How do animals cope with frigid temperatures and snow during the winter months? What is this cardinal doing to stay warm?

Some animals hibernate, while others brumate. Some birds, mammals and insects migrate. Other insects die but leave eggs behind. Mammals may grow a thicker fur coat. Fish and frogs will move to the bottom of ponds where it is warmer. Others have adapted to the cold and continue to forage or hunt for food. Birds fluff up their feathers to trap air for insulation. The related posts provide more information.

Watch full screen.

Not just birds migrate. Watch full screen.

One of my favorite nonfiction winter books about animals.

Related Posts

Animal Tracks in the Snow

Winter Fur

Hibernation mini unit

Turtles Brumate

Geese in the Winter

Birds in Cold Weather

In each group of animals, there often seems to be an outlier, one that just doesn’t seem to fit the pattern. I came across one of those creatures while visiting Florida.

While many owls nest in tree cavities or other high places, the small ground-dwelling burrowing owl makes its nest in underground burrows found in open, treeless fields. The burrowing owl is also active during the day unlike other owls that are nocturnal. Read more about the burrowing owl.

I couldn’t convince my companions to wait in hopes of seeing one of these curious raptors, so viewing the locations of their nests had to suffice. This property is across the street from condos and upscale hotels along the beach.

Watch full screen.

Related Posts

Owl Sighting (includes literature and art links, as well as owl labs)

I’m surprised that I don’t come across more feathers on my walks in the woodlands because of all the feathered friends I see there. (In a post below, I share more feather finds.) Feathers are such interesting clues to who is calling the forest home, as well as which birds are migrating through Atlanta. As in a previous post about caterpillars, the colors and patterns can be striking. Go to the Feather Atlas to identify feathers you find.

A reminder: Under federal law, it is illegal to take feathers home. For more information, see FEATHERS AND THE LAW.

I discovered the non-fiction picture book, Whose feather is That?, on a recent visit to Chattahoochee Nature Center. “Written by award-winning author, nature photographer, and naturalist Stan Tekiela, this interactive children’s book presents a photograph of a feather, along with a clever clue about the bird to which it belongs.”

Related Posts

More About Feathers (literature links)

Duck feathers (lab)

Silent Flight

Oil Spill (lab)

I’ve been asked how many species of caterpillars I’ve met while walking and I wondered too, so I gathered the photos into a file and made a video for us! Some of these caterpillars I’ve met often, while others I’ve seen only once.

Wow, I counted 32! The diversity, patterns, and colors are just remarkable! “Nature is the art of God.” (Alighieri)

I thought it was a dragonfly at first pass, but when I asked the Seek app to identify it, I learned that I had happened upon a red-footed cannibalfly, a type of robber or assassin fly. Think peregrine falcon of the insect world. It lays in wait for a large insect, grabs it in mid-air, injects a venom to paralyze it, as well as digestive enzymes, so that internal organs become a liquid that it sucks through its mouthparts. Go here and here to read about this amazing predator.

Because of their large compound eyes, they have excellent vision. Go here for a related post about compound eyes.

Watch full screen here.

Go here to view how full screen. Examples of biomimicry in the development of drones are presented.

Plastic, invented about 100 years ago, can take up to 500 years to decompose. Celebrate Earth Day by reusing and repurposing plastic for spring gardening projects.

Click here to learn how to use a DVD case to germinate seeds. Label plant parts with a sharpie.

Click here for directions on how to make a plastic planter.

For information on an outdoor planter, click here. So that water could drain, a piece of screen was attached to the bottom of the planter with a rubber band.

These repurposed cups made a perfect greenhouse. Click here for more information.

Click here to view full screen.

While on a family trip to Guatemala, a group of us opted to go on a tour of an avocado farm. Our drivers drove about 45 minutes out of Antigua up the side of a mountain. Click here for the link to the farm’s FB page.

Do hard things! That’s what I reminded myself as the first of two swinging bridges that stretch high across ravines came into sight. Our guide told us that women harvesting the avocados walk across the bridge with a basket of avocados balanced on their heads and don’t hold onto the railings! Only two of us were able to cross the bridge at the same time. Click here to watch. Now I understand why avocados are so expensive!

Our guide rewarded us all with avocado popsicles. Delicious! And then I learned that we had to walk back over the bridges to return to the entrance!

I removed the pits from some avocados at home and will attempt to sprout them soon.