Nature Study: Logs & Leaf Litter Hike

This morning, we ran to Mrs. Greens to get Mikro's allergy friendly food, and then raced like mad to make it home, stow the groceries, and run to a program at the Nature Center for all ages.

"Logs and Leaf Litter" was a hike through the park, investigating the critters that live in those environments. We were slightly late, but luckily we caught up with the group. It was us, another mom & 2 kids, an older lady and one of the park naturalists, Melissa, who brought magnifying bug jars for the kiddos to use. Lots of fun, and lots of exercise. Mikro had a blast. And we found a few bugs, some alive, some dead, for our growing collection.

We saw shells from the shell middens left by local native americans, pill bugs, cicada nymph casings, dead cicadas, spiders, monarch butterflies, yellow swallowtails, several varieties of mushroom, earthworms, millipedes, slugs, ants, water chestnuts, beach glass, poison ivy and a plant that looks like clover (aack-- name escapes me) which is a natural remedy for poison ivy. We found feathers from a woodpecker, a duck, seagulls, and canada geese.

After the hike, we visited the nature center and saw a paper wasp nest, a taxidermied fox, skulls of various local critters, and the contents of an owl pellet. I really liked Melissa, and am sure we will be going back for more programs at the Nature Center. (Today I got an email from our local homeschool coop listing classes starting mid-September at the center, which are especially for homeschoolers. I will definitely try to get Mikro into them, though he is a little younger than the suggested age (which is 6, but they require the parents to stay, so I think with a little mama help, Mikro will do fine), because he is totally into entomology and nature.)

After the hike, we found several more dead cicadas and a dead cicada killer wasp, and then got to watch a live cicada killer on the prowl. Kevin and Mikro examined a fox hole with a flashlight, and we caught a caterpillar, a small orange moth, and a ladybug to take home and study. Melissa got a kick out of the fact that we travel with empty bug jars. They sure proved useful!

Some critter photos from our hike: Slug, millipede, monarch butterfly, earthworm, bee...











Cicadas & Cicada Killers:







Cicada nymph molted casings, inside and out:






More fun in the park...







This is Mikro after we left the park to finish up our grocery shopping... Totally zonked.