Nature Walk with Pops

Last week me and my grand father pops went on a hike to the nature center near his house. Our favorite place to go is the lake. We didn't see any thing. We didn't see any thing because the frogs,turtles and sometimes snakes were hibernating under the mud.

soccer tournement

Today I had a soccer tornement in Somer's .A tornement is 25 minute games it was so much fun. We played 4 games. we actully won the hole thing. The other ardsly team won to but they are in a different leag. Our troffies looked like someone dribbling the ball.

Owl homes and praying mantis egg casings

A few days ago I went to the Burke Estate with my friend Cecilia and we were looking for praying mantis egg casings and places that owls might live. When we got to the Burke Estate, there were tons of holes in trees for owls to live in. When we got to an area with lots of bushes where we thought we might find a praying mantis egg casing, I started to walk into the bushes and I found four praying mantis egg casings. We brought them home with us by cutting the stick that they were on. When we got home we tied them on bushes so that we can watch them hatch in the spring.

Tortoise enclosure.

I spent the last few weekends making a tortoise enclosure. We made it out of ply wood. It is really long.We put a liner in so when we need to change his substrate we can take out the substrate with out making many trips. The tortoise prefers a big enclosure. Our enclosure is 9 feet long and will stretch across my hole room.

Soccer

Today I went to the bercastate to play soccer with my dad. We worked on vollys. Vollys are when you kik the ball strate from the air. We also worked on power kiks and following through with your foot.While we working on volleys sometimes he would kick it a little high on those kicks I headed it. Onetime I headed it with the hard ball by acsadent and it hurt my head .

Monarch Butterflies

A few weeks ago I started to raise monarch butterflies. you can find there eggs on the underside of milkweed plants. the eggs are as small as aphids and white . milkweed has oval shaped leaves its called milkweed because when you brake the stem a milky glue like substance comes poring out. after the monarch baby's are two weeks old they should be two to three inches long then they will start to climb up to make their chrysalis. The chrysalis hatch in two weeks.

A Surprise...

I haven't posted an entry in a long time and a lot of exciting things have happened .But today I'm only writing about the most exciting thing that happened today. today I got a Russian TORTOISE!!!!! its about four inches long and eats lettuce and other fruits and vegetables. the vendor that I got it from said they were very easy to take care of.

My Tortoise has brown and black rings on each plate of its shell the vendor that I bough it from said I could bring him outside so he can bask in the sun. The way you can tell a male from a female is by the length of its tail. The male's tail is longer than the female. The male tail is about two inches long. The female's tail is stubby and less than one inch long.

My tortoise doesn't have a name yet. If anyone has suggestions about caring for Russian Tortoises or any suggestions for names for the tortoise, it is a male.

bee keeping

Every Sunday evening me and my dad go to my friends house to feed his bees. We need to fill a container with sugar water. Sometimes we see the queen bee. It is clearly bigger than all the other bees. After the queen bee mates it rips the males head off.

Raccoon Den

Last week my friend found a racon den in a tree we think their 2 babys in the den. The only time we see them is in the evning and they only peek their heads out. the tree is on the end of my street.

Rockefeller State Park

Yesterday me and my family went to Rockefeller state park. We went on a trail called 13 bridges. Maybe it was called that because their were 13 bridges .The second river we saw my dad said their might be craw fish in it ( Ive notice rivers that have the most craw fish have big boulders in them) In the river their were also small fish they were brown and very fast then I saw the remaining of a craw fish on this craw fish the pincers were bright red and had small bumps.

When we past all the rivers their was a pitcher plant on the side of the path .The pitcher plant has slippery sides so that bugs fall in. Pitcher plants live near ponds and swamps so they can catch more bugs . frogs and spiders use the pitcher plant too. they wait near it and when a bug falls in the water the frog or spider has a easy meal. their is one spider that lowers its web in the water of the pitcher plant and carries a bubble in front of it and waits for a bug to get stuck in it.

yesterday the praying mantis hatched from their egg casings their were hundreds of them soon we put them in a cage with netting around it. The cage should be bigger then one gallon. you also need to feed them bugs regularly they will eat a wide variety of bugs.I need to go some where so I will edit this post later.

Snake at School

Yesterday at school we found a snake it was a garden snake. It was only 5 inchis long and had two yellow stripes down its back. Today I went to my school to try to find more snakes but I didn't find snakes I found hundrids of beetles ,1 inch worm and 2 salamanders!

The Salamander Search

Today me and my friend Shane and his little sister Maya found 54 red back salamanders!!! I also discovered the way to tell apart males and females (the males are just blueish black and the females are the same except for the reddish line down its back) We found mostly all of them on Shane's properdy but we found a few on his next door nabrs properdy .I think one of the collest things we found were the salamander eggs we found them under some of the rocks we trnd over and some times we found them almost glued too the bottom of rocks.

Night of the Spotted Salamanders

yesterday night me my mom and my friends family went to see the annual spotted salamander mating event. when we started the hike there were not any. But in a few minits we were finding them everywhar and the best part was the spring peepers. they were as lowed as me and my two brothers screming as lowed as we can at the same time!!!!!!! (and i've got to say were prity lowed)And at the pond there were spring peepers peeping and salamanders mating when we left the pond all we found were wood frogs, spring peepers and salamanders.

building an iglue

This Sunday me and my family built an iglu. First I dug a hole. Then me Luke and Sabascin helped us build the base. and the last step i did with my mom it was building the top of the iglue. Now the iglue is finished and five people can fit in it.

A day at the NY Aquarium

Yesterday I went to the NY aquarium at Coney Island.When I walked in side thar was a giant tank filed with fish and the bigest eel I've ever seen.It must have been about 4 feet long!!! It was yellow with big eyes staring at me. Then we went into a exsibit that was cald alean stingers that exsibit mostley had jellyfish. my favorit jellyfish looked like it had orange peses of sea weed hanging from its orange body. My favorit animal of all was the sea erchents some were blue and purpul with tenticals hanging from thar bodys

rock monster base

Today I made a hole lego rock monster base. With trucks, planes, a look out tower, bomb dropers and a building. A rock monster base is like a lego star wars base but it is with rock monsters. A rock monster is a yelow, green , blue or orange creature that lives under ground and mines crystals. Next i want to put on tunels and mines.

Bullfrog Tadpoles

Last summer i got two bull frog tadpols at suger pond. Thay were light green with brown spots. The tadpoles would hide in a cave and come out at night to eat. At scool I lrnd that the tadpols will remain tadpols for about three years. Then they will grow front legs and back legs. The last year they will shrink thar tail and become bull frogs.

My Frogs

Two days ago I got two tree frogs at the reptil expo. Thay were green with blue and yellow stripes on the sides . ushaly thay crall themselvs up in a corner and sleep thar all day.
I see My frogs jump from branch to branch in the evning when im reading a book at night and sometimes i even see them jump and land in the water bowl.when I get a new climbing scher she alwas jumps on it...


I LOVE MY FROGS

my 8th birthday

Two weeks ago my mom and dad took me to the natural history museum for my birthday.When we walked in side ther was a skeleton of a triceratops its neck was about 30 feet long and its body and tail put together was about 50 feet long.

My favoit exsibit was the geolagy exsibit. Most of the rocks were cristals. Most of the ones I liked and took photos of were prpul.