The nature walks have begun.

We found a homeschooling group that goes on weekly nature walks. Every week we go on a 2-3 hour hike (which includes stopping to observe nature finds and a chance to sit during the quiet and peaceful setting of the hike to record in our nature journal different things we've seen).  Today was our first hike and it was so much fun.  Have you ever heard of a dung beetle?  I hadn't.  This little black bug uses his hind legs to push the dung around (he walks backwards when he does this) and takes it back to it's home.  We found one later on the trail that had pushed the dung so much that it was just a ball.  We also observed that whatever dunged on the trail was an herbivore due to leaves and grass obviously in the mix.

I don't think my kids ever saw this guy.  This lizard was huge.  He's pretty camoflauged but his head is right at the Y and the coloring on his spine looks like a branch.  The end of his tail is about to the 2nd skinny branch crossing across the tree.  Can you find him?

This is such a fascinating bug.  We'd stopped at a bridge for our journaling and I was just staring at the ground.  That's when I saw this worm/caterpillar/some kind of bug moving around.  My first impression was a caterpillar coming out of a cocoon.  I know the only butterflies come out of cocoons, but more and more of it would wriggle out until it would inch around carrying this accumulation of bark on it's back as if it were a snail.  We watched him for a bit and then I couldn't resist bringing him home.  What in the world is it?  Jennifer and daughter said they'd seen them before.  It's some kind of worm that collects debris and creates a home around its body.  Once I picked him up, it took a long time to get him to come out and show everyone that I wasn't just collecting dirt.  If you look closely at the right bottom end, you can see his head poking out.  He's got blackish stripes on the pale colored body.  Now what in the world is it?

This was our journaling session.

Izzy drew a butterfly and the dung beetle.  I was surprised she'd remembered it.  Andrew kept asking, "What can I draw?"  Well what things have you seen?  Sheesh!  We'll be working on that.  I'm hoping they'll learn to be observers and not just strollers.  There are so many amazing nature finds right under our noses that we never seem to notice.  This world is amazing.

This picture was taken during our break.  Alex wasn't interested in coloring so she kept climbing up and down this rock.  Maybe it was cuz she was able to snitch dried apricots from Amy's trail mix.  Thank you Amy for sharing.

We were almost done w/ our hike when we discovered the other dung beetle and observed for a bit.  Apparently Alex had already had enough cuz she found the perfect spot for a rest.  It doesn't look very comfortable, but she was worn out.  I'm not sure why cuz I carried her half the time (that was also w/ Calvin on my back.)  Must be in better shape than I thought ... lets see what the next trail holds for us.