Nature Hunt

We had a wonderful day with the boys today. I made Tina get out of bed, even though she really wanted to sleep in. She was a good sport about it, though. I wanted to get her to a wakeful state without ticking her off, which is not easy, and which means no tickling. So I scratched her back vigorously, but she said that was just putting her back to sleep. Then I started doing goofy things that I thought might be invigorating which she thought was funny so she laughed which turned out to be invigorating. At one point I held Teo (who had a very stinky diaper) up and tried to hold his butt near her nose, which was VERY invigorating and proved less mood damaging than tickling, believe it or not.

So we all got up and dressed and out of the house in a hurry, which is nearly impossible with kids. First I grabbed Luke's binoculars, found a small plastic bug catcher I gave Luke a while ago, and poked holes in the top of a bell jar. We had yummy muffins at Wild Oats and then headed over to W. Park, a very cool park which is a stone's throw from a very busy shopping district, but which feels like backwoods Vermont when you are there.

First, of course, we had to stop in and see the farm amimals. There were roosters and chickens loose walking around us which the boys got a kick out of. We fed hay to a very nice mare with a white stripe down her face and talked to a goose they have there who, if you say her name, will squawk at you. Her name, by the way, is Chesterina, which is not easy to say. In fact, she didn't seem to recognize her name when Luke said it because she would only squawk when Tina or I said it.

Then we headed off for the main event, our nature hike, which Luke kept calling a nature "hunt." W. Park is perfect for this, especially with young kids, because without walking very far at all you can see a farm, a woodland area, a meadow, and a small wetland. The first exciting thing we saw was a kite stuck up in a tree. It was pretty high up, but it had been such a good day so far, and I was feeling good, the kind of good where you feel like you can do anything, so I threw Tina the carkeys from my pocket and went over and started trying to climb the tree.

It wasn't long before I remembered that I only WANT to be, but am not actually, the kind of person who can easily shimmy up a tree that isn't a particularly easy climbing tree. So I attempted to return to the ground, only to realize that my leg and my shoe were both stuck in the tree. Tina found this very amusing and took a picture of me while Luke danced around and made fun of me and Teo pointed at me. They're a supportive bunch. Once I got unstuck (which involved a little loss of skin), we threw a bunch of sticks at the kite to try to dislodge it. After a few of the sticks became stuck up in the tree with the kite, I suggested (facetiously) using our car keys to try to get it down. That tree was hungry.

I had more luck with the bug catcher and ball jar habitat. First I caught a honey bee. She was definitely our least happy jar occupant all day, buzzing around like crazy and making it very hard to have a look at her. I tried to get Tina to release her, but after her run-in with the wasps at camp she took the boys and went about fifty feet away while I repatriated the bee.

Next we turned over a log in the woodland area and caught some worms, wood lice, and a few other creepy crawly things. Next we walked through the meadow, which was filled with wildflowers, and tried to catch some moths and butterflies and dragonflies but they were very elusive. We did catch a bright orange flying bug we coudln't identify, though it was very pretty. Then we went to the wetlands and caught a cricket, which we had to release almost immediately when I noticed a cute little green frog and caught him in my hands. While the others were admiring this latest catch, I noticed a big orange frog hopping on the path and caught him too. Later we found an area of path with so many of these frogs that every time you took a step you'd see out of the corner of your eye something hop away. We took a look at the orange frog for a while in the jar, and then released him too, and headed back to the park offices, where they have a small collection of animals in tanks and a very cool display where you can watch honey bees making honey behind glass.

I'm not sure if naturalists are born or made, but I'm not taking any chances. We had a wonderful day together, and in our own way, said goodbye to summer for another year. Tomorrow is Luke's birthday, but it felt important, somehow, to celebrate his last day of being three, too.

Here is a link to a slideshow of our "Nature Hunt."