Dark-Eyed Junco

Mushrooms

I'm certain that I still enjoy our nature journaling more than the kids do, but they are having a great time, too.  Today the whole family took a brief hike up into our woods shortly before the sun went down, searching for lichen, fungus, and mushrooms.  My son has a very keen eye and can see things that none of the rest of us ever will, and he had so much fun scouting out all the "finds".   We examined the insides of fallen trees, squinted our eyes to more closely observe the patterns of tiny lichen clinging to the tree trunks, pointed out ferns and rubbed our fingers over moss, noticed the bugs crawling around under the mushrooms' gills.  It is always a game of discovery, this nature journaling.  I'm so glad we're doing it!

Oak

Magnolia Seed Pod

Insects

For today's assignment, we went outside and found three different insects to draw, and hopefully identify.  Initially, I just wasn't seeing much, except for ones that moved so fast I only saw a flash of "something" before they were gone.  And then I saw a tiny blue-ish-grey butterfly.  It danced in circles on a bit of grass before flitting off to find another piece.  When it opened its wings, I could see some light brown color.  As best as I could tell, it was a Hairstreak of some sort.  Later, though, I've wondered if it was a "Common Blue".  Any thoughts?

Next I saw a decent-sized "butterfly" on my black butterfly bush.  It had such long "tails" that at first I thought it was a black swallowtail.  But upon looking up "butterfly with long tail" on Google, I instantly realized it was the Long-Tailed Skipper.  It's body was quite velvety-looking, and sort of iridescent blue.  Quite pretty.

We have a plethora of wasps around our house.  Dear Husband is continually trying to combat them, but they always seem to make a come-back.  This one was happily drinking from the bird bath on the back porch.  He is quite pretty, but I certainly don't care to receive his sting!

Anna's Hummingbird

Daughter chose to document this little bird, which we had the privilege of watching for quite some time.  He was flitting all over the place, and just chattering up a storm with several females.  When he turned just right in the sunlight, we were able to see a flash of his irridescent colors.  He was beautiful!

Great Blue Heron

While at MacKerricher State Park in California, we saw a massive number of birds!  (See growing Life List of birds in the column on the right.)  One bird that my son enjoyed watching was the Great Blue Heron.  I think he was jealous of all the frogs that the bird was wading through at marsh's edge.  Son wanted SO BADLY to catch one of those big, bad boys!