I recently found out from spaceweather.com about the meteor shower that is going on now and will be peaking on Sunday night / Monday morning. I've never really been up to see one. I've only been living out in the country for a year or so and until the place we're in now, wasn't living in a place where it was really easy to see the starts, so I may have to try to catch a few meteors this year! Here's a link to find tips for viewing the meteor shower! Let me know if you see them!
I love enjoying the beauty of God's creation. What an amazing God to create such an amazing variety of creatures and plants etc..! It's mind-boggling to just study one creature in depth, let alone to know everything about and create everything in our world! Here are some of my favorite pics I've taken this summer.
I just had to take some pics of these beautiful daylillies! I know they're common but they're so pretty. We've been cutting some and watching them open and close in our house as they're planted in a place we don't see them often otherwise. Enjoy the beautiful summer color!
If you saw our blog below, you saw my post on raising monarch caterpillars. We've now finally gotten to the end of waiting for our butterflies to emerge from their chrysalises. We've had probably 8 butterflies emerge at this point and have 2 more who will come out and be released to fly tomorrow and still have several more chrysalises! Here are some pics from releasing our butterflies!
Pic showing the last 3 of the 4 stages of the monarch's life!
Butterflies ready to go!
Our Buttefly's First Flight Ever! There it goes!
One of our favorite things to do especially in early summer is to find monarch caterpillars and raise them. As soon as we see the first milkweed popping up and the monarchs flying around, we search to find the tiny caterpillars. They start out at about 1/4" long and you can only barely see the bands of color on them.
common milkweed plants
Thankfully around here, milkweed is plentiful so it's easy to feed them. We had a bunch in small plastic containers with holes punched in the lids since we were short on containers since we're also raising cecropia moth caterpillars. When they got closer to full-grown and ready to make their chrysalises, we would put them in our butterfly cage we have. When they're full-grown (1 1/2" +), they climb the sides up to the top and hang in a J. They often stay in this J for up to a day before splitting their skin and becoming a chrysalis. It's always neat when we get to see the caterpillar becoming a chrysalis!
Right now we are at the chrysalis stage with our first batch of caterpillars. We have 10 chrysalises right now! Probably in a day or two we should have the first monarchs emerging. We're starting to be able to see the color of the monarch through the translucent chrysalis. Here's a great pic that I took tonight of the chrysalises!
3 chrysalises - you can just barely see the orange wing through it. My son who loves these caterpillars and butterflies is seen looking at them in the background with his bug PJ's on!
The day that these will emerge, the chrysalis will get very dark - almost black and you'll be able to see the orange of the monarch easily. Once they emerge their wings are crumpled and they pump the blood into them. We sometimes give them a drink of sugar water, but often just let them go as soon as their wings are ready and they fly off to find a good plant to eat from.
If you've never raised monarch caterpillars before, look for milkweed. They're common along roadsides or in weedy areas around town as well as in the country! Watch for monarchs landing on milkweed leaves and you can watch the egg and pick it off or wait to see if a caterpillar comes out there and bring it home. When they're tiny they're easy to lose, though so make sure you have a good container! What an incredible transformation to watch!
I wish this were my choice to make but it isn't. We own just 1/2 acre which is surrounded by Christmas trees that get sold for landscaping and Christmas trees. This area is technically a "development" but we're the only ones in it. We had to sign to a covenant when we moved even though we're the only ones here but no one is planning on moving here as of yet. That was the biggest negative in my mind to moving here but we're hoping to still possibly buy land elsewhere after we get some more $ saved up.
Anyways, the mowing situation came up today. The owner (who lives far away) had his hired worker out mowing between all the Christmas trees and near (and on) our land. I don't remember if keeping all the natural weeds mowed was in the contract or not. I did go out and ask him to keep the area with the wild strawberries unmowed and he did. Part of the problem is that we get a lot of our milkweed back in the unmowed areas and there are some wildflowers there. It was hard for me to think of all the milkweed and caterpillars being destroyed and countless other animal homes. OK, I sound like a Mother Earth person - I really am not, but my son is very attached to the milkweed and caterpillars!
I did check and some of the milkweed and unmowed area is on our land in the back. He hasn't mowed that area yet. I'm hoping to catch him and ask him to not mow that area on our land. He mowed up front by our driveway on our land and mowed down the beautiful daisies that were growing there. I was so sad about it. OK, I know this isn't my real home - heaven is my real home and I shouldn't let my emotions get bent all out of shape over a bunch of daisies, but I was hoping to watch them grow and die and see if I could save seeds from them to plant. Now they're gone.
So I really like some of the natural weeds and wildflowers in the area. I wish I didn't have this reminder of the small 1/2 acre I have since there's nothing I can do about most of the mowing. But on the other hand, maybe there will be less animals lurking so close to our house to eat our garden. Maybe I can hope for that and dwell on a potential positive instead of on the negative.
REALLY, this earth is not my home - eternal things are more important than the temporary earthly things. In heaven there will be lots of milkweed and caterpillars for us to enjoy I bet!
On the edge of our town about a 5-minutes walk away from us, there is a barn with some sheep and goats that a man keeps. He lives a little ways away from there but owns this barn for the sheep. When we first moved in I met him as we were walking to take a peak at them. This place is located next to the playground so we were over at the playground at the time. While talking with him, I asked him if he minded if we come see his animals with the kids when we're over that way. He was very welcoming of us and even said we could go in one of the pens.
Most days when we go on walks, our walks take us up that way to see the sheep and the goats. We pick grass to feed them and try to tame them with. Some of them are very tame, others not so tame. Today there were only 2 sheep in the pen we can go in - the rest were in a different field. Today I brought my camera along to take some pics.
This is my one of my 4yo's and my 2yo with the sheep that is VERY tame. He tries to get all the grass!
The brown one on the left used to be in the pen with the sheep and became quite tame. He's one of our favorites!
The man who keeps the goats basically keeps them as pets. Some of the sheep he sells for a little $, but he says the goats he can rarely get any $ for. If we ever get a place where we can have goats, I bet we could buy one for very cheap from him! For now, we get to enjoy them on visits without taking care of them! It's just one of the many things we enjoy about our new town!
Today we woke up to TONS of little tiny 1/4" long cecropia moth caterpillars crawling around our cage! (see earlier blog posts for how we got the eggs - in nature category or archives) We spent much time taking them out and putting them in smaller containers and getting food for them. We tried both apple tree leaves and lilac bush leaves and both seemed to be eaten by caterpillars.
They're really cute and furry. The kids enjoyed seeing them crawling all over. We were able to see one that was coming out of its egg and one that was eating its egg right after hatching. I'm glad we seem to have food that they'll eat! We probably have at least 50 if not more caterpillars and still have some eggs that haven't hatched yet.
We'll probably set a bunch free on host plants after a little while as they get bigger. I'm trying to find some homeschoolers or others in the area who might want to raise some. Here's the pics of our caterpillars and a pic of a stick with some of the unhatched eggs on it.
Cute little Cecropia Moth caterpillars. They change colors as they grow and shed their skin.
Sunday we went on a hike around a lake with some friends of ours. It was beautiful out and the trail went through the forest up a bank from the lake. While we were down by the water, the kids were looking at driftwood and found all sorts of dragonfly (or damselfly) nymphs. There were some nymphs, some dragonflies next to their old skins, and nymph skins.
We picked up one of the skins and I had it on a stick while we were hiking. All of a sudden I looked down while we were hiking and saw that it was emerging from it's old skin and becoming a dragonfly! We were able to watch this amazing transformation!
Unfortunately as I was hiking, the dragonfly fell off the stick when I wasn't looking. Hopefully it was ok and able to fly away later. How neat to see these amazing transformations! Maybe it's kind of like the transformation we go through when we become a Christian. Just like this ugly little thing that is confined to the water or walking on the ground changes dramatically - becomes something completely new, receives wings and is able to fly, so the Lord transforms us in all our ugly impurities and limitations into something able to fly and soar. May the Lord cause us each to soar this day as we live, transformed by him!
Today we decided to try out canoeing down the river that our town is built next to. We put our canoe in the water about 2 miles away and spent the next 45 min. canoeing and floating through incredible, gorgeous riverway surrounded by woods. The trees were gorgeous and often hung over the river. Most of the way the river was smooth and you could see the reflection of the trees that hung out over the water.
As this was our first time doing this, we were a bit nervous about not knowing exactly what the river was like - just knowing that people canoed there. When you get to our town, you have to make sure you get out at the right spot because if you go a little bit too far, you go down what used to be a dam but is now some rapids and very small waterfalls. The water level drops quite a bit there, so you definitely don't want to take a ride down it in your canoe! Thankfully, all went very well and we were able to take 2 trips with a couple of our kids each time.
One new nature item I noticed while canoeing was bank swallow homes. Here's a pic of a bank swallow.
They dig out holes in soft cliff-like banks of rivers and lakes etc. We were traveling down and there are a number of places where there are fairly steep sandy cliffs on the side of the river. As I looked at them, I noticed a number of holes in the cliffs. I remembered reading in a children's nature book about bank swallows making nests there and sure enough as I was looking at the holes, I saw one fly out of the hole.
It was also interesting seeing affects of erosion on these cliffs. There would be these trees that were still alive or mostly alive hanging mostly upside-down from these cliffs with still quite a bit of green on them, but they were eroding away and were soon to be falling off the cliff! It was really amazing to see! A number of trees along the banks had also eroded away quite a bit but were leaning way across the water but still alive as well!
Anyways, it was a really cool trip on the river and it's so cool that we only need to drive a couple of minutes away in our van, drop our canoe in the water, and set off on this trip through amazing beauty that the Lord has created!
My blog 2 days ago told about our cecropia moth that emerged from its cocoon. After we left it outside we went to check the next day and it hadn't flown away. I'm not sure why it seemed to have problems with flying. During that next day it was very windy and the wind tore one of its wings badly. I felt bad that it wouldn't be able to fly away or anything. We took it and put it down out of the wind in a more sheltered place and left it probably to die.
Today my son went to look to see if it was still there and came back all excited. He said there were now 2 cecropia moths! It turns out that we had a female and the females after emerging from the cocoon, put out a scent to attract a male to mate with. This scent can be smelled by the males up to a mile away! So a male moth had come and was now mating with our injured moth. These moths also don't have any body parts to eat with. After emerging, they don't eat but mate and die within about 10 days!
Our 2 moths!
Anyways, back to the story. We brought the 2 moths inside and put them in our butterfly cage. The info we read say they mate for a whole day so that's what's been happening today. Then we need to look for some of their caterpillar's food plants to put in with them and see if the female lays eggs on them. If so, we can watch the cycle start over again if we can find the right food for the caterpillars! We may pin the male after his job is done since he just dies soon anyways. Anyways, it's been a pretty neat learning experience!
Late in the summer last year, at my dh's work one of his workers found a cecropia moth caterpillar in the bushes there. They're huge caterpillars! Here's a pic!
It didn't ever eat anything after we put it in our butterfly cage, but not too long after it made a cocoon.
After reading we found out that they overwinter as a cocoon and come out sometime in May or June so we left the cage in the garage all winter and moved it and have been watching it in the house. This afternoon one of the kids noticed that the Cecropia Moth had emerged!
We held it some and took some pictures and left it outside so it could fly away when it was ready.
It hadn't flown away by bedtime, but being it's a moth, maybe it would rather fly at night. We actually had 2 of these caterpillars and cocoons so maybe the other one will come out soon! We also found another cocoon during the winter hanging on some plants and put it in there but we don't know what that one is or if it will come out! How exciting to see these amazing transformations!
While out at a lake last week-end my older 2 kids and I hiked down a dried-up river bed for a little ways. While we were hiking back, I noticed from a distance something hanging from a branch in a tree. I decided to go check it out to see what it was. It ended up being an old bird's nest from last year. It was hanging from some branches in a tree and was the most amazing thing!
It's coming apart a bit now since it's from last summer, but it's amazing how well it holds onto the branch. It's constructed of a mixture of birch bark, twigs, grasses, and pine needles etc. It's only a couple of inches across. On researching on the web, I've determined that it's some type of vireo nest. These birds live in the forest and sing songs all day long! They have many different notes sung fast. Their nests are also built fairly low to the ground.
Anyways, it was an incredible thing to see! It's so amazing how God made each little plant and animal so amazing!
Today while out walking my kids and I found that we have wild strawberries all around here. There are some in our front yard, and tons all around the vacant property that's next to us - even lots by the road. I enjoyed looking up info about Wild Strawberries on the web. I found out a little more about their growing season and what to expect from them.
We also spent some time drawing the wild strawberry flower that we found along with the leaves of a plant. We've been doing some nature journaling this year so it was good to find a nice, fairly simple thing for us to draw. I've even taken up doing the journaling and drawing with them which has been a lot of fun! I've found that the best way to get them to do it is to start doing it myself. As they watch me doing it, they're much more willing to jump in and do it with me! Anyways, I'm hoping that I'll be able to eat some of the fruit and that the animals won't get it all first!
(not our pic - forgot to take a pic of the caterpillar!)
A little over a week ago my almost 6yo dd found a wooly bear caterpillar crawling on our driveway. We brought it in and prepared a container for it to live in. We took a good-sized plastic Glad container and put dirt from outside and some sticks and bark into it. We did find some plantain weeds that they are supposed to eat, but never so it eat any.
In reading up on these caterpillars we found out that they are one of the few caterpillars that overwinter as caterpillars and not as cocoons. They hide under leaves and bark on the ground and hibernate until spring. Then they eat some more and then make their cocoons in spring before turning into an Isabella Tiger Moth.
A few days ago I noticed the wooly bear had gone under one of the branches and tree bark we had put in and there were some silky threads laced across above him. We could still see him there and the threads weren't a complete cocoon but we thought he was probably going to make his cocoon. Here's a pic where you can see the lacy threads just below the main branch where that orange stick is sticking out. He's too hard to see underneath.
Then we checked today and and you can see under the lacy threads the gray cocoon he's in! In reading it sounds like he should become a moth in a week or two from the time the cocoon is made. So we'll be watching to see if he becomes a moth!
We've watched many monarch caterpillars become chrysalises and turn into butterflies and we had a yellow swallowtail caterpillar that we found that made it's chrysalis and became a butterfly as well. I'll write about those another time! We've never had a cocoon before so this will exciting to watch!
Over the week-end I mentioned the www.enaturalist.org website that I found that is really great! Here's the question and answer I asked at the site. I had my answer in less than a day from posting the question! Very nice! I was pretty sure we had seen a beaver so it was nice getting that confirmation!
Q: We have a river that goes through our property here and I was walking down by the river and there's a place where there's a "waterfall/dam". The river is probably 10-15 feet wide but fairly shallow at that spot and there are lots of sticks etc. placed to make a dam that looks like about a 3" waterfall. By the river there are some kind of shrub (that I'm not sure what they are - they grow all over the place up here like a weed and are about 10-15' high and thick and take over), and there were lots of them that had been chewed off to make the dam. Some of them looked like they had been chewed off as high as 3-4' off the ground. One day we were there when I was walking away and was quite a distance away I looked back to see an animal swimming down the river. My son was closer to the river and saw it but not really clearly. Then I heard the slap - sounded like a large log being thrown into the water and the animal disappeared. Would this be a beaver or a muskrat?
A: What a great description of what you experienced and the photos are helpful too! Really makes my ability to help with identification, so much easier.
No question about it. You saw and heard a Beaver. I've often thought that tail slap sounds like someone dropping a boulder off of a bridge - quite a sound. Beavers use the tail slap to announce danger and it is quite effective. Your Beaver probably was spooked by your son. Muskrats don't make dams and their tails are more rat-like and can't do the water slap.
As to the shrubs along your shore, from what I can tell from the photos, these look like one of the alders, probably Speckled Alder (Alnus rugosa). Alders are shrubby, grow in very wet locations and help stabilize banks and also are able to fix nitrogen from the air. So although these plants may seem a bit of a nuisance, they really are valuable parts of the environment.
I'm guessing that if your Beavers stay around, you're going to have more chewing around your river and that the dam will increase in size. The pools that Beavers create are especially rich with animal and plant life and research has shown that streams below these ponds are much more fertile and therefore more wildlife-friendly as a result - the fishing improves too.
Thanks for writing and I hope this solves your "mystery".
I've been really enjoying our nature study since we've gotten back outdoors this spring! Tonight I was browsing online a bit and found a GREAT resource! It's at www.enaturalist.org (having problems with the hyperlink tool) This website has great lesson plans, identification info, and you can ask questions to a naturalist on it! It's a wealth of info for free! There's stuff written for kids, teachers and they have stuff you can subscribe to as well! I posted my question about whether the dam and cuttings we saw on our river were from a beaver or a muskrat. We'll see what they answer! (see blogs below) I could do science for free for quite a while off this site! Hope you enjoy!
Today it was beautiful - over 70 and sunny! For N Wisconsin, that's pretty good! In the evening a bit before dusk, my oldest 2 kids and I went on a walk to the river on the property here. They wanted to throw a line into the river as some people say there are brook trout out here, but so far we have yet to see one. Unfortunately we didn't see any fish but we did see some other interesting things while out! We saw:
More buck scrapes (since our last nature walk)
More places where animal cuttings are being made - either beaver or muskrat (see nature walk blog from last week HERE)
Found a cocoon - we pulled off the branch where it's attached and brought it home and put it in a terrarium. Here's a pic of it!
a beaver or muskrat! I was quite a ways away and my oldest ds was finishing a couple more casts into the river when I turned around to look and saw an animal moving down the river. He saw the animal too and pretty soon afterwards I heard a VERY LOUD splash/smack! It sounded like a large log being thrown into the river! I would guess it was a beaver as I was quite some distance away and I don't think I would have noticed a muskrat as much from that distance. My ds saw it as well though not at the moment when it dove.
Earlier today we were looking around quite a bit around the trees around our house and found a few interesting things. I'll type more on that and take a few pics of things we noticed around there another day. We also were able to do some natural journaling with artwork as well.
So it was a great, productive day in the nature department! I'm excited to see what comes out of the cocoon (hopeflly)! We also have 2 other cecropia moth cocoons in our butterfly keeper that we caught as caterpillars last summer. We're hoping those will emerge this Spring as well! I love watching and learning about God's incredible world!
We were looking at a tree and noticing tree sap oozing out and a place where bark had been stripped off. This tree is right by our driveway. My son says, "look at that" and points out the dead, icky banana peel. I asked him how a banana peel got to be hanging on a bush way over there, and he answers, "I think I remember daddy flinging a banana peel out of the van a while ago!"
We tend to eat a lot in the van and the process of getting out of the van and getting all the stuff and kids into the house probably got to be too much for him and hence, the peel got flung. Maybe some bugs or creatures were able to dine on it for a while before it turned into a dark, old crusty peel! Anyways, that's the banana peel story!
Maybe this is obvious, but there's a story that goes with it so I thought I'd see if you could tell what this is? I'm curious who will be the first to get the right answer! Then I'll post the answer and funny thing my ds said about it!
Clover with tiny grasshopper on top
Monarch caterpillar
Bee on small sunflower
cecropia moth caterpillar
Triple Orange Kwanso Daylily
Pic showing the last 3 of the 4 stages of the monarch's life!
There it goes!
One of our many caterpillars
common milkweed plants
3 chrysalises - you can just barely see the orange wing through it. My son who loves these caterpillars and butterflies is seen looking at them in the background with his bug PJ's on!
Cute little Cecropia Moth caterpillars. They change colors as they grow and shed their skin.
Unhatched eggs. Plenty more caterpillars coming!
Our 2 moths!
(not our pic - forgot to take a pic of the caterpillar!)
Our Journey Into The Country - A Faith Walk