Weekly Nature Challenge #4..... And Cool Wildlife Sightings!

Happy fall y'all! I hope you are having a great fall so far. I sure am! I mean, all those migrating birds you guys - so many new ones to identify... I thought I might tell about two cool wildlife sightings I saw. (I won't be posting the pics until I my phone gets full though.) Drumroll please..... A fox and a moose - all in the same day!!! Believe it or not, this actually only the second time I've seen one, despite the fact that I live in Colorado. This one was a big male, and we saw him in the neighbor's yard right across the fence. I was really impressed by his size! We see quite a few foxes, although it was still a cool sighting. Wildflowers the deer and her shyer twin, Columbine, who by now has lost her spots and some of her shyness, are doing well. The bold twin, Daisy.... not so much. Unfortunately, she disappeared. Part of being a deer is that their are always lots of predators. At least someone got a good meal.... Anyway, onto the Nature Challenge!

Weekly (kind of..... not really) Nature Challenge #4

Daily Wildlife List!

I tried recording wildlife for a week....oof. Daily works much better, plus, you can skip a day if you want. A young naturalist I know very well (let's call him Vin) keeps a Wildlife Observation Notebook, and he is probably a LOT better at writing in it every day then I am. Here is page out of it: 

Day 27 Sep. 2020

 Nuthatch, chickadee, squirrel. (Sketches of a nuthatch chickadee, and squirrel.) 

Chickadees are often in bird parties. (Note, Vin and I call it a bird party when multiple species of birds stay flock together in the same area for a short to medium amount of time)

Nuthatches often hack away at trees.

Great, right? He is only seven, so I was impressed. Anyway, I hope that inspires you and gives you some ideas, so until next time everyone! Happy wildlife watching!

-Lili

A Government Lab is Killing Cats. Let's SHUT IT DOWN!

I know that this is not really about wild animals, but it's about animals, so I am sharing it. I didn't know that something this horrible could even be happening, and I am glad I found out! I found it on the channel of Kitten Lady, (which, by the way I highly recommend) and I immediately filled in the form! Please, please, please fill in the form. You don't have to donate, but if you can, that would be great. Its shameful that things like that are happening here in the US, and this should be stopped immediately!

Animal lovers, if you care about cats, please act now!

-Lili

Weekly Nature Challenge #3 and Some Photos!

 Hi (again) everyone! Here's the second post. First of all....

Weekly Nature Challenge #3: Daily Pics

For this Weekly Nature Challenge, I want you to try to take a picture of nature every day, whether you keep this up for a week or five years doesn't matter. Neither does it matter what the picture is about, as long as its of nature. From a beautiful sunset, to a a cool bug, to a pretty bird, everything nature is go. Have fun, and be sure to share your favorite pictures with me in the comments!

                                            Prairie Dogs

                                                 Canada Geese

                                                              Aspen Tree

                                       Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel from my wildlife cam

                                                -Lili

Three Fun Activities for Naturalists Both Young and Old

 Hi everyone! As I haven't written in a while, I am going to publish two posts. This one is about three fun activities for naturalists: both young and old, professional and unprofessional. They are all tried and true by me, so I hope you will something to suit you.

Zooniverse

I love, love, love this app! It's free at the App Store, and has something for everyone. Basically, it's a community science base, with tons of projects. My personal favorite are a group of projects titled Snapshot Safari where users are asked to identify images from a ton of different parks and reserves in Africa, in two different workflows. In the first workflow, users are simply asked to say whether or not their are any animals in the image. In the second workflow, users identify the animal/s in the image. After a certain amount of people have identified an animal as the same thing, the image is saved somewhere and the data used for scientific research. Its an awesome app - fun educational, and, plus, it helps science!

Window Wildlife

Pretty simple. I love this activity, because even people living in an apartment with no park near bye can do it. Basically just sit at your window and watch any wildlife you see - from the Mourning Doves on the wires, too the deer in the forest, to the fly buzzing around on you windowsill. Of course, you can always increase your chances of seeing wildlife. A bird seed, suet, or hummingbird feeder hung outside your window can attract lots of birds. A window box with flowers and possibly even some vegetables can attract lots of cool insects, like bees or butterflies. If you have Monarchs, you could even plant some milkweed to help them during their annual migration!

Wildearth

Wildearth is actually kind of like a TV show. Long story short, it's a live safari that streams form seven until ten in the morning every day on Youtube. It usually had about three to five different "guides", all from different parks and reserves in Africa. You get to see a lot of cool animals, and you can even ask questions in the Live Chat Box! I love watching this, although I rarely watch it all three hours long!

Okay everyone, I hope you learned something from that, and have a nice rest of your week! Watch for wildlife!

-Lili

Weekly Nature Challenge and Update

 Hi everyone! As you have most likely noticed, both Kate and I have not been writing much lately. This is because of the start of school. Since school will be (and already is) taking up a lot of our time, we will only be able to write every two weeks, instead of every week, though I will try to still post a Weekly Nature Challenge. Speaking of this, here is this week's Weekly Nature Challenge:

Help the Migrating Birds

While we are starting school, the birds are starting the fall migration. This means lots of cool birds will be passing through on their way on migration! I have already been fortunate enough to see a passing Loggerhead Shrike, a first-time-sighting for me. One way you can help migrating birds is too put out food and water, especially water, what with the big fire and everything being so dry. A simple bowl of water on a stump or wooden post would do the trick. Food can be anything from an elaborate bird feeder to some sunflower seeds sprinkled on your front porch. You can also help by making your windows more visible. In other words, make sure the birds can see not to bang in to your windows, or fight with their reflections. You can put up hawk silhouettes or pictures if you want, but we just don't clean our windows as often, and we also have those little gel stickys. Last but not least, avoid using harmful pesticides. Not only do these kill bugs that can help your garden, but it also kills many birds when they eat the poisoned bugs. Have a good rest of your week, and keep an eye out for new birds! 

-Lili

Weekly Nature Challenge #1

Today is the first Weekly Nature Challenge: The Food Chain Game!

How You Play:

Find something from the bottom of the food chain - grass, trees, berries, ect. Then, find something that eats that thing, for instance, grasshoppers and aphids eat grass, golden mantled ground squirrels eat berries, and deer eat aspen leaves. Then, find the next animal - a mouse might eat a grasshopper, ladybugs love aphids, a coyote would like a golden mantled ground squirrel, and mountain lion prey on deer! (Not that I have ever seen a mountain lion!) However, it is not always possible (like here) to get to the top of the food chain, so if you can't, you can also see who gets the highest in the food chain by the end of the day. It's a fun game, and I hope you have a lot of fun!

-Lili 

A Few More Things About Moab

A Few More Things About Moab

- Kate

A Nest in the Sun

While I was in Moab, I went to a place called Hole in the Rock. It was a lot of fun, but one thing I really liked was getting to see a bird's nest in the eye of a sun! Here are some pictures of the bird's nest:

A Weird Bug

While my family was at the colorado river, we saw this weird bug. It looked dead, and almost like a skeleton. Here are some pictures:

A Few Extra Pictures

Here are a few extra and random pictures that I took in Moab: