“Mom, what is this?” My 4 year old son asked while squeezing behind his knee.
“That is a tendon”, I said, “It connects the muscle to the bone”. He then proceeded to ask about his forearm bones and because he was game I pointed out his ear cartilage, and leg muscles. He walked away doing his silly strong man act. But I got the message loud and clear. Not a future engineer as formally predicted. With this kind of anatomical curiosity he is most certainly a future doctor! Continue reading
I went back and forth and back and forth on upgrading from my Canon PowerShot S410 with 3X optical zoom. The main thing I wanted was lots more zoom for taking bird and other nauture photos. The Canon PowerShot S410 also has a 10X digital zoom but at this magnification my pictures looked fuzzy. Should I get another point and shoot but with lots more zoom or should I upgrade to a DSLR with a telephoto lens?
Recently I posted about the Gray Catbird and their mimicking ability with a video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology comparing their sounds with the bird they’re mimicking. Apparently they mimic to attract a mate. Well let me tell you, my backyard is like a mall full of teenagers on a Friday night right now! Check out this video I took…
Doesn’t that sound crazy?! Except for some crows in the background that is all them! I think it sounds fascinating although I might feel differently if I was trying to sleeping in and that was going on outside my window!
Proud Parents (mama in front)
Back in March I posted about House Finches and how they were building a nest over our garage… Continue reading
Lily of the Valley
…from my backyard
My backyard has such a nice sweet smell lately! So many plants, bushes, and trees are flowering. This is the smell of spring that fragrance companies are going for but can never quite achieve.
I’m enjoying it and it seems to be driving the pollinators wild! The bees, butterflies and other buzzy things are very busy back there. I just try and stay out of the way of the bees. Bee stings really hurt!
Gray Catbird
Introducing the latest visitor to our backyard: the Gray Catbird. I think they are here to stay, for as while, as there are several of them and they seem to be busying nest building. They are thrashers like the Mocking bird and have brought along lots of interesting songs as well as their own unique cat like sound. As you can see they are mostly a dark-ish gray with a long beak and a black cap. They also have a patch of brown under their tail.
When we were kids, my younger sister would gently pick up butterflies by their wings to take a closer look and then let them go. Insects are fascinating to little kids. We have been seeing lots of new insects in the backyard lately including butterflies, bees, and other buzzy things.
