Nature Notebook

Growing Frogs in the Garden

Kyle — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:34:22 +0000

Everyone knows that frogs can be found near lakes, ponds, and streams, but we have frogs growing in our garden.

The nearest body of water is several blocks away, but when someone walks through our garden, large numbers of frogs (and toads) hop out of the way. Perhaps there are so many frogs in our garden because we have sprinklers set up, there are areas of tall weeds for frogs to hide in, and there are good places for the frogs to sun themselves.

We caught one of these frogs and it appears to be a mix of the two different colors of Northern Leopard Frogs.

We’ve been offering our frog several different insects to see what it would eat and we were amazed when it ate a large grasshopper that was around this size:

We plan to feed and observe the frog for several days and then return it to the garden.

Hundreds of Creatures in a Water Droplet

Kyle — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:55:17 +0000

Have you ever realized how much tiny life is around you that you can’t see? Maybe these pictures will give you some idea of the amount of microscopic life there is. The pictures show some microscopic creatures from some stagnant water.

These are some of the microscopic creatures that were on the microscope slide. Many more of these could be seen at a lower magnification.

These are the exact same type of creatures at a higher magnification.

Weird Christmas Cactus

Kyle — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:00:42 +0000

Our Christmas cactus started growing some new sections this month. They are normal except for the fact that they are pink instead of green.

The next picture is a close-up on a few of the new sections.

Baby Spiders

Becca — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:20:23 +0000

Between 8:30 and 9:00 this morning, we spotted these baby spiders on our deck. They appear to be orb-weavers. Later in the day, both the spiders and the web (see photo) were gone.

Lunar Eclipse Photos

Kyle — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:01:43 +0000

These are some pictures of the moon during the recent lunar eclipse. Going from left to right, they start before a full eclipse and end after a full eclipse.

And I was just wondering, who took a bite out of the moon?

What is a lunar eclipse?

Weird Illinois Weather

Kyle — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:59:39 +0000

Between January 3rd and January 7th the temperature rose from a low of -5ºF to around 60ºF. The afternoon of January 7th an unusual storm, for that time of year, struck. A tornado touched down around fifteen miles from where I live. This tornado’s path stretched for thirteen miles.

The National Weather Service has a very interesting map and some pictures. You can see them on their page about this tornado.

Ice Encrusted Trees

Kyle — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:30:46 +0000

We had an ice storm a little bit ago and another one today. The result of the ice storms is easy to see:

When the wind blows, the ice can be heard cracking:

Ice Encrusted Tree Sounds

Fully Grown Ant Lion

Kyle — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:29:38 +0000

I mentioned in A Lion in a Quart Jar, that an ant lion is the larvae of a damselfly-like insect. You can see what an adult ant lion looks like in this picture:

And this picture:

My ant lion destroyed its funnel and didn’t build a new one. After a while, the ant lion emerged as an adult ant lion.

Cool Clover

Becca — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:47:23 +0000

We have a lot of clover in our yard and I like to look for special ones. I’ve found several four-leaf clovers and even a few five-leaf clovers, but today I found a six-leaf clover. Here’s a picture of it:

Maybe some day someone might find a seven-leaf clover!

Colossal Fungi

Kyle — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:43:06 +0000

You might not think that these fungi are colossal, however they are quite large.

This mushroom is a little bit away from the other one:

For all I know those two mushrooms could be part of the same fungus.