What’s In My Backyard? Projects: Invertebrate Trap For the introduction to this series, see here. Today we are going to build an invertebrate trap. Small ground-dwelling invertebrates are hard for naturalists to study in the wild as they tend to be good at disappearing into the soil or under leaves. Here is a simple trap […]
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What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: Gray Hairstreak Butterfly For the introduction to this series, see here. Today we meet a Gray Hairstreak Butterfly. This is one of the most common butterflies in North America. It lives all over the US as well as Central America and parts of South America. The butterfly has
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What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: Variegated Meadowhawk Dragonfly For the introduction to this series, see here. Meet the Variegated Meadowhawk. This species of dragonfly is common in the western half of the country and rarer in the east. Meadowhawks can be found near water or chasing insects over gardens and fields. If you
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What’s In My Backyard? Explore and Learn: Flies For the introduction to this series, see here. Today we are going to talk about flies! I can already hear the response: “YUCK! Why would I want to learn about flies? The only thing I need to know about flies is how to slam them with a
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What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: House Finch For the introduction to this series, see here. Meet the house finch, one of the most common birds in urban areas. The males have red faces and crests. The red color comes from a compound in their food called carotenoids; these are the same compounds that
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Science Snippet: Explore Jupiter Jupiter is much farther away than Mars. Despite this, it is currently close to 40 times brighter. In fact, Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky after the sun, the moon, and Venus. How can Jupiter be so much brighter than Mars? Jupiter is much larger than Mars. In
What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: Variegated Fritillary Butterfly For the introduction to this series, see here. Today I want you to meet a backyard butterfly. Fritillaries are beautiful butterflies but if you want to see them up close you have to creep up on them very carefully as they are jumpy. The butterfly’s
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What’s In My Backyard? Projects: Keeping a Nature Journal For the introduction to this series, see here. Keeping a nature journal is very important if you want to understand the wildlife in your backyard. It can be as simple as writing down what you see in the yard or as complicated as you like it
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What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: A Golden Northern Bumblebee For the introduction to this series, see here. What’s in my backyard? I found this bumblebee enjoying one of our pea flowers. Bumblebees are attracted to pea and tomato flowers, among others. If you have a vegetable garden, try looking for these large gentle
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What’s in my Backyard? Backyard Safari: What Visits Sunflowers? For the introduction to this series, see here. Sunflowers are creature magnets! Today I went on a backyard safari. I spent about half an hour watching a clump of seven sunflowers for interesting creatures. In that short amount of time, all the creatures in the pictures
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