The following is a Cottage Garden report by Agnes (me). This afternoon we made a good deal of interesting finds including:
--A ladybug pupa. Very interesting! I've seen larvae before, but never pupae. This one had a shell! (Question--no animals eat ladybugs, but are the larvae and pupae edible? I looked this up on the internet to no avail. Does anyone know?)
Here is a video clip of a pupa exactly like the one we found: Ladybug Pupa responds to touch.
--A tuft of raccoon tail fur in the driveway gravel. I'm guessing that it was snooping in the trash cans.
--Some interesting plants with thick roots. I will take a photo and post it here shortly; we are not sure what they are.
--Lots of yellow warblers. They are so cute (smaller than sparrows!) and interesting to watch. I think that we have mostly males around here; the duller females have yet to show their faces. (Then again, that's probably because the females blend in more with their surroundings.)
--Clover everywhere! Baby Maureen ran around gathering the tiny blossoms in her skirt.
--Little blue butterflies and white cabbage butterflies.
More things that we have seen lately:
--A suspicious-looking catbird eyeing our tadpoles. It's a good thing the container is so deep! Mom thinks we should do an experiment--leave some tadpoles in a shallow bowl and see what happens.
--A newly-hatched painted lady butterfly drying its wings on a shrub.
--A mourning dove sitting in the birdbath, surrounded by stone sparrows. This is not a typical sight: mourning doves are ground birds by nature. Needless to say, we snapped a lot of photos:
--Baby bunnies. Some of the eastern cottontail rabbits must have had kits, because they're everywhere! They are smaller than guinea pigs and ten times as entertaining to watch. Once Theresa saw one pull down a branch from a small shrub and start eating the leaves. This morning I saw one rolling around on the bricks like a kitten.
--Theresa and I discovered some more strange plants by the rhodedendrons recently. They have thick stalks which give off a milky white sap.
Well, this concludes today's "Cottage Garden" report! I hope to post here again soon!
--Agnes, age 12
What a thorough report, and I love the pictures! I almost feel like I'm right there. Looking forward to hearing more.
Posted by: JennGM | June 20, 2006 at 09:23 PM
Agnes, this is a wonderful report!! Excellent details and beautiful writing.
I can't wait to read it to my boys when they wake up - they love following the nature adventures at the Cottage Garden. :)
Posted by: Dawn | June 21, 2006 at 05:38 AM
What a wonderful report. I can't wait to hear more. Do you have pictures of the unidentified stalks?
Posted by: KC | June 21, 2006 at 02:23 PM