Having a Day With Mom

today I got takon out of school rley because my mom wantid spend the day with me. first we went to buy candy at Amjo's. I got a long pack of starbrsts, a totse role and my mom got twizlrs. After that we went on a hike at Hillside Woods. Its next to my school so I had to be careful my teachers didn't see me. on our hike we found 2 trtls, 5 ducks, 1 spotid salamander egg, 1 snake and i think i saw a salamander. After that I went down to play catch at the tenis cort. and then we went to the water front park and played tag. we took a picture of the sunset. next time my mom taks me out of school rley I want to go to the zoo.

Frogsicles

Yesterday my frend called me she was wondring if i wontid to go to the vrnlpond to find wood frogs. I said shor because i knew that in the fall wood frogs drop from the trees and feez for the winter. I read in a book once that you can put them in your rifijrator so i was thinking that i could put one in a tupuwar with ice in it and so i can obsrv it outsid.

Our Science Project

Last week my class started a projeked on mealworms. When we got them they were in the larva stag. They were keped in a jar whith a top. The last time my class chekt on our mealworms sum of them were in the pupa stag. Next time I hope that our mealworms trne in to adalts.

A day at the Aquarium

yestrday i went to norwalk aquarium with my 2 bruthrs namd sam owen and my grandmothr and grrandfothr. i went because i hade a day off. win i got there i was exited because the frst thing i saw was 6 sealions.after that i saw 2 ghint sea trtls.after that i saw about 50 jele fish.we came in to a dark room we looked in to a largh glass caje,and i saw 2 sting rays and abut 20 sharks.and then we saw the flauindrs my grandmother said thay wher as flat as a pancake.and then we came back to the sealions.i saw a frog exhibit so we went in to the exhibit.in the frog exhibit ther wher posondart frogs. andthen i saw 6 tigr salamandrs. thay wher abut 6 inchis long. then i hrde a big commotion at the sea lions. we wakd to the sea lions and it was feading time! i saw one do a flip in the air!

Greenburgh's Pond

A few days ago I went to Greenburgh Nature Center with my friend Oliver, his brother Jed, and Jed's friend. We went to the pond. When we got to the pond, we were looking for turtles. I found the first two turtles sitting on a log. At Sugar Pond I caught a turtle by throwing rocks near to me so when I was at Greenburgh's pond I tried the same technique. But it didn't work. So I took a stick and tried to move the water toward me hoping for the turtle to come closer, but it didn't. Jed thought that he saw a crocodile, and his friend believed him. When it was time to go, Oliver's dad said we could go to Burger King. Oliver and Jed were so excited. I got a hamburger and fries.

Crab Hunting

today i went to a state park. it was near the ochon . after i went on a woke we went to the oshon . my dad fouind a crab on the bech . i pikt it up and shod my frends . as we wakt down the bech i fouind alot more crabs . i even fouind 66 crabs . but after we nedid to go . next time i go i hope to cech even more crabs.

Garter snakes

A few days ago I went to my aunt and uncle's house. When I got there they told me that they have seen a lot of snakes. When we went in their backyard, I found a snake slithering across the grass and into a hole. The snake was black with a yellow stripe down the middle of its body and it was about 2 feet long. It was a garter snake. We looked some more and I found a dead snake that was about 1 foot long. We threw it into the woods with a stick. After that it was time to eat lunch and my aunt made spaghetti. After lunch we went back outside and I found another snake in a big bush. I tried to catch it but it was really fast and there were lots of branches in the way. It came out of the bush and I caught it. But then it slithered back out of my net and into a hole in the ground. After that we all went into the woods and tried to find more snakes but we couldn't. I peeked in a bush and found a white thing that looked like a snake. I came closer up and it turned out that it was a snake skin, about 2 feet long. I brought home the snake skin and now when I look at it, it reminds me of that day.

My House in Los Angeles

When I lived in California I had 2 canyons, 1 in my front yard and 1 in my back yard. We also had a hummingbird nest next to our window. The hummingbird laid two eggs. One of the eggs fell from the nest and broke on the ground.

Me and my mom once went on a hike in the back canyon. We found a big alligator lizard and I caught it. It was about a foot long. Then we walked over a bridge and we saw a lizard on it and I caught that too. We went up a little bit more and I found a turtle on the ground. We raced back down to my house with the turtle in my hands and looked on the computer to see if there was a pond nearby. The audobon society near our house had a pond and we brought the turtle there. There weren't any turtles at the pond except the one I brought. A month later I came back and there were about 10 turtles at the pond and it might have been because the turtle I brought had laid eggs.

Turtle Hunting

yestrday i went to sugr pond with my frand oiavr. win i got thar i cote 7 tadpols and 1 frog. i went arond the pond and i found a turtle. it was in the middl of the pond. i threw pabls behid it to skar it ner me. It didn't work so I threw pebbles closer to me and he came closer. Maybe he thought it was food. When he was swimming towards me with his head underwater, I put my feet in the pond and scooped him up with my net. The pond water was up to my kneecaps and the bottom of the pond felt a lot colder than the top. It was squishy at the bottom. I think the turtle was a yellow eared slider because it had a yellow stripe near its ears. The shell was black on the top and yellow on the bottom.

A Hike at Bear Mountain

Yesterday I went with my family to Bear Mountain. When we started the hike I found a grey garter snake. It went into the bushes before I could look at it so we kept going. After a while we came to a wooded area and right on the trail was a 6-foot black rat snake stretched out! The snake was resting on the path and it looked like it was warming itself in the sun. I touched it's tail and it picked its head up and looked at me and began to coil. But instead it slithered into a hollow tree. A black rat snake is black on the top and almost white on the bottom. As you can tell by it's name, it likes to eat rats and mice and other rodents.

Frogging at Sugar Pond

A few days ago I went to Sugar Pond with my dad. When I got there I found two frogs two frogs next to a big rock under a tree. I tried to catch one, but it jumped away too quickly, but my dad caught one on his first try. I went around the pond once and on my way around I found a turtle but it was in the middle so I could catch that. I looked around the pond and I found another frog which I caught. I came around the pond and it jumped out of my net. I was feeling like I wasn't going to catch one but on my next try, I caught one and put it in my bucket with the one my dad caught. I opened the net and it jumped out of the bucket and back into the pond. At the end of the day, I ended up with one frog, one fish and a few tadpoles.

chinese praying mantis

A few days ago I found a giant praying mantis that was about 5 inches long. It was brown with a green stripe on its side. I looked it up and I found that it was a Chinese praying mantis.

Fort Ticonderoga & Snake Hunting

8/18/2009
Today I went to Fort Ticonderoga and we saw somebody demonstrate shooting a musket gun and someone else shoot a canon, but with no cannonball. You could see most of Lake George from the top of the fort. When we looked down from one of the cannons we saw about four wild turkeys. My dad took a picture of me sitting in a cannon, just like a ball.

After Fort Ticonderoga, we drove to a trailhead with a lake and a quarry next to it. In the lake we found frogs about the size of a fingernail. They looked like really tiny toads. We saw somebody trying to catch minnows with a net like I did before, and he was catching them with bread which I usually don’t do when I catch them. He was catching them for bait. Originally we were going to a trail when we got to the trail we started walking down the hill and then we turned on the pathway and then there was a sign saying “Warning, Rattlesnakes!” I felt kind of good that I might see a rattlesnake.

A Trip to Lake George

8/15/2009
This morning I went to my friend’s house and looked in a purple bush and found a really big preying mantis. It was brown and had stripes that were black. I could clearly see it when I found it. It had green eyes and we knew it was a male because it had eight segments and females have six segments on their abdomens.

We were going to Lake George by car and we packed fishing rods, nets and hooks for catching fish, frogs, crayfish, spiders and salamanders. When we arrived, I ran right down the hill to the lake and jumped in to go swimming. I found a frog and I realized I forgot my nets in the car and I went to go get them. I caught small frogs and big frogs and crayfish and fish and salamanders and spiders. When I caught one of the frogs I let it go and it came right back into my net. When I came out to catch some fish I found a small leech about an inch long on my ankle and I learned from my mom that they have a substance that makes the blood continue to flow. There were two teeth stuck into my ankle which felt pretty weird. I held it and ripped it off of my ankle. It took about an hour to stop bleeding.

I came outside with my Aunt Jen and we sat down at the pier and saw about two bats. One of them swooped down at the water and were probably drinking some water. I told Jen about the frogs that I saw earlier and we were looking for some when I found one and put it in her hand.

Nighttime Backyard Creatures

A few nights ago me and my friend were out catching fireflies. We caught about fifty in a net. After that we were looking for some bats and we sat down in chairs and watched bats fly overhead. It looked like they were black and they flittered their wings really fast. They didn't fly straight, they flew zig-zaged because there are usually mosquitos everywhere. They come out right as the sun goes down.

We decided to turn on our black light which attracts lots of bugs. We spread out a white sheet on our clothes line and hung the light on top of it. A few minutes later, we came back out. There were lots of bugs on the white sheet next to the light and we took a bug sucker and sucked up the bugs to get better look. (I will describe what a bug sucker is at a different post.) We saw different kinds of bugs such as mosquitos, red and blue hopper bugs and moths.

After that we went inside for some dessert. We got some ice cream, it was my favorite kind, fudge chocolate with chocolate chips.

Buying a Female Leopard Gecko

One day at the end of June, we went to the Reptile Expo with my friend Delia and my brother Sam. When we got inside, one of the first things we saw was big monitor lizard that was 10 years old and was about 4 feet long. After that we saw some geckos that were about 1 inch long and full grown. Some were blue, some were green and some were purple. I'm not sure what their species is. We passed a few poison dart frogs that were in a big terrarium tank. Most animals at the expo are in tupperware with holes cut in the top.

We found Frank's table where it always is on the right side. We were looking for a 1-yr old female leopard gecko. We have a female and a male gecko that don't want to mate. We also got them at Frank's. There were lots of Leopard Geckos. The one we wanted was an Enigma breed which was a little bit orange and grey and white with red spots. I think it was the best one there because it didn't have any extra skin on it's fingers, it didn't have milky eyes, it wasn't sleeping and it was very active and healthy looking. My brother Sam bought a toy lizard at Frank's. It cost a lot of money. Frank told us that if we wanted to breed this gecko we would have to wait about nine months until she is ready to mate. That will be at the end of March.

After that we saw some praying mantises and all their body parts looked like leaves to camouflage. They were about an inch and a half long. Then we saw an egg casing in the same terrarium. We also saw an egg case that hatched with a lot of little babies. We saw some Stick Bugs that were about five inches long and looked like sticks. They were brown and hard to see.

Next to the Stick Bugs, we saw a Leaf-Tailed Chameleon that was brown. We also saw Jackson's Chameleons which change color, but this day they were green because their surroundings were green leaves.

After we bought some crickets and a new shelter for the gecko, we decided to leave. On the way to the car, we saw a whole family of people looking for a lizard that dropped out of a bag. We asked them what they were looking for. They said they were looking for a Tagu Lizard and I helped catch it in a bush. It had climed the branch and I had to climb the tree to get it. I finally got my hands around it but it slipped away again and climbed up even higher. I finally got it and brought it down and put it in the bag. The lizard was scared and hissed at me with it's mough wide open.

A Day at the Vernal Pond

In May I went to the Vernal Pond and I saw some bullfrog egg clutches and spring peepers. I took a clutch home to see if they would turn into frogs. One of the eggs hatched and then another and then lots. My whole aquarium was full with tadpoles. Soon some of them grew back legs and then front legs and then they shrunk their tails. Soon they became frogs and could breath air.

When I was at the Vernal Pond, I saw a snake eating an egg clutch. It opened it's jaws and swallowed the egg clutch and pushed it down in one gulp. After that we saw some salamander eggs in the pond. I knew they were salamander eggs because they in pairs of two and frog eggs are in a big round clutch.

We looked up in the trees and saw two nests. I climbed the tree and noticed that there was two eggs in the nest. The eggs were blue and I think they were robin's eggs.

On the ground we saw footprints that looked like a fox's footprints. And my friend looked it up in a track book and that's how we knew it belonged to a fox.

A Hawk Sighting

Today I was at camp and me and my friends were playing soccer. We looked up at the sky and saw a hawk flying towards us. It was soaring over us and we saw its red tail. That's how we knew it was a red tailed hawk. It swooped down and landed on the goal. It was about 2 feet in length, and its wing span was about 3 feet. It had really big talons to grab onto its prey.

Baby deer born in our back yard

In June I was looking at some tadpoles in my backyard that hatched out of some eggs, and I put them in a bucket. Next to the bucket, I found a newborn baby deer and I was about 2 feet away from it. I fed it some blueberries. I also saw it eat them. I saw it stand up for its first time. It was wobbly. Then we went to my uncle Kevin's soccer game, and when we came back it was gone. Since then we have seen it around the neighborhood with its mom. Its getting bigger and bigger. Its losing its spots, and its fur is thicker. I was in my friend's yard when it came out of the bushes with its mom, about 10 feet away from me. I saw it eating plants and berries. It looked right at me.

A Day at the Pond

Today I went to Sugar Pond with my friend Cecilia. We brought some pretty long nets to catch frogs and tadpoles. I caught three bullfrogs and one painted turtle. The painted turtle was very heavy and I couldn't pick it up so I dropped it back in the water. I also saw a giant snapping turtle which had a very sharp beak and a worm-like tongue. I caught some tadpoles and one of them was injured because a frog had been biting on it's tail for food.

Through the binoculars, we saw a very big blue heron in the tree. We saw a Kingfisher dive down and catch a fish and fly up into a tree. It had black and blue wings and a white body and a long grey beak.

I fell in and got soaked in pond scum. I walked around the pond into some large reeds where I couldn't see over them and I got stuck in the middle. Finally I found my way out and caught a frog.

When I was there I saw my other friends Layla and Jordan.

Making an eagle's nest

Yesterday we were planning on making an eagle's nest out of large sticks. When we picked up a large stick, we found a few hornets burrowing in the ground. My friend got stung by a hornet. We had to make our eagle's nest some place else because there were hornets in that area. The next day we built a very large eagle's nest and the whole camp could fit into it.

We also found the old cub scout fort with dream catchers inside of it.

A Day at Nature Camp

Today I went to camp at Lenoir Nature Preserve and we brought out the hose but we had to open a well to get inside. We found a snake, a large Spotted Salamander and a lot of slugs. Some of the slugs were Tiger Slugs and some looked like small banana slugs. The snake was a baby Common Garter Snake. It was very small. The salamander had yellow spots and it was black and was about four inches long.

When we took out the hose, we played a game called Animal Tag. The game is played with one person in the middle holding the hose on shower. Each kid has an animal in mind. Let's say you have a bird as your animal and the person with the hose calls "does your animal have wings?" you try to run to the other side without getting sprayed. My animal was a tick. I got sprayed twice.

Neighborhood praying mantises

Last summer me and my friend found a praying mantis. We saw it eat giant bees and butterflies. The last time that we saw it was in the late fall. A few days later we found an egg casing in a bush. We waited all winter for the egg casing to hatch. I checked on the praying mantis egg casing in the early summer and I found that it hatched. I saw lots of little praying mantises coming out of the egg case. They were very aggressive to one another. They had their tails up and their front claws were striking.

We kept two in a butterfly container and watched them grow. I made a bug sucker out of a straw, a plastic bottle and gauze. I caught flies and other insects, and fed them to the praying mantis. When they came out of their shedding skin they were brown, and then they turned light green, then darker green.

Hike to Lost Lake

Today I went to Lost Lake with my friends. On the way, we crossed a stream and found two frogs. We think they were Green Frogs. When we came to Lost Lake, I found two snakes sunning themselves on a rock. I picked one up with my bare hands for the fist time. It was about two feet long, black with dull red stripes. I looked in my encyclopedia and found that it was a Northern Water Snake. I put it in my net and showed it to my friends. I let the snake go. Me and my friends watched it slither across the water to the other side.

While we were at the Lake, we also caught five frogs, ten salamanders (Sawyer caught 2, Max caught 1, Oliver caught 2 and I caught 5) and four tadpoles. We heard many frogs croaking. They sounded like bullfrogs. We also found a few dead salamanders and water bugs. When I caught a frog, one of them jumped out of my net and I had to catch it with my bare hands. When I put it in the net, it got its head stuck in a piece of netting. We had to use my mom's keys to break the netting to save the frog.

When we came back down to the parking lot, we drove to an ice cream store. I got a chocolate ice cream, Sawyer got a vanilla and chocolate ice cream, Oliver got a milkshake, Max got an orange soda, Sam got a vanilla cone, and Mom got a chocolate ice cream and shared it with Owen.