The snakes in the garden

This past Saturday we discovered snakes in our garden! Two black racers have taken up residence in the parsley. I think they were probably in there when I took this photo! Actually we first saw one of them a couple of weeks ago. We were out looking at the garden. We have chicken wire up as fencing and the black racer had entangled itself in the wiring. We were about three inches away when we finally saw it! We rushed away but my dog was over near the snake. We were calling and yelling for him to come away, but he just gave us a silly look and trotted happily along taking his time right beside the snake. After we finally got our dog away we rushed back inside. Sometimes black racers will chase you and we have read that they have a nasty bite. Even though they are not venomous a bite from one doesn't sound like a pleasant thing. My dad wants all the parsley out of the garden now. It's a huge patch and looks so beautiful, but the snakes have made it look pretty ragged from going in and out.

The weird eyed bug

This is an eyed click beetle we found last week in our yard on a tree we'd had to cut down. We sat and watched it for a while. The eyes you see are actually false eyes. They are used to scare off predators. It seemed pretty shy about being watched because it kept trying to find places to hide and finally disappeared into a crack in the tree trunk.

Endangered Species Day!!!

Today is Endangered Species Day! I'm joining with the National Wildlife Federation to bring awareness to endangered species. My pick is the Florida Panther! There are 100 or fewer left in the wild. Pretty sad, isn't it? It seems they are going to go extinct and we will lose this beautiful cat forever. I don't know about you, but that makes me mad!!!

Because there are so few in the wild they sometimes inbreed. This has caused genetic problems and many health problems for the species. Another problem Florida Panthers face is habitat destruction. The state of Florida has a growing population so they have less and less area in which to live. This is causing them to move more and more into human populated areas and then these fantastic cats are often hit by cars.

I want everyone to join me in spreading the word about endangered species. A list for each state can be found by clicking here.

Book sale to benefit the animals

I am currently reading Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I found it at a book sale for $.50 (it's a paperback) and I also found the second book of the series, Eldest, for $1 (it's a hardcover). I enjoy checking books out from the library, but sometimes I'm unable to finish large books before the due date. Eragon is 497 pages and Eldest is 668 pages - see what I mean? I love to read so my family is always looking for used books at a great price. This book sale was to raise money for a local wildlife hospital. I am not old enough to volunteer at this hospital yet so buying these books was one way for me to help them. (Pictured above is a Barred Owl that cannot be released back into the wild and will live out her life at the wildlife hospital.)

Back

I've been away from blogging for a long time now and I've decided to get back to it.

Here's a cool new blog I want to pass along - Animal Planet's Animal Oddities by David Mizejewski. I think it will be interesting since I love animals so much. I plan to post some You Tube clips of his past visits to different television shows helping everyone learn more about various animals from around the world.

Friday Show n Tell - October 17th

Visit Mrs. Mary for Friday Show n Tell!

This show n tell is about The Great Turtle Rescue.

I found this turtle stuck in our fence while we were taking a nature walk. We tried to get him free but we couldn't bend the fence wires enough and the turtle was hissing and snapping.

When my dad got home he got it free. It was dark then so we didn't take any pictures. My little brother likes to watch Go, Diego, Go on tv. It's a cartoon show about a boy who rescues animals that need help. He kept saying the whole time it was a leatherback sea turtle and Diego was coming to help us save it. I thought that was funny.

Friday Show n Tell - October 10

Visit Mrs. Mary for Friday Show n Tell!

Guess what we have in our garden again?

Black swallowtail caterpillars!

This is a really young one crawling on a bucket edge...

This bucket of dill they have already attacked and eaten almost all of it...

This is an older one than in the first picture. There are a few this size...

They tickle when they crawl around on you. This one pooped on my hand. My little brother held it and it pooped on his hand too! He shrieked and threw it up in the air. Guess where it landed? On his head! That made him shriek and run around in circles. I got it safely and put it back in the dill...

I am going to keep some of these again (like in my other Show n Tell a few weeks ago) so I can see them form the chrysalis and emerge again.

Friday Show n Tell - September 19th

You can join Friday Show n Tell by visiting Canadagirl (Miss Mary).

These are black swallowtail caterpillars. We found them back in the middle of August in our parsley. I decided to let these two go. The three I kept that you saw on my Friday Show n Tell from last week were found on Sunday, August 31st. .......



This was the first black swallowtail butterfly to emerge from its chrysalis. We were still asleep when it emerged. I named it Max. A male has lots of yellow and less blue on it. .......


This was the second black swallowtail butterfly to emerge. We missed seeing this one too! I let my mom name it. She named it Jasmine. You can tell it is a female because it has lots of blue and little yellow. We used a book we have called Butterflies of Florida to help us know what a male looks like and what a female looks like. She was friendlier than Max. She let us hold her. She didn't want to fly away when we tried to release her. She tickled my fingers and arms. We placed her in our garden and the next day she was gone. .......


At the time I'm writing this post there is still one more in its chrysalis.

I hope you enjoyed this. Thank you to everyone who visited my Show n Tell last week and today!

Friday Show n Tell - September 12th

Visit Canadagirl (Mary) if you would like to join Friday Show n Tell or find links to the participants.

Hello! This is my new blog. Thank you for visiting me!

We found 3 black swallowtail caterpillars in the parsley when working in our garden the other weekend. I decided to keep them so I could see them make their chrysalis and turn into butterflies.

This is when the caterpillar gets into position to form its chrysalis.

And here is the chrysalis. It's green at first and then changes to brown. All three have now formed their chrysalis and we are counting down the days until the butterflies emerge.