Ms. McCulley was telling me this afternoon that a "new" critter was found in the playground originally by Kiran & Annalisa. She described it as having very long legs (like a daddy-long legs), but with transparent wings. It also had 6, not 8 legs. "Crane fly?" I asked. So we looked it up and confirmed that it was indeed a crane fly. If you click on the photo, you'll find out some interesting things about why you might like to have a crane fly hanging around. It also has some other curious and funny common names.
Wood frog
This little guy is a contribution from Emily. It turns out it's a common wood frog (Rana sylvatica), but it has some uncommon abilities. Click on the photo for some information about this small frog. NOVA did a video on this small amphibian which can be found at this link. Now that we are back at school, there are so many exciting discoveries out and about the school. We have such a fantastic opportunity to get to know our natural surroundings and plenty of enthusiastic students who wish to share their discoveries. The first find of the season was this beautiful Big Poplar Sphinx (Pachysphinx modesta) moth. We kept her overnight and she surprised us the next morning with a batch of eggs. The Intermediates are carrying out observations to see whether the eggs are fertile and will hatch. We will also look into what makes a good habitat for this species and try to recreate it for the caterpillars should they hatch. The science group here at Eagle is always happy to have you share, so bring us your specimens so we can photograph them, or post them on this blog yourself. I may not always have the time to identify the species, so I'll post some good internet sites for identifying plants, animals & fungi found around our school so you can try to identify them yourself. We'll give updates as we go along. Happy discovering! |
MaggieThis is a blog for my science students at Eagle School of Madison Archives
October 2017
Categories |
Eagle's Nature Blog
Exploring Eagle School's surroundings and discovering wonderful new plants, fungi & animals