I've had this Hoya plant for over 9 years and while I've seen its blooms dozens upon dozens of times I've never seen the flowers dripping this watery liquid. So I questioned what it was and took a taste. Wow! It was sweet and yummy.
Can you hypothesize why this plant expends precious energy making liquid nectar? How would you find out? Would observations help? Research? By the way, I also spit it out just in case it might have some other chemicals i could react to. I wouldn't suggest you go out and start licking plants :) Take a look at a few pages from fellow students who are creating pages in their nature journals that are examples of excellent effort. DO NOT feel badly if your sketches are less than you'd hope. REMEMBER: the primary purpose of sketching is to help your mind to focus on what you are observing, not the creation of a pretty picture. However, if your drawing is pleasing, that's a nice bonus.
Practice truly does add up to improvement over time. Seeing how other students are approaching the nature journal assignment might help to inspire your own individual creativity. I know I'm impressed! Today, I watched as all five of our classes followed the drawing tutorials of Jack Muir Laws. I was thrilled to see everyone doing their best and ending up with sketches that were better than they'd expected. Listening to this nature artist emphasize the focus upon training ourselves to become better observers of nature by learning to look carefully at the world around us reinforced my primary goal with this unit. While making "pretty pictures" can definitely be satisfying, training our senses to tune in carefully to the natural world around us is a greater accomplishment. Whether or not we're able to translate what we perceive into top-notch sketches is secondary to learning to pay attention, to slow down and notice the biodiversity of the living things with whom we share the planet.
I'm eager to see how some of the drawing tips work for you. Please share your successes and challenges with one another and me. If you find a video or other source that will help us all to create interesting, informative and pleasant nature journals SHARE with the rest of us. I wonder if you'll believe how many nature observations awaited me in my backyard during an hour I spent relaxing under Rosie the rosewood tree. Yeah, the one I told you gives me a feeling of being in a beautiful green fort. Its brand new leaves are pristine - so perfectly formed and fresh, free from insect's munchings for now. Totally different than the chewed up, torn, worn, tattered leaves that are all too glad to take the fall in November. It was a breezy late afternoon, sunny and comfortable for sitting out in the shade. As always, some road noise - aka sound pollution - was heard. Somehow, I've learned to tune it out. But given that I'm trying to practice good observation skills I had all my senses tuned in. So, the road noise reminded me of a project being done by a scientist that involves traveling the globe to record natural sounds in the last places in which one can avoid man-made sound pollution. There was a location around Denali Park in Alaska that was one such place. Airplanes are a major offender in these very wild places. Maybe you can also tune in to noise pollution. Is it different late at night? Is there a time when human sounds are silenced here in Venice, Florida, 2014? Back to my observations... One of the first things I spotted was an anhinga surfacing and then diving back under in the lake just yards away. The anhinga's long slender neck is snakelike and it's always strange watching it slither and dive, surface, slither and submerge again and again. This is their hunting behavior, diving to seek fish. I actually watched this one come up from the grasses with a tiny fish that it was positioning to slip down into its long beaked throat. Wow! As I approached, it grew wary and headed for the point where it had the bank to hide it. Just a few minutes later I spotted it at a favorite anhinga hang-out: Anhingas are ancient birds, related to loons. Have you ever heard a loon call? It's a haunting, wild sound. I felt grateful that the plants paralleling the shoreline had shown up there a couple years ago. These attract fish that attract the birds. This is a great example of the introduction of a species, like these plants, can influence animal behavior in an environment. In this case, it's a small change. Can you imagine a larger example from changes in our local environment. Think Center Road, for example; any changes? I barely got back from taking a photo of the anhinga when I heard a bird in a smaller tree in my yard and looking up I saw a lively bluejay calling and jumping about. Cool, right? Yes but not quite as cool as the red shouldered hawk that I realized was RIGHT in FRONT of me on a closer branch. The picture doesn't show just how close it was to me. Seeing him or her so close (shame I don't know enough to tell the difference right now) was a treat. Beautiful, smooth feathers, and a keen stare! Yeah, I really had a nature blog writer's heyday! How was yours? Tell me about it! I'd love to have you top mine!
With temperatures in the mild 70s and humidity half of what it will soon be, it was a perfect day to open the house letting the breezes blow through. This is a good thing as it made a day of sitting at the computer much nicer than it might have been. It's been a productive day compiling exemplary sites full of great information for all of you as you begin your nature journals. I'm eager to share this portion of our life science curriculum. It will invite YOU to get outdoors much more than you might otherwise. Perhaps you'll be opening your "mental doors" wide to the natural world here in Gulf Coast Florida over the next couple months! That's my hope as, in my estimation, it's one of the most significant lessons you might gain this year in science. As I reflect back on my own childhood and what my relationship was like with nature, I'll tell you that it was comparatively desolate to your local environment here. I lived in a new neighborhood with yards of mown grass and skimpy flower beds. Trees were young and provided little shade or habitat for living things. Only a small wooded area remained at the far end of my street. This became a magical place for us one summer. We, the neighborhood children, had discovered thick bushes with overgrown tunnel-like trails that were delightful. I had a sense of being in a fantasy world something like Bilbo Baggins enjoyed in the land of Hobbits. The possibilities of a huge new level of adventure filled my spirit. Along with the huge tree standing sentry to these magic new digs that was an excellent climber, we'd found the secret to a magical summer. And then the adults stepped in. They cut down the tree. GASP! And they cut and cleaned away all the wild bushes. While I can appreciate their concerns, it was a signature act of the 60s when nature was generally undervalued and all that was new and modern and clean and spiffy and safe was to be embraced. I was heartbroken. Perhaps this is why I've travelled to wild places and chosen to live in a cabin in the woods of Alaska for 8 years early in my adult life. And why a home on 22 acres in the Black Hills surrounded by forest service land felt like a perfect haven for me. And now, sitting with a little lake with a preserve on the other side is a reasonable compromise when living in Venice, Florida. Sitting under my giant rosewood tree with the branches hanging low around me have given me the sense of being in a green, living fort and I'd say that at such times I probably feel more like that 12 year old back in Illinois than at any other time. What are the experiences you're creating now that connect you in meaningful, enjoyable ways with nature? What things do you like to do outdoors that make you feel happy and full of delight? I hope you can list many things. If not, guess what? You're likely to discover at least ONE way that being outdoors makes you feel alive in a new and improved way! Nature provides us with a balance these days. I hope it will be a ready prescription for decades to come, but I do have some concerns about this. However, you and my own family are my primary focus - I want YOU to discover the balance that time outside provides. I can't help but think that the combination of being outdoors and learning about the life around you will win you over and become something you CHOOSE to do even when it's not assigned by a teacher. My hope is that you fall in love - for the first time or for the 1000th time with this amazing planet and its beautiful biodiversity over the next weeks. Let me know how it goes, will you? And look who gave me a visit late in the day...:) My Observations: This possum moved slowly and was initially stuffing its mouth full of palm seeds, seeking ones that were ripest perhaps? I saw it eat four seeds and then it moved down toward the lake. I followed it but kept my distance as while I know they're meant to "play possum" when feeling threatened, and also a concern for rabies. Unlike on a prior visit, I didn't see it head for the oak tree out on the point but it seemed to have disappeared somewhere. Perhaps down along the water down a bit where I'm unable to view things unless being very close to look over the edge. This is not so great when it's a 14' gator as was the case some years ago! Anyway, given that my dog, Cody, was raising a ruckus, I went to calm him down and left the opossum to its business. Other observations include what I think was a bit of a stinky smell. It's coat looked greasy and unclean but I'm not sure this is a fair analysis. I wonder if opossums are clean animals. I saw its little ears twitching back and forth to help evaluate what to do when I drew close to it with my camera. And it held its tiny left paw in the air like that for some time. It's tail looks very healthy and the photo allowed me to observe how long its whiskers are! Opossum are MARSUPIALS and carry their young in pouches. It would be very cool to see a mama opossum with babies onboard. I remember going to a seminar given by a biologist who was an expert on this species. She spoke of how ancient they are evolutionarily speaking. She also talked about how tough it is for them to survive cold winters as their tails and ears freeze easily. They also don't live very long lives. And while they are not the brightest of mammals, they are not endangered even in the midst of habitat loss as they are becoming more common in suburban and urban areas. Opossum Facts
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Didelphimorphia Family: Didelphidae Genus: Didelphis Scientific Name: Didelphis Virginiana Type: Mammal Diet: Omnivore Size: 15-45cm (5.9-18in) Weight: 0.5-6kg (1.1-13lbs) Top Speed: 25km/h (15mph) Life Span: 2-7 years Lifestyle: Solitary Conservation Status: Least Concern Colour: Black, Brown, White, Grey Skin Type: Fur Favourite Food: Fruit Habitat: Forest and farmland close to water Average Litter Size: 6 Main Prey: Fruit, Insects, Frogs Predators: Fox, Cat, Birds of Prey Special Features: Long prehensile tail and sharp claws I hiked with Eagle-Eye aka Mrs. Hess for over three hours today. Before even entering Maybry-Carlton Preserve, Mrs. Hess, who happened to be driving, spotted a Crested Kara Kara bird who was mixing it up with a bunch of hoppin' happy buzzards huddling over carrion in the ditch across the road. Like eagles, Kara Kara are predatory birds that also don't mind hitchin' a meal off of others when given the chance. I think it was outnumbered.
Mrs. Hess was sharing that this species of bird is generally thought to belong in Central and South America, but we're now finding some moving into Florida. Hmmm...we're wondering exactly why that might be. Does anyone know what to do to find out possible thoughts on why this is occurring? Such questions fit right in with making observations out in nature and then applying one's prior knowledge and curiosity to learn and understand more. Inquiring minds get lots of exercise out on nature walks. While I didn't have a nature journal and pencils along, I did have my cell phone camera and took many photos which you'll find in our gallery here on Weebly. I think both Mrs. Hess and I ended up with a good review of what we collectively knew about what we were seeing and a whole lot of new questions. This is like hitting the jackpot when you're a teacher who still loves learning:) The cool thing is that I'm hoping to be learning a lot from all of you over the next weeks as we venture into clocking many hours and miles out in the parks and preserves in our area, making observations, journaling what you experience and researching for more information about all the living things from plants to humans (yes, we're also a natural part of the planet's biodiversity!). Are you up to the challenge? |
Ms. Maria KearnsI'm passionate about all things to do with biology and the natural world. This nature journal project is your chance to get up close and personal with the many amazing things that often go unnoticed until you take a closer look. I hope you let yourself get excited about our wild neighbors from fungi to plants, from invertebrates to our fellow vertebrates. Let's make it fun! Archives
March 2021
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