You Silly Tufted Titmouse

As I was finishing up some e-mail on the our bed, the kids climbed up and snuggled around me asking to "do birds". Of course ,the first thing Jack wanted to view was his favorite online video clip of the Ivory Gull - which we did. (See below for a link, if you haven't seen it). Then I headed over to our Backyard Habitat log and quizzed the kids on which bird were which, while we listened to bird songs. Jack can immediately identify by site a Tufted Titmouse as he beat his sister to it, and Grace nailed each of my 5-6 bird quizzes! One of our most favorite affectionate phrases to each other in the family is..."You silly tufted titmouse!".

I Am The Ultimate Dork Mom

My children have the ultimate Dork Mom. I can prove it to you.

For my birthday (I'll be 32), I asked for a microscope. How dorky is that??? What's even dorkier, is that I think this could be the best birthday gift ever! My birthday isn't until September, but since this was going to be a major science apparatus for our Fish & Crustacean study, I got to open it last night.

This microscope is a techno-geek dream. If there are any other techno-geek moms, first I'd love to hear from you, and second, if you don't already have this, you've got to get it. I'm referring to the DM-52 Digital Microscope. This is the answer to the age old problem of young children and microscope viewing. Plug this puppy into your laptop or computer and you've got an instant big screen look at whatever is on the slide - perfect clarity.

Not only that, but you can capture the image and save it as a .jpg on your computer for printing later. You can even create video.

Ken and I sat for the better part of almost two hours looking through slides last night. (I'm not the only techno-geek)

This was well worth the investment, and I can't say enough about the freebies the vendor throws in! Visit http://www.microscopeworld.com

Pagoo: Plankton (Chapter 1-2)

This evening, Grace and I started the story of "Pagoo". We read through chapters 1 and 2 and I can tell this one is going to quickly become a favorite for both of us. Pagoo will be our third Holling C. Holling book this year. We can't seem to get enough of them.

The first and second chapter cover the topic of how a baby crab falls under the larger and often ill-fated category of plankton at the bottom of the food chain, feeding upon algae and diadom. Holling's illustrations are beautifully done, but I'd like to be able to supplement our readings and go beyond illustration with a living book that is so heavy in biology.

Below are a few links to real photos of crab zoea, diagrams and coloring sheets you might find useful:

Microscope Slide of Crab Zoea
Animated Crab Zoea & Megalops
Common Copepods & Plankton (advanced coloring sheets including crab zoea)
Guide Sheet for 4 Plankton (elementary coloring sheet including crab)

Talent on Display

In two days Grace has proved herself to be an unbelievable bug catcher. She doesn't own a net. Just her bare hands or the cup off the top of her new bug box. Yesterday she caught a Silver Streaked Skipper, and today after a 10 minute search she came back to display her dragonfly.

The bugbox was a worthy purchase. For $6.00, it allows the child to look at both the top and the bottom of the bug at a magnified level.

How Many Species Can Live In One Tank?

After searching for more food for the mantis, we've added a large grasshopper and a large cockroach. Yes a roach. This has added even more excitement around the tank.

Are They Fighting or Mating?

With our school studies in recess over the last week, the hullaballo has been over our big bug tank. The two praying mantis are checked frequently, as we watch them catch their prey. What we are also noticing, is that they are beginning to interact with each other.

It is a slow approach, but gradually one will approach another. Once we did see what seemed to be an attack when one mantis got too close to the other. However, after more research, I'm beginning to think we have a male and female, and what we are seeing is possibly the initial signs of courtship.

The Mantis Like Our Bug Menu

Today was interesting. After doing a quick drop of an assortment of beetles plucked from our Lamb's Ear, I thought I would check this morning and see if there was any evidence of a feast. I turned on the light for the bug tank and discovered one of the praying mantis already in mid feast. We all had the opportunity to watch the mantis dine on a beetle.

Then later this afternoon we collected a new round of gourmet beetles, and we were witnesses to a quick kill by by one of the mantis. Just prior to the drop we also saw a little bit of rivalry between the two mantis. Hopefully, the large assortment of food will break them up as one seems to be eating while the other hasn't had any luck - at least none we've seen.

A Special Visit

We have been longing for caterpillar and butterfly sightings all summer, but have never been blessed with more than a glimpse or a quick flitter of one passing quickly by. Today made it all worth it as we watched a very busy Eastern Tiger Swallowtail visit our verbena patches in the garden for 10-15 minutes. The butterfly cared very little about how close we were able to get to it (demonstrated by Grace), as it worked diligently hitting every flower in the patch.

What a great blessing!

Add 2 Praying Mantis to Our List of Pets

In a desperate effort to get myself and the kids out in this stifling heat, we all headed out to the flower garden with our clippers to deadhead the stalks of our bee balm, lambs ear and daylillies. I've been staring at the remains for weeks, but couldn't bear the thought of going out in the strong heat of day with this pregnancy.

We were all red faced and dripping with sweat when we made the discovery of two young praying mantis' moving along the daylillies. With a spare 10 gallon tank available, we decided to give the mantis' a luxury bug box, filled with rich soil, logs, sticks, grass, water, bee balm stalks and for fun...sand and shells. We'll probably release them in a week or two, but so far it has been a great education to watch their fascination behavior.

Now the hard part...finding food so they don't eat each other.

Let The Copywork Begin!

Today Grace had her first set of two moths to identify. Once identified she then wrote the names of both moths on notebook paper which we cut out and placed in their respective places next to the moths in the riker mount.

It is coming together!

Butterfly Of The Day

For this term I purchased a Fandex containing a large selection of Butterflies. Each card in the Fandex has a picture of a butterfly with a fair amount of interesting facts and information. For this exercise, I severed the plastic pin that holds the Fandex together so the cards could be removed individually.

The children are always keen on anything where they have a choice in the matter, so about twice a week we have a "Butterfly of Day", where Grace and Jack get to go through the butterflies and pick out which two butterflies they want to learn more about. We then sit down for 10 minutes and go through the fascinating facts about each butterfly picking out a couple of tidbits of info to hold on to (ie. this caterpillar is stinky, or this butterfly drinks from mud puddles). Then we add velcro to the back of the card and the kids get to post it on our double closet door in the playroom. For some reason, this is a really fun part of the activity.

After the two new butterflies, the kids enjoy getting quizzes on identifying the butterflies that are already on the board by the names I shout out.

This is definitely a two thumbs up activity that both Grace and Jack sit still for and remember!

Vultures

On our way to church the family spotted a huge bird with an unbelievable wing span. It had just left a carcass in the road and retreated to a nearby tree. Ken slowed the car, and we were able to get a good look at a giant buzzard.

Name That Bird Day

Today was impromptu test day, where Grace was tested on sight recognition and the names of some birds we have studied (and some we have not). Mom was very impressed! 40+ Bird cards were laid out before her, with over half of them being filler and decoy since we have not reviewed these as of yet. Grace successfully pegged and named 15 of the the 18 birds we have gone over heavily. This was good for mom, as now that we are in mid-trimester we can focus on the ones we haven't gone over, knowing Grace feels confident with naming the ones she sees in her backyard every day.

A New Find

Grace is delighted to inform Mom that she has spotted a mourning dove in the back yard.

It Is Freezing Out Here

Perhaps the hawk from Thursday sensed a cold snap on the horizon. The last two days have been the most frigid of the season. After two days of icing and freezing conditions, the birds (and squirrels) have congregated around our very busy bird feeder for a reliable food source. Today, Mom spotted new visitors - The American Goldfinch and Dark Eyed Junco. Grace ran quickly to also take a peek, but our visitors were gone.

Holy Cow - There Is A Hawk In Our Yard

It was a very exciting and unexpected birding day at our house. Just before Mom was about to wash up for the morning she spotted a huge Red Shouldered Hawk (link to best photos I've found) perched calmly on our backyard swing set. Mom was anything but calm and shouted for Grace and everyone to quickly come to the main floor, while she ran for the binoculars. We all were honored with about 20 more seconds, before the hawk took a graceful swoop off the swing set and headed back into the woods. In all our 5 years at the house, never has a hawk been spotted in our backyard!!

Return Of The Hawk

Return of the hawk! As mom was going to take a few feeder pictures, our feathered friend the Red Shouldered Hawk was caught returning to a high post (tall tree) on our property line. He DID NOT go unnoticed by a trio of screeching blue jays that made their feelings known and surrounded him by 1-2 feet on all sides. Mom, herself, was a little concerned I might be witness to a feeder snatching as the hawk was right above it and seemed interested. However, at the sound of the blue jays, all birds take cover in the trees. Below is a poor photo that I was able to take.



Alas, mom is alone again to witness the return of the hawk...which makes me aware that the hawk's favorite time to perch around our house is right around the kid's computer time 10:00 in the morning).