Category: Nature Study

While doing some cleaning up along the edge of the woods, my husband came across this little guy, an eastern hog-nosed snake:

The first thing he did was send our son in to get me because we have to document everything we find (nature study you know!).  So I came out with camera in hand just as they had finished observing him regurgitating his dinner (a large toad ~ sorry no photo of that!).  The snake then proceeded to coil up his body, flip over, stick out his tongue and crack his mouth open really wide. 

Well it seemed to us that maybe he had tried to eat too much and overexerted himself.  So I picked him up, put him in jar, and brought him inside to try to identify him with our snake chart (courtesy of the MO dept of conservation).  He didn't move a bit!  He looked dead.  Any other snake would have darted at the first step we would have taken toward him, but this guy looked really sick.

It didn't take Austin, our snake expert, long to recollect reading about this particular snake and he thought that perhaps the snake was "playing dead".  Playing dead?  That seemed so odd!  Turns out, he was right!  The eastern hognosed snake will in fact turn himself over and play dead as a way of defense.  After a few minutes in the jar, he came out of his "playing dead" phase and began moving around.  So we took him back to the woods to release him.  As soon as we let him out of the jar, he went back to playing dead again.  It was hilarious!  Finally, I guess he realized we were not a threat and began to leave the area, but not without giving us a final big "hiss".  Great nature find! 

Category: Nature Study

Last fall, Austin found a great caterpillar & brought it in the house to observe.  Within a week, he looked like this.

We had given up hope that this little guy was going to make it, but kept the jar on the shelf because it still looked really cool.  Well, after at least 9 months, he (or she maybe) finally emerged!  I put my finger into the jar and the butterfly crawled right up and stayed there until I nudged him into our little garden.

 

This was either a Black Swallowtail or an Ozark Swallowtail. 
Either way, what a beautiful little miracle he  was! 
We did some research and found that these little guys will overwinter. 
So neat! 

 

Category: Nature Study

We have a great little garden pond and stream that brings us lots of entertainment and special guests from time to time.  Well, a few weeks ago, while repairing the bridge, my husband came face to face with this little creature:

A Black Widow Spider

Now my husband isn't all too fond of anything that creeps or crawls, but this little guy sure got his attention and he actually caught him for us!  Yeah Dad!  We'll convert him to an official "Nature Nut" one of these days!

Category: Nature Study

There's a great state park about 15 minutes from our home.  We recently spent the afternoon there playing in the creek, riding bikes, walking the trails, & just hanging out.  Here are some pictures of the kids having fun!

 

Searching for Crawdads...

 

Still Searching...

 

Caught One!

Jessie & Allison would rather ride bikes
than get into the "icky creek"!

Of course, throwing rocks into the "icky creek" is fun!

 

Category: Nature Study

We have a small garden pond and stream - breeding ground for countless toads & frogs!

Thank you Taylor for Our Awesome Nature Photos!  She's a budding nature photographer!

Category: Nature Study

Dad watching & chirping at us!

Babies at attention!  They love having their picture taken!

Show off!

Category: Nature Study

Since beginning our reading of Minn of the Mississippi, my 8yo son Alex has been turtle hunting.  He & his little sister have spent several afternoons together searching for turtles in the woods.  Well yesterday, while doing the morning dishes, his older brother spotted a turtle just off the back patio behind the bird bath.  You should have seen the boy run!  His little sister was no more than two steps behind him.  A turtle! 

We snatched him up for observation and some great nature sketching.  He was a great sport, so friendly and outgoing!  We let him venture around the family/school room a bit to watch him move and then we released him back to the yard.

Here are a couple of photos of our 3-toed box turtle:

 

 

They are called 3-toed because their hind feet have 3 toes.  His front feet have 5 toes!

Category: Nature Study

My daughter breathlessly ran inside today to tell me, "h-h-h- Mom! -h-h-h- There's -h-h-h- a nest -h-h-h- and babies! -h-h-h- The momma h-h-h is feeding h-h-h them!"  Then she dashed back out the door with six siblings chasing after her while I grabbed the camera!  The momma was gone gathering food so we got a close look at her baby robins.  Then when we saw the momma land in a nearby tree, we backed away and waited to get a good shot of her feeding them.  Here are the photos of our baby robins and their Momma (or Papa?), not sure!  I'll have to get out all of our nature books to see if we can figure this out!

Aren't they sweet!  And so photogenic today!

 

Category: Nature Study

Praise God, the ice is melting!  We spent the better part of two days at my brother & parents' homes due to the widespread power failure after our recent storm.  Our in-house temp dropped to 48 degrees - BRRRRR!  No water either since we have a well.  I think it may be time to invest in a generator!  Someone from church made this statement:

"Think of how powerful our walk with the Lord would be

if we depended on Him as much as we do electricity!" .

 

No kidding!  Everything was so quiet & still with all of the ice - we actually had very little snow.  The kids said everything looked like a scene from Narnia.  It was very beautiful...