Little Purple Flowers - Mystery Solved

Almost a year ago has gone by since my neighbor's kid pointed out to me that the little purple flowers had disappeared from around the yard. The flowers came back again this year and I remembered to take a few pictures.  I used the pictures to help identify the flowers using a dichotomous key.  I narrowed it down to crocuses. The name was familiar from hearing it around the office as first sign of spring.  So now the mystery is solved.

Late winter, crocuses are of the first to bloom. While they do come in different colors, it seems that someone scattered only purple ones in our area and they come back each year. Best part is that even when there is snow they may bloom, are still there when the snow melts again.  Go out and enjoy the first signs of spring, Meet Me Outdoors.

Animals at Night

Tonight as I was walking from my car to my house I saw five deer. I saw the first one crossing the street, one trotting down the sidewalk away from me and three others a few houses down the road. It got me thinking about other animals I have seen at night when walking from my car to my house over the past month or so.

My first odd animal encounter was maybe a month ago when a fox ran right by me going around my car then up the road.  I watched as it crossed the road to the median then into the brush.  I then heard a squeak from the bush and out ran two foxes and they chased each other down the street.  I have seen one of the foxes since then crossing the street on a later night.

My next animal was with a bunny.  I saw it hop up my driveway and into my backyard a few weeks ago. Another day I saw one hop across the path I was walking to my door. It stopped behind a plant and posed for a picture... Ok, so maybe not posed per se but it did freeze in its position as I took the picture.  One adaptation of rabbits is they stand motionless and hope the predator doesn't see them. They also have coloring that helps them blend in with their surroundings.  (Bonus points go to whoever can find the bunny in the picture.)

In looking for activities to do with my nature class that I teach on the weekends I found something called "fox walking". Fox walking is a barefoot walking technique that helps you focus not on the ground but on your surroundings.  I read that for every deer you see, you likely passed ten others.  I was sure this time to look not just at the first deer I saw tonight, but to see if there were others. Sure enough when I surveyed the area I saw the other four deer.  Look around you next time you are outside and don't let animal encounters go unnoticed, Meet Me Outdoors.

I am ready for spring!

I decided to have my Sunday school kindergarten class do some seed starting for early preparation for spring.  It has been 2 weeks and we can already see growth. What is great about keeping the plants in the classroom instead of having them take the plants home right away is we can extend the learning from one week to the next.  We planted cherry tomato seeds in a simple seed starting greenhouse kit.

One week after planting the seeds we were able to measure the sprouts.  With the group gathered around the table I had each student pick a sprout to measure with the ruler.  Since they were kindergarteners and just starting to learn to read numbers we looked for which number the leaves on the top of the sprout were closest to.  Most were 1-2 inches tall, a few were 3 inches tall.  

Once the plants start to sprout they should be under a lamp so they get enough light and have warmth to grow.  I took the plants home over the week so I can be sure they are watered and have enough light. As you can see from the pics they are growing quite nicely. 

The little plants make it feel like spring will be here soon, even though we just got almost a foot of snow outside. If it hadn't just started raining I would have gone out to build a snow-person or fort.  Stay warm everyone!  Think spring, have fun in the snow, Meet Me Outdoors.

A trip to the zoo

I went to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park today with some of my friends. It turned out to be a great day for the zoo, not too cold out which means we were able to see the animals. 

We saw the lions, reptiles, invertebrates, small mammals, elephants, even otters. As I walked through the zoo I used scvngr to keep track if where I went and what I saw.  For example, the picture on the right is of a chameleon I saw in the Reptile Discovery Center. I am sure he wanted to hide, but from my angle I could still see him, can you?

Since it's winter time, there were a few animals that were not out today because they prefer warmer climates.  There still were plenty of critters to see in the different indoor areas as well as along the outside trails. 

Elephant

 

If we came after dark this time of year, winter holiday season, we would have seen the zoo lights. I have only seen pictures of it from a friend of mine who went.

The pictures I added are from today. Looking forward to another adventure, Meet Me Outdoors.

Otters... They kept moving around, hard to get a close-up.

Lion!

Two lions!

Butterfly in the garden

I was working in the garden with my nature class and came across a butterfly. I didn't want right scare it away before getting a good look at it and maybe a picture.  What you see is the first shot and last as I got closer.

I have narrowed the species of butterfly down to a variegated fritillary. I am still questioning the exact species but it is in the fritillary family.