Hey friends!
Just a quick announcement before we dip into story time.
THE PRINT SHOP HAS BEEN UPDATED and March's proceeds will go to the ACLU!
Again, I am open to suggestions for future donations, so feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments box.
Now: Moths!
I have always been fascinated by nocturnal creatures. When I was in grade school and had to do reports on an animal, 9 times out of 10, that animal was going to be a bat. It's a mammal and it flies. And it eats mosquitos, so that automatically qualifies bats for MVP status in the animal kingdom.
Once I had kids of my own, I was really excited to instill a love of the natural world in them. To that end, we have done all kinds of nature walks and visited all kinds of wild spaces. But what do they talk about the most? Not the time they climbed a mountain in Colorado. Not the time we spent at Lake Michigan. Not all of the nature centers we visited across Cook County. Nope.
It was the time we watched a moth emerge from a cocoon.
I had been doing a little spring clean up of our backyard and discovered 2 large cocoons beneath one of our maple trees. I scooped up some leaf litter, a stick and the cocoon and placed it in a glass jar. It was mid-April, so I knew that the moths inside would be emerging soon.
Just a quick announcement before we dip into story time.
THE PRINT SHOP HAS BEEN UPDATED and March's proceeds will go to the ACLU!
Again, I am open to suggestions for future donations, so feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments box.
Now: Moths!
I have always been fascinated by nocturnal creatures. When I was in grade school and had to do reports on an animal, 9 times out of 10, that animal was going to be a bat. It's a mammal and it flies. And it eats mosquitos, so that automatically qualifies bats for MVP status in the animal kingdom.
Once I had kids of my own, I was really excited to instill a love of the natural world in them. To that end, we have done all kinds of nature walks and visited all kinds of wild spaces. But what do they talk about the most? Not the time they climbed a mountain in Colorado. Not the time we spent at Lake Michigan. Not all of the nature centers we visited across Cook County. Nope.
It was the time we watched a moth emerge from a cocoon.
I had been doing a little spring clean up of our backyard and discovered 2 large cocoons beneath one of our maple trees. I scooped up some leaf litter, a stick and the cocoon and placed it in a glass jar. It was mid-April, so I knew that the moths inside would be emerging soon.
Sure enough the next week one of the moths wiggled out of the cocoon and climbed up on the stick to dry out it's wings. Once the moth was ready, we took it outside and placed it back on the tree where I had found the cocoon.
A few days later, the second moth emerged and we placed it on the tree as well.
These are Polyphemous Moths and they spend most of their lives in the canopy of trees so it was a real treat to see one up close.
Next week I'm going back to that same maple tree in the hopes of finding a new cocoon.
These are Polyphemous Moths and they spend most of their lives in the canopy of trees so it was a real treat to see one up close.
Next week I'm going back to that same maple tree in the hopes of finding a new cocoon.
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