Saturday, March 15, 2008

March's Nature Day

Friday was our monthly Nature Day outing with our homeschool group. It was lots of fun despite the hot temps (upper 80's!), mud, and mosquitos.

The kids caught a LOT of skinks! I'd guess at least a dozen.

Alexandra even caught her first skink, though this isn't the one she caught.
Close up of the skink.
This was about an inch long and soft and fuzzy. I think it's some kind of egg sac.

This was very hard -again, an egg sac?


A crayfish, or crawdad, burrow. Crayfish resemble small lobsters, but they are a freshwater crustacean and their homes are usually found along creeks and streams, though we often have them in fields around here.
A dragonfly I followed quite a while to take about 25 photographs. At first, I thought his wings were broken, but they are transparent except for the dark brown tips and spots.

A millipede - we saw several millipedes and I believe 1 centipede


We were excited to see tracks by the creek, but it turns out they were just from a big dog.


These little plants were about the size of a nickel. And, a big "thanks!" to my friend Kim for identifying this interesting plant. It is a sundew - a carnivorous plant!!! I wish I would have known that and could have pointed it out to the kids. Well, next time, I'll know!


A fern fiddlehead or unfurled frond - it's called a fiddlehead because it resembles the "scroll" of a stringed instrument, like a fiddle. It will unroll as the fern matures.

7 comments:

Rhonda said...

Oh Dana, these are awesome photos. Thank you so much for showing these. I love your nature photos.

Teacher of One said...

I just love all of the creatures you find!

Melissa said...

What a neat nature outing, thank for sharing your wonderful photos from it! Lots of very interesting creatures, definitely things that we don't have around here.

Blessings, Melissa
www.homeschoolblogger.com/melissal89

live4evermom said...

Those are great pictures. My favorite is the little plant and that dragonfly. When I clicked on those pictures to make them bigger they were amazing.

I'm getting my zoom lens on Tuesday. I am not leaving home till I have it on my camera. Can't wait. What a difference these SLRs are!

Kim said...

Dana, you got a lot of really neat shots. The little red plant is a Sundew. It is a carniverous plant just like the Pitcher Plant is. There are many at the Big Thicket!

Looks like it was a lot of fun!

Kim

Robin said...

Wow! That skink is so teeny. I hadn't realized that GB's had gotten so big until I saw your photo.
I agree with Martha, that dragonfly photo was AMAZING! Geez! What detail!
I wish it was daytime, so we could go out, because I'm all inspired now. :-)

Anonymous said...

Those are great pictures!! I love the one of the fiddlehead. It's been years since I've seen one of those. Thanks for sharing!

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