Explore Outdoors This Summer

Summer is the perfect time to play outside! To string up a hammock and read books! To build sandcastles and ... 

 

watch fireflies
explore mud puddles
watch mud wasps build their nests
dance in the rain
watch a spider weave her web
listen to bird songs    
follow a bumblebee
look for worms
pick blueberries
ride a bike
look under stones
look for dragonfly larvae in streams
smell the earth
write haiku
hang T-shirts on clothesline to dry
get to know a moth
watch for bats
listen for hummingbirds

Archimedes Notebook is taking a break for the summer. You'll find my nature posts and 1-minute book reviews over on my facebook page this summer ~ picture books, middle grade, young adult, adult, graphic novels, fiction, nonfiction... because, Summer Reading.

 

Have Fun & See You in September! 

Explore Outdoors ~ Wallflowers

I'm always amazed at how persistent plants can be. They'll find a foothold just about anywhere! I once found a sunflower sprouting in the nook of a tree branch...

 

 

Where's the most unusual place you're found flowers growing in your neighborhood?
 

Explore Outdoors ~ Flower Flies!

 Not everything stripy and buzzy flying in my garden is a bee! Some of the hardest working pollinators are flower flies! Some folks call them hoverflies because they hover over blossoms. According to one horticulture educator, hoverflies pollinate strawberries, apples, plums, pears, cherries, raspberries and blackberries. 

So how can you tell if that yellow-and-black buzzy insect is a fly or a bee? Get a close look.

Not THAT close! A couple hand-lengths away should allow you to observe them without making them nervous. Look at:

• their eyes. Flies have large eyes that meet at the top of their head. Bees and wasps have smaller eyes that sit on the side of their heads.
• their antennae: Flies have short, stubby antennae that sometimes look like tiny clubs. Bees and wasps have long, thin antennae that are made of segments.
• their wings. Flies have only one pair of wings and tend to hold them out to the side when on a flower. Bees and wasps have two pair and tend to fold them over their back when resting.

There are 6,000 kinds of flower flies around the world - what kind do you see on the flowers in your yard?

Explore Outdoors ~ Spittlebug Season

 

The other morning I headed out to take photos of all the spiderwebs in the "tall grass" - a section of lawn we've let grow. It's not so much grass as it is a mix of wild flowers and plants that have grown up. Along with the numerous webs, I noticed lots of spitballs ...

 

Yep, it's that time of year again: spittlebug season! Spittlebugs are juvenile "froghoppers" that suck plant sap, spill it all over themselves, then blow air out their butts to create a froth of bubbles.

 

 This is what they look like if you wipe some of the spit off their faces. Cute little buggers, aren't they?

 

 I see them on so many different plants, but I've never taken the time to make a list of:

• what plants do I find them on?
• do they prefer mid-level living or top floor?
• are there any plants they won't choose?
• how many spittlebug friends share the plant?

 This week head out on a Spittlebug Search!

Explore Outdoors ~ Seeds of Flight

 I find dandelion puffballs fascinating. The seed heads look like a constellation of stars. Then, as they are blown by the wind, it begins to look downright scraggly. What amazes me is how dainty the fiber parachutes look, and how sturdy the little seeds appear. 

 

 

 

If you've ever wondered how far a dandelion seed can travel, the best time to find out is when they go to seed. Pick a dandelion seed head (no one will yell at you for that!), mark a launch zone, and pull off a few seeds with their parachutes. Then hold them up as high as you can and let go. Follow one (or more) and put a marker down where they land. Then measure the distance. Sometimes they fly so far you have to count "giant steps"...

 

Check out the dandelion seeds in your yard... 

 

Explore Outdoors ~ a foggy morning walk

 Some mornings the fog rolls in and sticks around for a couple of hours. It's still cool, and the perfect time for a nature walk. Not only that, water droplets in the air stick to spider webs and make them stand out.

 

 

What cool things do you find on an early morning walk? 

 

Explore Outdoors ~ hairy leaves!

 

My garden is full of wild flowers this spring: dandelions, violets, deadnettle, speedwell, and these rosettes of fuzzy leaves that will grow into mullein plants as tall as me.

The fuzz on the leaves is soft, like velvet.  Some folks describe it as feeling like wool, but it's so soft...

The hairs help the plant conserve water by blocking the sun's rays and keeping wind off the leaf surface.

This is what they look like close up:

I wondered what other plants might have hairy leaves. 

Dandelions? Nope.

Violet? No hair there.

No for clover and speedwell as well. But the deadnettle leaves looked a bit silvery.

So I took a close look at their leaves... why yes, those are hairs. But whereas the mullein hairs stick out at wild angles, the deadnettle hairs look neatly combed.

Take a close look at leaves this week. 

See any hairs?

Explore Outdoors ~ portrait of a dandelion

 I just love the curly hair on top of this one! OK, in reality I know those are sticky stigmas sticking up - awaiting pollen carried by bees, flies, wasps - all three of which I saw in the garden on dandelions.

This week catch a close-up of a flower in your neighborhood.

Explore Outdoors ~ Logan Hill Nature Preserve

 

 

 

This past Sunday, Mothers Day, was perfect weather for a walk. So we headed to the Logan Hill Nature Preserve, a Finger Lakes Land Trust preserve located in Candor, NY.

 

 

 

 

The preserve is a mix of field and woods, with vernal pools and a pond. It's perfect habitat for bobolinks and woodcocks. On Sunday we heard  a medley of birdsong: hermit thrush, robins, sparrows of all kinds. We also heard the low humming of bumble bees and carpenter bees checking out the flowers.

 

Speaking of flowers...

 

 

 The overwhelming color this time of year was green ~ with highlights of muddy brown.

 

 Fortunately, there were stones across the muddy spots. Even they were part of the natural wonder! Who can resist stopping to look at fossilized brachiopods in the path? 

 

 

Explore Outdoors ~early spring

 

 This year spring seems to be slow in coming. Sure, we've had rain and the occasional sunny day. But it's been such a cold winter, and the last couple weeks have felt cold and gray.

 

Still, there's a bit of seasonal change happening in the garden. The spear-like leaves of the garlics have been up for a couple weeks, as have the irises. Pear and plum blossoms have added sprinkles of color to the landscape, and some kinds of maples have already let their samaras fall to the earth.

 

The first flowers blooming in  my garden - and in my lawn - are violets and dandelions. I love the contrast of purple with cheery yellow.

 

I'm not the only one - plenty of tiny bees were out in the dandelions!

 

What colors do you see blooming around your neighborhood this week?
 

 

Explore Outdoors ~ another day, another salt marsh...

 A couple weeks ago we walked along the trail of a salt marsh at Caddy Memorial Park in Quincy, MA. It sits where Blacks Creek empties into Quincy Bay (part of the larger Massachusetts Bay).

Join us for a nature walk...

The salt marsh is flooded each day by salt water. Not only do the plants have to be adapted to that, but they need to be sturdy enough to endure the push and pull of the tides. Salt-resistant marsh grasses (Spartina) grow here and, in the fall, were cut and dried by colonists, and used for bedding and fodder for their horses and cattle.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the salt marsh is edged with oak, cedar, elm, sumac, and pitch pine trees. We saw many red-winged blackbirds and bluejays, an osprey nest, and a horseshoe crab. Apparently the crabs use salt marshes for spawning and will show up even in daylight.

Explore Outdoors ~ flower watching

 Spring comes in its own time, sometimes in a flurry of flowering and sometimes a slow opening of a bud. While visiting Boston, I walked around the neighborhood every day just to watch this magnolia wake up from winter. 

This Earth Day, what's blooming in your neighborhood?

April 1

April 6

April 11

April 14

 

Explore Outdoors ~ a tree museum

 Last week a friend invited us to stroll through the Arnold Arboretum. It's Harvard University's "tree museum" and botanical research facility, and filled with birds and blooms that change with the season. In early April, our friend warned, we shouldn't expect to see a lot of flowers. Because it's still cold (indeed, it snowed for a few minutes that morning) and spring was still trying to wake up! But here, enough talk - come with us for a short walk...

Many of the trees in bloom were from China, Japan, South Korea - places where flowers are adapted to chilly spring weather. But, as we discovered, there's more to trees than their blossoms... 

Bark has wonderful texture, as do the sweetgum seedpods and the mosses and lichens growing on tree limbs.

Even so, the maples and magnolias were blooming (though the magnolias looked the worse for wear!)

And then, of course I just couldn't resist this splash of yellow!

This week, notice the trees where you walk.

Explore Outdoors ~ April Showers

 It's been a rainy spring here in the northeast - and some mornings are still on the cold side. (Snow, anyone?) But spring flowers are shaking off the raindrops and holding their faces to the sun.

 

What spring flowers are blooming in your neighborhood? 

 

Explore Outdoors ~ a salt marsh

 One of the things I try to do wherever I am is to find a bit of wild. Even if - especially if - I'm in an urban area. So the other day we drove down the shore drive to a small natural area in Quincy, MA: Passanageset Park at the Broad Meadows Marsh.

 

Passanageset Park boasts flat trails to and around the marsh, and signs that tell of the history of the Massachusett people who lived there long before European settlers arrived. Others describe the ecology and wildlife ... but on a windy day in late March there weren't any birds clinging to tall stems and calling.

A salt marsh is a coastal wetland that is flooded and drained by the tides. We were clearly there at low tide. 

 

 

 

This week find a piece of the wild where you are. 

 

Explore Outdoors ~ First Spring Rain

 Spring officially started this past weekend, and I've been waiting for sunshine and warmer weather for so long! So of course, it rained. And so, of course, I went walking outside between showers  ... 

What do you see when you go outside after rain?

Explore Outdoors ~ the last acorn

 

While walking around a park in Salt Lake City a couple weeks ago, I noticed all the scrubby oaks had empty acorn caps attached at the ends of the twigs. It makes sense - jays and other animals would have snacked on the yummy nuts all winter.

 

But why did the acorns fall without their caps on?

 

 

The oaks are getting ready for spring, even as this particular tree holds onto a few leaves and this one last acorn.

 

 

 

This week as you walk around your neighborhood, look at the trees. Are any of them still holding tight to last year's leaves or nuts?  

Explore Outdoors ~ More Galls!

 Last week I was hiking in Wasatch Hollow, a small nature preserve tucked behind a neighborhood in Salt Lake City. It felt like spring was nudging winter out, and we listened to the sparrows and a cooper's hawk. I'd noticed some interesting galls on the oak twigs and at the tips of the rose bushes. These are, as I understand it, galls caused by wasps. 

 

 

 

This one is called a mossy rose gall - and it does sort of look like moss growing at the end, doesn't it?

 

Now, before flower and leaf buds burst open, is the perfect time to see galls on bushes and trees. 

 

Can you find any galls in your neighborhood?