Nature Fest

Highlights from our day at Nature Fest yesterday. Featuring photos by... my new camera. Yeah! (I haven't learned how to use the editing software yet, and couldn't even crop these. But, I was so please with the way they turned out!!!)

WARNING: 1 photo of a large snake and 1 photo of a tarantula in post. :-) This warning was revised after hearing from people who don't love spiders, either. :-)

We started with a bird walk and watched this worked untangling a chipping sparrow from a net. They place the net to trap birds so they can band them to study them.

Looking in "the book" to see what band to put on this sparrow.

A beautiful possum... we got to pet him and I was surprised at how soft he was! Isn't he beautiful???

This is a poor screech owl that got hit by a car over a year ago. As you can see, his eyes are injured and they believe he has brain damage.

A nice looking turtle we got to touch.

Besides the possum and the owl, this tarantula was my favorite. My brother & sister & I actually had 3 pet tarantulas as children (we named them Gertrude, Gertrude II, and Gertrude III). My dad caught them for us as they crossed a country road. Anyway, it was neat to actually get to touch one again. And, neater still, the lady showed me how to pull some of its silk! I got to do it! In the photo, her right hand is pulling "invisible" silk (we could see it, though.) So cool!!!

Alexandra dissecting a flower. Great review for her, and I was impressed with the guy who helped her... just a great teacher! Patient and kind.

Fishing... didn't catch any and we didn't see anyone else catch any.

Two little alligators... I was really impressed that my camera took this so well!

I LOVED this fat frog. The guy even giggled it for us. This as during the last thing we did... a "talk" about amphibians and reptiles. Another great review of what we've been studying!!! And, he told us so many interesting facts about specific species. For example, this frog is fat and lazy and stays at the bottom of ponds... with its mouth open. He looks like a log or a rock... and that mouth looks like such a nice place to hide... gulp!

I took lots of snake photos, but I know they really bother some people. So, I just thought I'd post this python. I think snakes are beatiful. Alexandra won't touch them, but she isn't scared of them, either.

Last photo... Alexandra said she had a wonderful day! And, so did I!