9/14/12

How good it is to find snakes again.  They must be on their last outings.  We have found two ther last two days at our Hartje Nature Center--small Garter Snakes.  I have not seen any others besides the Garters and Water Snakes.
One of the kids was noticing a small bug the other day and asked what it was--there are soooo many bugs/insects.  I was happy that I could identify it as a tree cricket--he was also happy to have it identified as that.
While eating lunch one of the children noticed a hummingbird sitting in a tree!  These kids are so naturally curious about nature.  It is still a struggle to have them be able to spend more time outdoors rather than so much in their desks.
Last week we spent a little time in and around the Wisconsin River--the kids loved being in it.
Gary

9/11/12

Stinkhorns!  it is the time of year for StinkHorn mushrooms.  They gross out the kids.  They are so obvious in their odor--it is wonderful to count on them showing up at this time of year and in almost the same spots as last year.
While at Hartje today we also had the great fortune of catching (and releasing) a garter snake.  Everyone wanted to hold it but since there were about 54 kids I thought it best for me to hold it and just have them touch it--another great odor.
Gary

Sept 9th

Tuesday will be my first outing with kids this summer.  We will be at Hartje Forest doing the challenge course and then hiking.  The pumpkin patch has produced 34 nice pumpkins of various sizes and will still produce a few more.  It seems way too early though--they will all be done by Halloween.  Road kills that I have placed in the decomposition site have often disappeared, one raccoon has remained.   The skull (fish) on the nature table still remains a mystery--my brother thinks it is a catfish but I have never seen a catfish with that kind of overbite.
Gary