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Thursday, November 12, 2009

October's Nature Day



We are getting ready to go on November's Nature Day outing, and I have never posted about October's. In October, we went to Mercer Arboretum and had about 40 people in attendence. The focus of our walk was mushrooms. Because I was 'leading' the group, I felt a little more rushed and didn't get as many good photos. But, we did have a great time! We saw LOTS of mushrooms, including this purple one.



I was excited to see the Cypress pond - we could walk on the dry ground where there is usually pond water!!! It was so neat to see all of those beautiful cypress trees, which are usually growing in the water, on dry land! The kids really had fun exploring.



Another photo where you can see the base of these fascinating trees better.



One of our smaller finds - a daddy longleg.



And, I know some of you don't like snakes, but this was so neat! Some kids spotted this garter snake (our 2nd snake of the day) and were trying to catch it. I'm really not comfortable identifying snakes but they insisted it was a garter snake (which I thought it was) and that it'd be safe to catch it. They were chasing it around a tree, and guess who caught it... her very first catch!... yes, me!!! (Oh, I used to catch ring-necks as a kid, but they are only worm sized.) Anyway, I was so excited and held it for awhile before handing it to the kids. What a great day for me! I love snakes! (My sister had a pet python as a child and we caught those ring-necks whenever we could... just love 'em!)

3 comments:

  1. So cool! I, too, love snakes. I had a gopher snake for a short time ... He was caught wild so we released him after a short visit.

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  2. Eeek! I am one who is terrified of snakes. No matter how small they may be, I am just scared of them. You are so brave for catching that one. *shivers*

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  3. Yikes! You are a brave soul. That's for sure. I think GB would have been one of the ones wanting to catch it, but he'd also be yelling 'don't hurt it!'

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