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Aquatic Insects were on the agenda for Day Camp, so we took a trip to the Creek. The squeals as the kids stepped into the cold water were soon replaced with: "Wow.", "What is this?" and "Cool. Look at this thing."
We found a lot of stone fly nymphs, which are indicators of high water quality. We also found a lot of my favorites: caddisflies. I am always fascinated by the houses that caddisfly larvae build for protection out of pebbles and sticks. Although not insects, we were all mesmerized to find all stages of tadpole development.
When we returned to the Nature Center, we set up the microscope to look at a few specimens MUCH more closely. I think that kids would go to the movies just to watch bugs under a microscope. Wouldn't that be a refreshing genre? (Photos by Carole Mebus.)
The raised beds of the garden are filling up. We're growing lettuce, tomatoes, green and hot peppers, basil, carrots, marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, kale, beets, onions, broccoli, celery, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut & spaghetti squash, radishes, rainbow Inca corn, bush beans, pole beans, eggplant, and watermelon. We're going to install a drip irrigation system this weekend.
If all goes well the same kids who planted these vegetables from seed in WebWalkers and Spiderlings will have an opportunity to harvest something at Crow's Nest Camp in July.
Bees! Erich Estes, the Preserve Manager at Stroud Preserve, was the featured speaker at Day Camp today. Erich brought along all of his bee-keeping equipment, along with excellent visual aids. Then he did a wonderful job of explaining honey bee life cycles and bee keeping to the kids. One of the highlights of the program was the equipment. So, Erich had kids model the bee suit.
And boys love smoke, so the smoker was of great interest. After Erich's presentation, we hiked up to the meadows to look for bees. We found several honey bees. This was great, because right now bee keepers, and fruit and vegetable growers are concerned about mysterious die-offs of honey bees. No one really knows for sure what is causing the die-offs, but it should be of great concern to anyone that eats something pollinated by bees. Some plausible (and researchable) theories include cell phone signals, pesticides, genetically engineered plants and changing weather patterns.
We also found about a dozen or so bumble bees feeding on nectar and pollinating flowers. Bumble bees are native bees that live in colonies. While some bumble bee species produce honey, they only produce enough honey for the larvae to eat. There are actually about 4,000 species of native bees in North America. While most are solitary, and don't produce honey, they are very important to pollinating flowers which produce fruit and seeds beneficial to both humans and wildlife. (Photos by Carole Mebus.)
This beautiful flower is from . . . wild garlic (Allium canadense). This is not the same as the field garlic that shows up in your lawn. Notice that this plant forms bulblets instead of seeds, from which new plants grow. Blooming now at Crow's Nest!
Today we started the Nature Day Camp for children grades 4 - 6. This year's theme is INSECTS. I have enough trouble with 70 species of birds and 200 species of woody plants - - but there are over 700,000 species of insects! So, this week the kids and I are learning together as we explore.
Today the focus was on butterflies. We saw about a half-dozen species including this Eastern Comma. The milkweed is blooming and butterfly weed is just opening, so there was a lot of activity in the meadows.
In this photo, we are talking about insects that produce galls on hackberry leaves. The kids thought it was pretty cool that an insect could make a leaf grow a certain way to protect its egg, and provide food for the developing larva. (Photos by Carole Mebus.)
My hike through the swamp was a good time to see cinnamon fern (Osmunda cinnamomea) with its startling fertile fronds.
I believe that these fiddleheads emerging from behind skunk cabbage are also cinnamon fern, emerging a bit later in a less sunny site.
Leaving the wetland and working my way up into the woods I came across this Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense).
We've reached the time of year when plant growth is rank—as in dense, thick and luxuriant. I'm having trouble keeping trails clear, vines off trees, and gardens weeded. I haven't kept up with recording all that's blooming, but here are a couple more photos from my swamp walk a couple weeks ago, when things were more open.
Technically speaking, a swamp is a wetland that is substantially wooded, as is the case with this one's red maples. (We also have cattail and other marshes here, places that are too wet to support trees.)
Small streams cross through, both feeding and draining this wetland.
I particularly like the contrast of the broad leaves of skunk cabbage growing with the fine textures of ferns and sedges.
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