Week 5! It’s June already, and just weeks until the Summer Solstice!

Have you noticed how the birds seem a little bit quieter? Most of them are nesting. Many birds have already had the first batch of young hatch from their eggs! Watch for birds flying with full mouths. Some are building nests (many birds, like Robins, will build more than one nest each spring/summer), some are carrying little white blobs (those are called fecal sacs and are full of baby bird poo! The parents carry it away from the nest to keep the nest fresh and clean.), and some are carrying food back to the nest for the young. Many insects are visible now as you look at the maturing leaves on plants. Check for caterpillars, tiny but growing fast, on the underside of leaves. If there are Oak trees near your home, look for Oak-apple Galls growing from the leaves. Galls are actually made when an insect (in this case, a tiny wasp) lays an egg in the new leaf. As the leaf grows it actually makes a safe, food-filled sphere around the larva that hatched from the egg. Inside the growing gall is a growing insect! There are so many unexpected things to be found--look around and send a picture of something you noticed living around your home and wonder about. We will identify it and share your observations with other citizen scientists. Take a look at the photos already up (to get inspired) and then SEND IN YOUR PHOTO--need@dy-regional.k12.ma.us

Posted on May 29, 2020 05:00 PM by seashore_teachers