The sun's reflection made the moth appear brown, when really it's more grayish in color.

This moth is pretty large and at first glance seemed pretty bland in color.  My oldest daughter suggested I see if it would let me pick it up (notice how she makes me do it).  So, of course, I did.  And the moth was just as friendly as could be.  I think they are rather lazy in the morning and they’ll let you do that.  When I picked it up it spread out it’s wings to reveal six rows of bright yellow bands.  I don’t think it’s so bland in color anymore.

The six rows of bright yellow bands were outlined in black and white.

My daughter took numerous closeup photos so we could observe the details.

A closer look shows the moth's proboscis and compound eyes.

I really was amazed at how long the moth allowed us to observe it.

You'll notice in this photo the pinkish looking bare spot on it's back; that was what helped me to accurately identify it.

The following is a video we took showing how the moth would flutter it’s wings.

Shortly after we took this video the moth took to flight towards the woods in back.  This particular moths flies rather slow and my first thought was, “Oh no, a bird will get it.”  And sure enough down swooped a bird after it.  Well, that bird was not going to eat MY moth that has just blessed me.  So I took off “shooo-ing” the bird away just in time.  The moth fluttered on down and landed at the base of a tree.  My daughter and I decided we would go “rescue it” by putting it back in the safer place we found it.  Well, God has other plans, He has taken care of this moth just fine.  Ever heard of camouflage?

Can you see the moth?

Wow! Amazing!

We left that beautiful moth right where it was!

• looked at several pictures of butterflies and drew attention to how their wings were similar;
• used pattern blocks to have her build butterflies symmetrically (I would make one side and have her copy it to the other and also just let her do this on her own); AND
• I printed out a simple outline picture of a butterfly (off the internet) and, ahead of time, I colored half of it using crayons, and then had her use the same crayons to copy what I had done.

I think she did a great job!  Now on to deciduous trees!

Mostly they were Cabbage Butterflies, but they varied in intensity of yellow color.  But also there were several little tiny butterflies, called Eastern-tailed Blue, that I managed to catch close-ups of.

Eastern-Tailed Blue Butterflies

At first I wondered why the word “blue” was in their name; that was until I caught a picture of one of them flying off.

Eastern-Tailed Blue Butterfly, in flight

Then this morning, again my older daughter went out our back door to take the dog out and observed several moths on the concrete around our outside light.  That is a great place early in the morning to find moths!  Here are a few that we observed.

Beautiful, orange-ish rust color

Frequent Visitors

Do you notice the shimmering gold on this one's wings?? Gorgeous!

The Beautiful, Luna Moth

Even though this isn’t first first encounter we’ve had with a Luna Moth, since it is not frequently that we get to see one, we gently took it inside to observe closer.

Now this is hands-on schooling!

This was a great teaching opportunity (seize the moments!) to teach my youngest about the differences between a moth and butterfly.  Here is another quick video.

I pray we continue to get blessed with such great opportunities to observe and learn about these wonderful creatures!

“Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  And everyone deserves a little sunshine.”

~Jeffrey Glassberg

Open fields of wilflowers are the perfect spot to find butterflies of all kinds. Butterflies need the heat from the sun for energy, thus why you will not see as many out on a cool and/or cloudy day.

The soaring heat and humidity of August makes it an excellent time to observe butterflies in nature.  In fact, for this first structured week of school, I have focused on butterflies with my youngest daughter.  Since my other children are much older its been a long time since I’ve had to think of the basics of butterflies.  We’ve been focusing on these three things:  life cycle of a butterfly, symmetry (butterfly wings), and the parts of a butterfly.  And of course the most important thing is we’ve spent some quality time outdoors chasing and observing butterflies too!  All of my research and ideas for activities and projects that I’ve used have come from the Butterflies Flutter By unit.

There was a gorgeous Monarch butterfly fluttering around us for a long time. He is sitting on the red clover at the center of this picture.

It’s been so nice to focus on the simple, basics of butterflies.  And to see my daughter’s unreserved enthusiam for these beautiful, winged creatures has been simply priceless.  On one particular day we managed to catch a Red-Spotted Purple butterfly to observe for a little bit.  Both my daughters got to stick their hands inside the enclosure to enjoy feeling the butterfly on their hands.  I believe being able to utilize the sense of touch and tangibility in your study of nature is highly beneficial.

The color and pattern on a butterfly's wings is a piece of God's most beautiful artwork.

As your schoolyear is beginning, be sure to bring some sunshine into your life by learning more about and observing butterflies.

For instance below you will see a picture I took at our last Nature Club meeting.  Notice the tiny red and black bugs.

But especially notice below the bugs, the silver metallic spiky round objects.  Let me zoom in…

I was very intrigued by what these were so I sent the photo in to an Entomologist at the University of Kentucky and received the following response:

Hello Melissa,

The silver things are eggs and the bugs have hatched from them.  They should be some sort of stick bug.

Cheers,
Bill

I suppose the eggs are protected/guarded by those spikes on them.  Whether or not they are just “for show” or could actually do damage to a predator, I don’t know.  But they are intimidating at least.

And then there’s the fake stinger on the end of this Snowberry Clearwing Moth Caterpillar.  It is just a harmless hair, but predators don’t know that.  In fact, at first, I was a bit concerned about it!  I guess I would be looked upon as a predator!

Other defense mechanisms include camouflage, yucky smell (think skunk), poison glands (toad, etc.), bright colors (associated with being poisonous, frogs, etc.), protective shells (as in turtles), prickly spikes (hedgehogs, porcupines), and SO many more!

Butterflies Flutter By – A unit packed full of caterpillar and butterfly information and activities.

Constant Conifers – A unit that takes you on an in-depth tour of the amazing conifer plant.

Fruits and Nuts – A unit that opens your eyes to the wonderfully varied and interesting world of edible and inedible fruits and nuts.

Please head on over to Shining Dawn Books to find out what’s so special about these new units and how you can enter into a drawing to win one!

After our beginning studies this morning, I started one of our unit studies with the kids, called Butterflies Flutter By. It’s not available quite yet on our website but stay tuned, it will be shortly; along with a big announcement for why it’s so special.

We had a wonderful general overview lesson on butterflies and caterpillars, some of which was review but I did kick it up a notch to learn some new things. Then we grabbed our notebooking page, identification guide and butterfly net and set outside to the meadow in the empty lot beside our house.

We took a couple of detours, checking our garden to see if the birds had left us any strawberries. As usual we found a bloom and the beginnings of a fruit, but no delicious ripe ones.

As we headed out into the meadow we found the biggest white clover we’d ever seen. This may sound strange, but if you’ve never smelled the white clover with pink trimming on it, you’re missing out. Seriously, they smell like sweet cherry Kool-aid. And this one being so large was more fragrant that we’d ever smelled.

Ok, focusing back on butterflies, we saw several different kinds whizzing past us: a Monarch, lots of Cabbage White and Clouded Sulfur Butterflies, a Pearl Crescent, an Eastern Tailed Blue, and a Pipevine Swallowtail. Hannah tried and tried to catch each butterfly, chasing them round and round, and just when she’d about given up, victory was hers. The Pipevine Swallowtail was generous enough to hold still long enough for her to get him in the net.

We placed the Swallowtail into an observatory and watched the generous butterfly for a long time. We tried to get good photos, however the poor thing was quite panicky and fluttered about senselessly. We did manage to get the following one. Pipevine Swallowtails are quite beautiful, however this one was very tattered and torn, probably encounters with birds.

After enjoying him for a bit, Hannah was ready to set the “poor thing” free.

Back inside we reminisced by reading a favorite poem by Christina Rossetti, Caterpillar.

Which made us remember an art project Hannah did years ago, I suppose when she was about in second grade. So we dug out her art portfolio and sure enough found it. She had divided the page into fourths and drew scenes from the poem.

After reminiscing, we created a fun butterfly art project using the “stained glass” effect. I adapted this lesson from the Usborne Book of Art Ideas.

For this project you will need plain paper, thin oil pastels, and watercolor paint. Starting with a blank piece of paper, fold it in half, creating a crease. Open the paper up and lightly pencil in half of a butterfly on one side of the crease in the paper. Put in whatever details you would like the butterfly to have. After you have penciled it in, go over the lines with a black oil pastel, pressing heavy to make a thick outline. Next, refold the paper and use the edge of a ruler, or something else hard, to press the imprint down. Upon unfolding the paper you should have a symmetrical print on the other side of the crease.

Use the black oil pastel to go over and make the imprinted lines darker.

Next, use watercolor paints (mix with a little water first) to paint the butterfly. Hannah decided to cut hers out, while I left mine on alone.

Because of the water used with the paint, it makes the paper slightly translucent and they are perfect to hang in a sunny window!

Anyways just wanted to post some photos of things that have been going on around here in our nature times.

Alex continues to spend lots of time in his second home…the creek.

I’ve still been keeping up with my love of taking wildflower photos. This has been one of my favorites of a Deptford Pink. 

Cindy and I are currently writing six new units, one of which is on butterflies, so I’ve been busy taking lots of butterfly photos, including this one of a gorgeous Monarch. 

Another one of the six units will be on conifer trees, so a trip to the local arboretum was due to observe and collect cones… 

…to do lots of fun experiments with! 

Such as learning about how conifers spread their seeds by dropping one and watching it twirl around. 

And then I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Queen Anne’s Lace which seems bigger and more abundant than I’ve ever seen it this year. 

I’ve also been enjoying the Robin’s Plantain, which also seems to be doing really well this year. It has to be all the rain we’ve had… 

 …which has also made the woods more green, thick and lush.

Today, Alex found an awesome find…a beautiful orange bracket fungus! Yes, I know I’m a strange one to get excited about fungus, but it was such a gorgeous “sherbet orange” color, and once you study fungus you find it rather fascinating. 

Well, that’s about it for now! More structured school will be starting up for us again soon. We pretty much school year round, taking breaks when we need and want. But a more concrete schedule will be resuming shortly. I have changes in mind for my blog as we begin another school year…stay tuned. Perhaps that just what I need to find that inspiration again!

This little fellow had no intentions of leaving us, he climbed right into our butterfly pavillion and stayed for the evening. During the early morning time, we got him out and he sat contently on our fingers (we were too excited to think of taking a photo then!). We took him outside thinking he would fly right off, but he actually acted like he wanted to stay. The sun wasn’t quite up high in the sky yet, perhaps that’s why he was so comfortable. So I sat him on the marigolds on the back deck and got some fantastic photos! Please do “full size” these photos!

Can you see the irridescence on the back of the body.

The edges of his wings almost look like they were sprinkled with glitter.

Or how about the little tuft feathers at the bottom of his body?

I love the cute little beady eyes and cool stout antennas!

Can you see the black proboscis curled up under his chin?

Ok, how could you think that’s not cute?!

He looks like he has a little yellow beard.

He can hover and fly like a hummingbird, has the body of a moth,

and looks similar in ways to a bumblebee…..

another remarkable Creation.

He stayed here just until the sun got nice and high in the sky and the temperatures were on the rise, and then just as if a switch had been flipped, off he took to the skies to go about his business. Later in the morning, when we went out to take our nature walk, we got a great video of one (who knows if it was the same little fellow or not) buzzing about happily doing his work! (please ignore my son telling my 2 year old to be quiet in the background, he has no patience when Gabby is being whiney!)

The following is a great web page on the Snowberry Clearwing Humminbird Moth, which gives lots of info plus shows all it’s stages of life. We will be using this next week to complete a nature journal page.

Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth