Bugs and Birds

For science this year, we are doing some field biology, which means "going places to see what's there that we can call science." So here are some pics of a few things we've done (finally figured out how to download the pics--more to follow). Found this little creepy crawler in September--can't recall what we found out about it at the moment. Aaand that would be a good reason to actually make a nature notebook page when we find something interesting... We also found a 6-in, green and yellow caterpillar that was about as big around as my forefinger and had yellow-orange horns! Again, I can't remember much about it (we looked it up, for sure) other than it burrows into the ground and comes out in the Spring to make its cocoon (was a moth catty), so we let it go after admiring it for a good 3 hours. "Look at the SIZE of that thing!" and so on...I'm sorry, I've forgotten how to turn pictures around...We are studying birds this fall (nearly done) so we dissected an owl pellet--pretty gross, pretty cool, depending on your perspective! We soaked it in water to make it easier to dissect. Got tons of bones, and yes, it was smelly. It is still sitting on the server in the dining room...Here it is in the water--we used a paper clip and tweezers from the kit to pull it apart.You can clearly see various bones--lots of jaws with tiny teeth! I printed a bone chart from the web, although one did come in the kit. We still have an undissected pellet--probably will send it to my niece.

That's it for now! Stay tuned for some pictures from our Story of The World explorations!