- black swallowtail butterfly (egg, caterpillar and adult)
- red-bellied snake
- cicada (cases)
- ruffed grouse
- deer
- groundhog
- great blue heron
- raccoons
- rabbits
- woolly aphids
- yellow warblers
- bats (hoary, little brown and big brown)
- timber wolves
- flying squirrel
- star nosed mole
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sightings September 2008
It was great to see everyone at the meeting this weekend! We'll be making sure to post our sightings after every meeting. So here's the list of things Young Naturalists saw over the summer:
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
September program
All right! Some of you are probably wondering what the plan is for our first meeting, which is Saturday, September 27th, at 10:00 am at the Nature Centre.
This month we're going to be doing a program on insects.
We will be catching insects, including (hopefully!) lots of butterflies, praying mantis, dragonflies, beetles, and more. We have great nets, jars and terrariums, as well as a microscope and some magnifying glasses. We'll be using field guides to identify as many of the critters as we can. We'll create a list of the insects we catch and/or identify for our sightings book, too!
We'll also be playing a great insect game, and depending on time and weather we may have a craft as well.
If you have an insect field guide that you like to use, feel free to bring it along! Otherwise, you don't need to bring anything. Please remember to dress for the weather!
Early fall is a great time to be looking for insects. Praying mantis, for example, are in the process of finding mates and laying eggs; monarchs are starting to store up on energy in preparation for their trip south. Dragonflies are mating and laying eggs so that their nymphs will hatch before winter, during which they'll hibernate before becoming one of the first aquatic critters to be active in the spring time.
Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
This month we're going to be doing a program on insects.
We will be catching insects, including (hopefully!) lots of butterflies, praying mantis, dragonflies, beetles, and more. We have great nets, jars and terrariums, as well as a microscope and some magnifying glasses. We'll be using field guides to identify as many of the critters as we can. We'll create a list of the insects we catch and/or identify for our sightings book, too!
We'll also be playing a great insect game, and depending on time and weather we may have a craft as well.
If you have an insect field guide that you like to use, feel free to bring it along! Otherwise, you don't need to bring anything. Please remember to dress for the weather!
Early fall is a great time to be looking for insects. Praying mantis, for example, are in the process of finding mates and laying eggs; monarchs are starting to store up on energy in preparation for their trip south. Dragonflies are mating and laying eggs so that their nymphs will hatch before winter, during which they'll hibernate before becoming one of the first aquatic critters to be active in the spring time.
Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
a little Big Bang
A quick update on the state of the world: we have not been sucked into an artificially created black hole. Hooray!
In other news, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started today. I mention this on a website dedicated to nature because it's the world's biggest experimental facility for physics, and the "natural history" that we study is all here, and so are we, thanks to the sorts of things physicists study. The scientists using the LHC are hoping to figure out fundamental physics questions like what happened during the Big Bang, and what kinds of other dimensions are out there.
I'll admit, I'm not a physicist and I know very little about physics. But even I think an experimental particle accelerator that is long enough to span the entire border between France and Switzerland, 100 m underground, is pretty cool. I don't understand what a hadron is, but I know they're now colliding them at high speeds, like a sub-atomic demolition derby. This is a great opportunity for physicists, and all of us, to learn about the forces that created our universe.
Pretty nifty, I think.
In other news, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started today. I mention this on a website dedicated to nature because it's the world's biggest experimental facility for physics, and the "natural history" that we study is all here, and so are we, thanks to the sorts of things physicists study. The scientists using the LHC are hoping to figure out fundamental physics questions like what happened during the Big Bang, and what kinds of other dimensions are out there.
I'll admit, I'm not a physicist and I know very little about physics. But even I think an experimental particle accelerator that is long enough to span the entire border between France and Switzerland, 100 m underground, is pretty cool. I don't understand what a hadron is, but I know they're now colliding them at high speeds, like a sub-atomic demolition derby. This is a great opportunity for physicists, and all of us, to learn about the forces that created our universe.
Pretty nifty, I think.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
brochure and registration
So, I know everyone is starting to think about registration and wondering where the brochure is. The sad truth is that it's still in my head. I'm working on it this weekend, so I promise to mail it out next week. If you think you might not be on our mailing list, leave a comment with your name and email address and I will be happy to check for you. Remember that I won't ever publish comments with email addresses in them, so if your comment is "rejected" that's why.
If you're not sure whether or not you want to register, leave a comment with questions or concerns and I'll be happy to answer any of those that I can.
Sorry for the delay guys! It's amazing how fast the summer flies by. You might not believe it, but your leaders did have good intentions of getting the brochure out in July. Oops.
If you're not sure whether or not you want to register, leave a comment with questions or concerns and I'll be happy to answer any of those that I can.
Sorry for the delay guys! It's amazing how fast the summer flies by. You might not believe it, but your leaders did have good intentions of getting the brochure out in July. Oops.
Friday, August 22, 2008
itty bitty swallowtail caterpillar
Further to the last post, here's a photo of the creature that emerged from the egg, about a week and a half after it was laid. It's now been working on the carrot for about a week:
It's not quite as long as my thumbnail yet. Tiny! But the colours are starting to become noticeable. If you click on the photo you can see it a little closer. It's definitely patterned to look like a bird dropping, but as it gets larger it will develop a distinctive pattern of warning colours. I'll try to keep photos coming!
It's not quite as long as my thumbnail yet. Tiny! But the colours are starting to become noticeable. If you click on the photo you can see it a little closer. It's definitely patterned to look like a bird dropping, but as it gets larger it will develop a distinctive pattern of warning colours. I'll try to keep photos coming!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
black swallowtail butterfly in my garden!
Summer sighting, very cool:
I was sitting in my garden this morning and a large black butterfly caught my eye: a black swallowtail! Now, it seemed to be hanging around my vegetable garden. I watched it for quite a while, keeping my distance (I didn't want to bother her because I suspected she was up to something) and once she had gone, I went and inspected my carrots.
Sure enough, there's a tiny little egg on one of my carrot plants. I have a confession: I don't really like to eat carrots myself. So when I planted them, I was secretly hoping that I'd end up with swallowtails! Carrots and other plants in the same family are host plants for the caterpillars of some species of swallowtails.
I thought about bringing the egg inside where I could keep it safe until it hatched, and feed the caterpillar, but I decided it was probably a better idea to leave it outside. Hopefully I'll be able to keep an eye on the egg and then the caterpillar as it grows. It might be a little hard on my carrot plants, but that's okay. I think the caterpillar can have my share!
I was sitting in my garden this morning and a large black butterfly caught my eye: a black swallowtail! Now, it seemed to be hanging around my vegetable garden. I watched it for quite a while, keeping my distance (I didn't want to bother her because I suspected she was up to something) and once she had gone, I went and inspected my carrots.
Sure enough, there's a tiny little egg on one of my carrot plants. I have a confession: I don't really like to eat carrots myself. So when I planted them, I was secretly hoping that I'd end up with swallowtails! Carrots and other plants in the same family are host plants for the caterpillars of some species of swallowtails.
I thought about bringing the egg inside where I could keep it safe until it hatched, and feed the caterpillar, but I decided it was probably a better idea to leave it outside. Hopefully I'll be able to keep an eye on the egg and then the caterpillar as it grows. It might be a little hard on my carrot plants, but that's okay. I think the caterpillar can have my share!
Monday, July 14, 2008
planning next season
All right! Your leaders are starting to plan next season's programs. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting pretty excited. We have some cool new programs in the works.
What I'm curious about, though, is if there are particular things that any of you Young Naturalists would like to do. Stuff we have done in the past that you really enjoyed, or stuff we haven't done that you think we should.
Let us know! Leave a comment. If you don't want your comment published, just say so right in the comment and I'll make sure your comment stays private.
What I'm curious about, though, is if there are particular things that any of you Young Naturalists would like to do. Stuff we have done in the past that you really enjoyed, or stuff we haven't done that you think we should.
Let us know! Leave a comment. If you don't want your comment published, just say so right in the comment and I'll make sure your comment stays private.
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