In the Sparrow's Nest - Creature Feature

Jun. 4, 2009

Creature Feature

As I said in my previous post, we've had quite the creature parade going through here lately. If it's at all possible when we find creatures we build them a temporary habitat and try to keep them for just a bit for observation and learning. We also always return them back to the same spot we found them. Since taking all these photos we have let go quite a few of them back into the wild because it was looking and smelling a bit like a zoo on my back deck! On to the photos...

Alex will take his net and simply sweep it through the creek and almost always comes up with something, like this crawdad.

...or this baby Mudpuppy, or it could be a baby newt, I'm not for sure yet. He has come up with three of those this week just from sweeping his net through the creek water.

....and, his most prized catch came up in his net this week....a Bullfrog tadpole!! We measured it, and it's over 3" long! They are huge compared to the little toad tadpoles. We had never caught one of those before. We noticed that it did not have feet yet and Bullfrog tadpoles can take up to a year or more to make the change into a frog!

However, a couple days later we went to a local park's creek and saw this one swishing around, and it does have feet!! So we may try to keep it to see it turn into a Bullfrog if it's eating well.

While we were at the park we visited their wetlands and saw this Water Snake poking his head above water. NO, we won't want to keep one of those even if we could catch it!

A few days later, we went for a walk at another local park and saw lots of these cute little snails.

And you perhaps were introduced to this little fella on my last Nature Club post. This is a baby Midland Painted Turtle, that we affectionately named "Tinker". We kept it for observation and learning for several days before finally saying goodbye to it a few days ago, releasing it back to right where we found it. By the way, a GREAT book on painted turtles is called Turtle Crossing by Rick Chrustowski. Loved it!

And of course there's our Green Frog, Misty. She was with us for about two weeks, she did very well in captivity (simply loved crickets), and we did a lot of learning with her. But recently it was time to exchange her back to the wild and to take in a small male Eastern Box Turtle (which I've not taken a photo of yet)!

And, we were so blessed by a neighbor who found and hatched a Cecropia caterpiller into this gorgeous Cecropia Moth. Our neighbor was kind enough to share her with us for a day. The Cecropia Moth is the largest in North America with wingspans of up to 6"! And simply beautiful! We know it was a female because the males have much large antennae. We read all about them and found out they only live for two weeks as adults, never eating, only mating. So we enjoyed her for only a day and quickly and released her one evening.

I hope you enjoyed our creature feature! I'll be back soon to share with you our lesson we recently did on the comparison of the frog respiratory system vs. the human respiratory system.

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Comments

Jun. 6, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Dana @ School For Us

I love your creature feature!!! It just goes to show that you have more wonderful finds - when you spend some time looking! :-)
Dana, www.alexml.blogspot.com

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Jun. 9, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by toodlebugz

Melissa,
You guys have been busy.Do you school year round? We do ,but I have to take off about six weeks to wrap up the old and order the new.We are hopefully starting back next week.We have not done anything school related for a while.Your photos are great and make me want to do some nature study.This is an awesome time of the year to do it.Unfortunately my state has lots of paperwork to turn in and requires me to be off to get it done.I really need to do it as I go but alas, it never seems to happen.Looking forward to joining you soon. :o)

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About Me

My name is Melissa and I am a homeschool mom of three beautiful blessings ages 12, 10, and 4; and blessed wife to my husband for 16 years. We use Charlotte Mason's educational philosophies of learning the natural, everyday hands-on life way. We especially enjoy learning and growing together beyond the classroom doors in God's amazing creation in nature.

"Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God." ~Psalm 84:3-4