Even with the hectic schedule of Art Camp all week long, my 6-year-old has managed two terrific finds in the yard in the past two days. Find #1: this small, perfect bird nest that apparently blew down from one of the tree tops over night.
She, of course, attributed this magnificent find to Corey-Bear, her faithful companion and trusty sidekick. (Doesn’t he look cool with that bandana on?) But I suspect that she played a somewhat significant role in this particular discovery. She’s determined not to steal Corey’s thunder, though. So, we won’t either. Good job, Corey!
And Find #2: Meet Fluffy, everyone!
After a good hour and a half on the Internet, I finally determined that Fluffy is a Sycamore Tussock Moth Caterpillar, and after some more (increasingly anxious on my 6-year-old’s part) searching, I determined that Fluffy is NOT a stinging caterpillar, as are many of the tufted, hairy caterpillars. Nope. Fluffy is harmless. Therefore, Fluffy gets to live.
Fluffy now resides in one of the many empty, washed-and-ready pickle jars I keep handy. We’ll be watching Fluffy carefully, and feeding him fresh Sycamore leaves. Who knows? We might just get ourselves a moth. All I have to do is keep my 4-year-old from trying to take Fluffy out to pet him.
Next week, after Art Camp’s over, we’ll add Fluffy into our nature journals.
Here’s another shot of Fluffy, in profile:
Those are some serious eyebrows, aren’t they? From the front, he looks like some sort of Yorkshire terrier lapdog type thing. I tried to get a picture of it, but he was eating and not agreeable to lifting his chin to assist in his photo shoot. Doesn’t it just figure? Of all the Sycamore Tussock Moth Caterpillars out there in the world, we end up with one of those tempermental Hollywood-starlet-wannabe-ones. Pretty soon he’ll be wanting a bigger pickle jar, then his own trailer, his own hairstylist, maybe even his own blog, for cripes sake. Like I don’t have enough to do already.
So, welcome to our latest science project, everyone. We’ll keep you posted on how it all turns out.
Totally cool caterpillar.
(to this day I almost can’t type it, my daughter called them cattlepidders for years and that’s what wants to appear on the screen in front of me.)
The Tussock Moth in Oregon destroyed thousands of trees. Hope it’s not the same type of critter!!
If you ever want a rock, or sand samples or something else uniquely Oregon, let me know.
(I won’t send you live critters…)
ooooh…thanks for the offer. I might take you up on it one day.
That caterpillar is cute and all, but I could never have touched it. I don’t consider myself to be squeamish, but bugs and the like are not my thing. I’m terrified of being bitten. Thankfully, you’re safe on that account. I love the bird nest though. Birds are my thing. I’m still deciding on science. Pete needs experiments but I don’t like WTM version of pulling chapters all willy nilly.
Oh I didn’t TOUCH it. Oh no. No no no. I strategically picked it up with a small twig and placed it in the pickle jar. I’m not big on bugs either. However, I do have to say that Fluffy is pretty much the cutest caterpillar I’ve ever seen. And I never really expected to describe any insect with the word cute. Ever. So, there you have it. Never say never.
I also struggled with WTM’s 1st grade science. In the end, I just bought a few blank notebooks and we make nature journal entries when we can. I also have Mudpies to Magnets which the kids dearly love. But I don’t pull that one out as much because my 4-year-old gets too crazy with it and tends to freak out and accidentally ruin the experiment or sort of takes over the whole thing and then my 6-year-old gets upset. And then I end up changing the science lesson to our never-ending unit on “Migraines And The Things That Cause Them.”
That’s pretty much been our science adventure so far. Let me know how it goes for you guys.