Outdoor Hour #2

 

 

 The assignment for the second outdoor hour was to use your words. James and I went out the back gate, always an exciting adventure, for our walk. The walk went something like this.

“I’m leaving for our walk.”

“O.k., let me just get my man. And my treasure. And Kitty.”

“No, you don’t need all that stuff. You’ll lose it and we’ll spend the entire time looking for it and you’re supposed to be looking at nature. Just come.”

Repeat 5 times.

“Oh, I forgot my camera. Can you stay right here by the fence and not move while I go get it?”

“No, I’ll come with you.”

Repeat the beginning again.

Finally actually get started.

“Oh, look, there’s a bird going into the crack of that rock, do you think there’s a nest in there? You can look, but don’t get too close and scare it.”

“There’s a cave alright, and some sticks, but no treasure. These weeds sure are scratchy. Are we done yet?”

“Look a snake.”

“Uh, huh. Are we done.”

“Yeah, we’re done. Can you use your describing words, like we talked about? What you heard?”

“Chirping birds.”

“What you felt?”

“Scratchy weeds.”

“What you saw?”

“A deep dark cave, where something lived, I don’t know what, but there certainly was no treasure there. Can I go play now? I’m tired of talking.”

“Anything interesting, like the snake, you want to learn more about?”

“No. Not today.”

“Tomorrow?”

“O.k.”

So, I did i.d., the snake, using this site (for CA only, reptile i.d., site) as a CA racer, but he didn’t seem that interested. Two days later, we were driving up our hill, and noticed that the butterfly population was much more dense at the top (it’s a 5 minute drive approximately). We talked about why (there’s a preserve, so better habitat). James wondered it maybe the air was cleaner at the top, less pollution in their lungs. I explained that I doubted butterflies had lungs, most insects don’t. Then, he had to know what organs they did have (he also wanted to know how much blood they have, I never quite got to the bottom of that, although we did talk about it probably depending on the size of the butterfly and “not much”). I found this site  (enchanted learning, has a good explanation) and this site (visual miriam webster dictionary, has a good diagram of the interior anatomy, most of the diagrams I found were exterior anatomy).

For those who are wondering, butterflies don’t have lungs, they have spiracles, which are pores, opening to the air that transfer the oxygen and carbon dioxide. This, for most insects, is why they can’t get too large; the gaseous exchange is inefficient. Well, I’m not too sure how a giant exoskeleton would hold up either.

I have held off on a nature journal, because I have wanted this to be very low pressure. However, this week’s assignment it is somewhat mandatory. We’ll see how that pans out next Monday.