insects

BUTTERFLY DAY!

BUTTERFLIES!!!

The Dunwoody Nature Center just north of Atlanta had a Butterfly Festival recently and of course we had to go! Our good pals Trevor and Ayden came with their parents, so it was a party for everyone!

 

Butterfly Festival here we come!

 

We had a lovely time exploring this neat little nature center and all the festivities they had throughout the day! First up we saw a Birds of a Prey show presented by Nature’s Echo.

We’re getting ready to meet some birds of prey!

The ladies from Nature’s Echo had 3 birds with them; a Mississippi Kite, a Screech Owl and a Red Tailed Hawk. These amazing birds were so cool to see up close and we learned some super neat facts about them!

  • A Mississippi Kite’s eyesight is so keen they can see every wing beat of a hummingbird’s wing.
  • Owls have 14 vertebrates in their necks.
  • It is illegal to own a raptor feather in the state of Georgia.
  • An owl’s ears are off set on their head.

Mississippi Kite having a snack!

 

Mississippi Kite- gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screech Owl! They are really small!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edmond & Trevor meet the kite!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met a red tailed hawk!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out this talon! Wow!

They had a wing you could touch and feel!

 

 

Wow! Raptors have some super cool adaptations! We really enjoyed meeting these gorgeous birds!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the birds of prey show we wandered around the nature center’s grounds to check out the fun activities and vendors! You could make crafts, enjoy treats or get a bug tattoo! We wanted a tattoo but we couldn’t decide where to put them.

This butterfly is made of bottle caps! Reusing items to make art is awesome!

We ran into this wonderful bear in his National Park outfit!

Handsome bear!

 

It finally was time to enter the butterfly tent and man, were we excited! We could hardly contain ourselves! Luckily we learned some fun butterfly facts as we waited in line!

Butterfly facts!

More fun facts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finally made it in the tent & there were butterflies everywhere! They were all different sizes, shapes and colors! We just loved meeting each one of them!

Butterfly sits on a feeder!

 

Black & yellow butterfly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you spot the butterfly?

 

See the tiny butterfly above us?

Trevor & his mom helped us find this lovely butterfly umbrella!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last gorgeous butterfly shot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last stop of the day was inside the nature where we met some local beekeepers and sampled their honey! Yum! We could see the inside of the hive and we spotted the queen thanks to one observant boy who found her! Did you know that they queen has a yellow spot on her back? Cool!

 

Beehive!

Honey samples! Delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had the best time at The Dunwoody Nature Center’s Butterfly Festival! If you’re in Atlanta you should check out this special nature center and all their fun activities!

 

Categories: adventure, Animals, Atlanta, backyard, Children, conservation, education, Environment, insects, Local, nature, science, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

March Craft/Activity!

Hey everyone! So this month’s craft is really more of an activity to get you outside! We’re a bit late with posting it, because we had some IT issues with our conversion :) ! Anyways, we hope you enjoy BACKYARD BINGO! That’s right folks, we made you a bingo game to take outside to your backyard or your local park!  It’s PDF (our first) so please let us know if you have any trouble printing it!

 

Get outside and Enjoy!!!

Backyard bingo-1

Categories: Animals, backyard, birds, Children, crafts, education, Environment, insects, Local, mammals, nature, reptiles, science, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

YEAR OF THE DRAGON FRIDAY!

YEAR OF THE DRAGON FRIDAY!

Well folks, we’ve reached the end of our dragon theme week! We hope you have enjoyed our first theme week! We sure had fun searching the world for real dragons! Today we went searching into the fascinating insect world to find a dragon that flies! We bet you guessed our animal! Let’s meet…

MEET THE EMPEROR DRAGONFLY!

Range/Habitat: Europe-Asia/ near ponds, lakes

Diet: carnivore: tadpoles, butterflies

Length: up to 4” wingspan

Conservation Status: common

 

Fun Facts:

  • Emperor Dragonflies are the largest species of dragonfly in the UK and one of the largest in Europe.
  • Male emperor dragonflies have a large blue body and a green thorax.
  • Female emperor dragonflies have all green bodies and thorax.
  • Emperor dragonflies catch their prey while in flight.
  • Emperor dragonflies are born underwater. They live in the nymph stage and take up to 2 years to reach adulthood.
  • Emperor dragonflies are one of the fastest flying insects on the planet!

 

Emperor dragonflies are beautiful bugs! We love their iridescent colors! They can fly up to 25-30 miles per hour! WOW! Edmond wants to race some Emperor dragonflies! Who wants to join us?

 

 

 

Categories: Animals, Children, dragons, education, Environment, insects, nature | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

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