Nature Detectives

2007-04-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

Aren't those baby robins SOOOOO cute... and loud?!?!

What a pretty butterfly!

2007-04-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is my dog Pepper. She is a german shephard mix. Isn't she cute!?!?

And this is her wondering why I'm taking her picture.

And this is her being adoribly adorible!

Play with your food!

2006-04-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is called Pig Pie. I used bologna and cookie cutters to make the pigs, and a square cookie cutter for the trough, one little piece of pepper for the food in the trough, and Catalina and Ranch dressing for the mud and the food that's dripping down the trough. And it's all on top of baby spinach.

Coral Snake was making stuff, too.

Mr. Smiley! Whole wheat bread with chunky peanut butter, and turkey cut outs, to make a face!

Great American Backyard Bird Count!

2006-02-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

Here's something everybody can do. It's fun, and easy. What you do is you look outside or go outside and you see how many of one kind of bird you can see a whole bunch of times. And it doesn't have to be one bird. See how many you can see.

The dates are February 17 through the 20th. You can do it once, or every day. Then you put your report in to the website.

Here's what we saw today (note from Mom: it's not how many birds you see total, it's how many of one kind of bird you see at one time - there's lots of info on the website):

4 chickadees
3 tufted titmouse
1 nuthatch
1 hawk (Mom saw, up in the sky)
1 junco
1 purple finch
1 sparrow
2 parakeets :-) (our birds - I just wanted to add that!)

This was in a half hour. You have to do it for at least fifteen minutes. Have fun!

Stone

2006-02-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hi - This is North Star, now it comes up as my name instead of Mom's. Coral Snake and I took pictures today. This is a rock I found once.

Made by a Beaver!

2006-02-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

Some Summer Nature Pictures

2005-09-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

These pictures are all from our vacation at the cottage on Lake Ontario this past August.
Coral Snake found this bird's nest.

This is a cool sunset picture that Dad took.

It was sunny most of the time - but here are some clouds.

There is a real buffalo ranch near the cottage.

North Star found these bones.

Coral Snake Explains Some Pictures (Part 1)

2005-08-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

That's a special place on Lake Ontario.

All the kids playing in the water and jumping off the boats.

The campfire that we sometimes have.

That's a dead fish my cousin found.

A water snake looks just like the rock. Can you find it?

Freaky!

2005-08-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

We were knocking down our old sandbox, and then Mom picked up the grill cover and saw this thing. We thought it was alive.

Then we saw the hole in it. We realized that it molted.

We think it's from a cicada. This is Coral Snake writing. North Star thinks it's really freaky. Mom is holding it in this picture. (Click on it to see it enlarged - if you dare!)

2005-08-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

A baby bunny from Mimi's house! (Click to enlarge to see it better.)

2005-08-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

Some mushrooms from our backyard!

Snake!

2005-07-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Daddy caught this snake on the second day we were at Lake Ontario. It was a garter snake. It was staring at me (Coral Snake is writing this).

(click to enlarge the photo...if you dare :-)

Otter!

2005-07-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

We saw an otter at our lake. First we saw a little one behind an old building. Then it went under a dock and peeked its head out. Later we saw just its head in the water.
(If you click on the pictures, you can enlarge them.)

Big Sand Bug!

2005-07-09T12:42:00.000-07:00

North Star holds one of her biggest Sand Bugs that she has caught. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

2005-07-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a squirrel from our street.

2005-07-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a chipmunk from our street.

Sticky fingers

2005-07-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

Coral Snake had just finished eating cotton candy at the town's Fourth of July weekend carnival. A fly landed on her sticky fingers. "Take a picture for the nature blog, Mom!" So we did.
(You can click on the picture to enlarge it.)

2005-06-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

The way you catch a Sand Bug is you dig a hole, and then you look through the mud and it has to be quick, otherwise the Sand Bugs will dig back into the ground. And they look like little bugs.

2005-06-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

Once you catch them, you should put them in a bucket full of cold water and cold sand.

2005-06-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

This is a Sand Bug - and even though it's called a Sand Bug, it's still in the Crab family.

2005-06-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Coral Snake and North Star exploring the ocean. Can we dig to China? ("Not without going through or around the inner core," says North Star.)

2005-06-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

Coral Snake liked these ferns in our woods. He found them.

2005-06-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

Coral Snake found raccoon prints in the woods by our house. Here's his hand next to it.

2005-06-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

They like to kiss.

2005-06-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

North Star wrote about Mario. This is Coral Snake writing. This bird is Luigi. He doesn't care about getting his picture taken, he just stands there.

2005-06-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

Mario does not like his picture taken. As soon as we took the picture, he jumped right off of the swing.

2005-06-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a bumblebee on our Mountain Laurel flowers. See if you can find it!

2005-06-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Turtles in Chicago (from our trip)

2005-06-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

Cuz and North Star with baby ducklings

Bullfrog

2005-06-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

This is a bullfrog. We heard it before we saw it. Coral Snake heard it first and North Star saw it first. It was loud. We could come very close to it before it jumped back into the water.