Frogs and Forsythia in February

We have a little creek across the street from our house and this time of year it has quite a bit of water in it. We walk past it when we walk the dog and we noticed last week that the frogs have started making their call! I pulled out my camera and took a video so we could share.

They are Pacific treefrogs....here is a link: Pseudarcris regilla

From the website:
"Despite the name, this frog is chiefly a ground-dweller, living among shrubs and grass typically near water, but occasionally it can also be found climbing high in vegetation. Its large toe pads allow it to climb easily, and cling to branches, twigs, and grass."

I also wanted to share this image with you today to encourage you to give this activity a try in your family.


We brought some twigs from our forsythia bush a few weeks ago and they are already starting to blossom out. Look at those yellow flowers....now that feels like spring!

Here is a link to some specific tips and suggestions:
Forcing Flowers

Hope you are all enjoying a little winter nature study.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Frogs and The Sounds of Summer: Our Family Study

This post has been a long time coming. We worked on this last week and the week before that knowing we had a frog study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge. We must be having an unusual year because we have not seen a single frog this summer except when we were at Yosemite on our camping trip. We saw a Pacific Tree frog but did not photo because he hopped right up to my foot and I was actually trying to catch him but he got away. He sure could jump!

On a normal summer evening we can sit out on our back deck and hear frogs in the evening as they croak and rib-bit. We took a walk around our neighborhood and found out that the little wetland area at the end of the school soccer field that usually has cattails and frogs this time of year was dried up. They must have come up with a way to drain the area and it is now not fit for cattails and frogs. I am a little sad.

So did we learn something during this challenge even though we never found any frogs? We benefited from two complete walks looking for frogs in our neighborhood and although we were not "successful", we did learn more about our local frogs. We took some time to research exactly what kind of frogs we should be looking for in our area. We found that there is a species of frog that is endangered, the California red-legged frog.(Image from Wikimedia Commons)

We also have the Sierra Tree Frog and the Sierran Tree Frog (working on figuring out the difference), as well as the Foothill yellow-legged frog.

We enjoyed learning some more information about frogs from the Handbook of Nature Study too and some of the facts are now filed away for future reference.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

OHC Summer Series #6 Frogs

“The frog is a powerful jumper and has a slippery body. Its eggs are laid in masses of jelly at the bottom of ponds. The frog may be studied in its native situation by the pupils or it may be brought to the school and placed in an aquarium…”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 183

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Summer Series #6 Frogs

Train Your Senses

• Sight: Observe the development of a tadpole to a frog. Visit a pond or lake and sit quietly while watching for frogs. Look for eggs clusters or strands in the vegetation along the shallow edges of ponds or lakes.
• Touch: Hold a frog and use your sense of touch to examine the frog. Is the frog easy to hold? Remember to wash your hands afterward.
• Hearing: In the evening, listen for sounds of frogs and toads. Can you distinguish different calls?

Inside Preparation Work:
1. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 180 to 186 (The Frog, Lesson 47). You can listen to frog calls HERE and HERE.

2. Read in Discover Nature at Sundown pages 68 to 92. This thorough section explains the complete frog life cycle, gives suggestions for finding frog habitats, frog calls to listen for, and suggestions for a tadpole study.

Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend 15 minutes looking for frog eggs, tadpoles, or frogs at a local pond or lake. Use the suggestions from the box above to use your senses in your exploration. If you are able, collect a few tadpoles to put into an aquarium for a period of time to watch the development of the tadpoles into frogs. See this website for more information: How to Raise Tadpoles.

Suggested observation activities:
Describe the colors and markings on the frog.
Describe the eyes and mouth of the frog.
Compare its “hands and feet”.
What sound does the frog make?
Is the frog a good swimmer?
Measure how far your frog can jump.

If you do not have access to tadpoles or frogs, take your fifteen minutes outdoors at sundown and see what you can find that interests your child. Continue your previous challenge activities or follow the lead of your child and see what adventures you can have in the twilight. (Suggestion: Don’t turn on a light and don’t take a flashlight.)

Follow-Up Activity:
If your child is interested, record sketches of the stages of a frog’s development. If you have the Summer Series ebook, you can use the notebook pages and coloring page included to record your frog studies. You can use a blank sketchbook page to record your frog studies. Draw you tadpole’s growth over time. Sketch frogs seen as the summer progresses.

Please make sure to come back and post your link on Mr. Linky after completing this challenge and writing your blog entry.

If you would like all the Summer Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. Here is a link to a complete description:
Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges

Yosemite Insects...Just a Few to Share.

Here is my entry sharing a few of the insect photos we took while we were at Yosemite National Park a few weeks ago. There is an amazing amount of insects to observe in the various habitats that we visited. This bee is on a coneflower in a marshy meadow area.

The insect was hanging underneath the cow parsnip flower that I was attempting to photograph. I noticed him as I was standing very close to the plant. I wasn't sure what kind of insect he was but I love the way he is hanging underneath the blossom.


This was the trip where I learned to distinguish between a dragonfly and a damselfly. A dragonfly's wings are out when he lands and a damselfly has his wings back. This is a damselfly. We saw hundreds of these Circumpolar Bluets on a hike to Lukens Lake. This is smallish lake at about 8000 ft in elevation. The area where we saw these damselflies was a marshy edge to the lake. ( I added an image of my nature notebooking page for the damselfly.)



Ah, this giant dragonfly was so fast that we could hardly get a photo of him. Click on the photo to zoom in a bit on his gorgeous wings. There was another kind of dragonfly, a big blue one, at this lake too but it *never* sat still long enough for a photo. Again this was taken at Lukens Lake at Yosemite National Park.

Here is a skipper of some sort on a hike to Westfalls Meadow. I have learned to recognize this general variety of butterfly but the specific.....too many to tell. :)


I was busy trying to get a photo of a flower and then I realized that there was a ladybug on the leaf. It was the biggest ladybug I have ever seen and so very red.

This is where we realized that in the mushy mud along the meadow's edge we could see bear's tracks. Yes, lots of bear's tracks all along the way as we hiked. They did not look fresh so we just kept telling ourselves that the bear had come through a long time ago.

Here is an example of the footprint we saw all along this section of the trail. Really big.

Okay, I can't tell you how long I tried to identify this butterfly using my field guide and the internet. Nothing seemed right so I will just call this the "happy butterfly" since it was happy doing its thing with its mate. They were so big and pretty.

Just another buzzing bee in the wildflowers.....

Last but not least....a Pacific Treefrog. I don't have any other amphibians to post this with so it will go on my insect post.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a few insects from the week....and hearing about the bear and seeing the frog.

We definitely had fun hiking out into the wilderness to see all these things.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Pacific Treefrog

Pacific treefrog, Hyla regilla, found at the American River, California.

Bright sunny day.

He and a friend treated us to a show of their voices. They are very loud and make their song by expanding their balloon like throats. It is a fascinating thing to see.






Here's a video that I shared on my other blog that has the frogs croaking at 25 seconds and 50 seconds into the video.
Pacific treefrog Video
The video is terrible but the audio is fantastic. They really were as loud as they sound in the video.
Handbook of Nature Study, page 186
"The frog may be studied in its native situation by the pupils or it may be brought to the school and placed in an aquarium; however, to make a frog aquarium there needs to be a stick or stone projecting about the water, for the frog likes to spend part of the time entirely out of water or only partially submerged."

On pages 178 and 179 of the Handbook, Anna Comstock talks a little about a different variety of tree frog and shows a few photos.
"It is by means of these sticky, disclike toes that the animals hold themselves upon the tree trunks or other upright objects."

Here is a nature journal entry my son did last summer of another Pacific treefrog that we observed.

We are going to be able to identify this little creature now when we hear his call and we feel privileged to have had this experience.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

California Newts and Tree Frogs: Outdoor Hour #3

March 1, 2008
Dear Nature Friends,
Today we took our Outdoor Hour Challenge on the road, or should I say trail? The last Friday of every month we take the day off from our regular schooling to have a Nature Day. This is something I have been doing all year with my 12 and 14 year old sons. We take the day and focus on some aspect of nature that fits in with our science lessons or our interests.

Please remember when you read my post and view my photos (and a short video) that we have been doing nature study in our family since these two boys were able to walk....a long time. We also live in a moderate climate and have limitless access to wilderness. This hike is literally out our door and a few miles away. On a scale of one to ten, this day was a perfect ten. I hope that puts our experience in perspective for you beginners. This is what your nature study can look like in a few years if you keep at it, little by little.

In challenge number 1 I shared our hike on a new trail...the one with the ferns and the unusual bud. We wanted to take the hike all the way to the river this time so after a short stop at our tree in the woods, we headed over to the trailhead. We set off at a quick pace but soon we found wildflowers blooming and of course I had to stop to take a few photos. (click on any photos to make them larger)

Buttercup

I wasn't able to identify this one yet, need to see it flowering.
We saw our first butterflies of the season, big brown ones and little blue ones. The sun was actually hot and we shed a layer of sweaters and sweatshirts...good thing I had my backpack on this hike. :) We had good conversation as we hiked along. Oh, we saw what the "unusual looking bloom" was from our last trip. It is actually just the way the leaves pop out on this particular plant.

It was a long downhill hike to get to the river, I think about a mile and a half but the hard part is that it was a really steep downhill grade. I kept thinking about the hike back up with great dread. Would the hike be worth it we kept asking?


The minute we hit the edge of the river and I was shedding my pack, the boys excitedly called to me to come over and look at something. I could tell it was something good by the tone in their voices. Wow! A whole pool of California newts!

We spent quite a bit of time watching them in their courtship dance in the crystal clear water. Fascinating and we felt so grateful to have seen it. My youngest slipped into the water with one foot and had a soaking shoe, sock, and pant leg for the rest of the hike. After a few photos and a video, we all sat at the edge of the river and rested and listened and just soaked it all in.

Yes, you can train your children to sit quietly and listen.

The boys were soon doing their usual river thing...throwing in rocks. I sat and worked in my nature journal drawing the blackberry leaves and vine next to me. The boys found a little gold flake in the gravel at the edge of the river. We actually live near where the California Gold Rush started on this very river.

I need to make a note to put a little vial for collecting things in my backpack. This flake was dropped into the rocks and was never seen again. He wants to go back and try again some time.

But the highlight of the day happened right when we were packing up to go back up the trail.....yes, you haven't seen the highlight yet. The boys spotted a frog that had just jumped out of the water onto a rock. Back out comes the camera to try to get a photo for their nature journals.

While getting a few good photos, two of the frogs started croaking. Their throats blew up like balloons and the sound of it was awesome. Would you like to hear? [If you are on email subscription you will need to come over the the blog to see the video..I think.]There are actually two frogs croaking in the video and they croak at about 25 seconds and 50 seconds into the video. When we got home we pulled out our field guide and identified this as a Pacific Treefrog.


Popout

Both boys wanted to do their journals on the newt.

I got a new scanner but I have not learned how to operate it very well yet...maybe next scan will be better.
Thanks for sharing our very exciting "day out" with us. Hope it inspired and encouraged you in to have some of your own adventures with nature study. Our family looks forward to each time we have to share time out of doors. The answer to the question earlier about whether the hike would be worth the effort? Yes, totally and completely. I would go again right now....sore muscles and all.

One last photo of my son and I kneeling over the water trying to see the frogs.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom