Sunday we went to a lake nearby in the national forest to go on a nature walk and to enjoy the lake and beach (not to swim or anything - way too cold!). It was very windy and not quite 70, but as we got on the trail on the side of the lake, the wind wasn't blowing too hard on us and it was much pleasanter.
The trail followed the lake along the banks up higher away from the lake. A few times we made our way down a steep path to the edge of the lake where we could throw sticks in the water etc.. but most of the time we spent on the path up higher. We came to one area where the cottonwood seeds had fallen so thickly that it looked like it had snowed! The kids enjoyed making "cottonwood balls" like snowballs.
We also saw a tree that had major holes in it from woodpeckers!
The coolest thing we saw was tons of dragonfly (or damselfly?) nymphs and skins of nymphs and even a new dragonfly who had just emerged from it's skin. We were walking along near the edge of the water and there was a lot of driftwood there. The kids were looking at the driftwood and noticed the nymphs and nymph skins! The coolest thing was when I picked up a dragonfly nymph who had crawled out of the water onto some driftwood, and it came out of it's skin while I was holding it on a stick! It was amazing to watch the little thing stretching and twisting and coming out of it's skin! Unfortunately after it was out, while I was walking, it must have just fallen off the stick because I looked down and it was gone. Here's a great pic from when it was almost out of its skin!
So those were our nature discoveries on Sunday! What an amazing world God created for us to live in and enjoy! |
