Its amazing how many different types of bugs and animals make the pond their home.  I don't think I've ever seen so many different types of spiders.  We had a friendly water turtle that followed us around for a time too.  Glen managed to catch a HUGE catfish at one point.  Just as he got it to shore the line broke!  It was a monster fish!  Luckily I saw it too so I can back up his story.  The funny thing was that the line broke with the little orange bobber attached.  So here's this huge fish swimming all over the pond with the line and bobber floating around behind him.  We knew where he was the whole time.  We tried and tried to catch him again, but no luck.  The bobber eventually came loose and we weren't able to see where he was anymore.  Bummer! 

How was your weekend?