This week Texas Virtual Academy is on Spring Break and while we can work ahead if we choose we don't have to. We decided to take the afternoons after I get home from work and do some extra 'life learning' instead. Today the kids played outside on bikes and scooters and then we tended to our bird feeders and plants. We sat on the back porch as the sun set and we bird-watched with the binoculars and camera. We were able to catch several types of birds in the tree behind our fence, including "Woody." Yes, Woody is a Woodpecker. The birds in these pictures are after our suet feeder.
We then went inside and talked about the stage our caterpillars are in. All but one have climbed to the top of the food jar and have formed a chrysalis. Believe it or not, if you sit long enough you can actually watch this happen in real time. They climb up and secure themselves upside down with a strong silk-like material. They then get super still and curl their heads up just a tad.
From there it only takes a few hours until they have a complete hard-cased chrysalis. It's a miraculous sight. As soon as the last of the 8 caterpillars (2 of them didn't complete their chrysalises and their lives end here) climbs to the top I will gently remove the cards they are secured to and pin it to the wall of the butterfly house. In about a week we will hopefully have butterflies. Two other chrysalises have fallen but since they were completed when they fell they will still likely become butterflies. We have learned that they shake(sometimes violently) when they feel movement or sense shadows in order to scare away predators. The two that fell were startled by the other caterpillars looking for a place to hang out.
On the ant farm front we have two completed tunnels and our Harvester Ants never seem to stop and take as much as a ten second rest. They are busy and have, by far, been the most fascinating thing to the kids. Our tadpoles should be arriving any day.
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| Meet Woody |
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| This is not Woody, but we haven't yet identified what kind of bird it is. |
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| Also, the view from our back porch. It is an Army post! |
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| Laughing at Woody |
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| We are now cheering on that one last caterpillar. |
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| Busy, busy ants! |
