Seymour Simon's Blog, page 50
July 4, 2011
Summer Vacation Science :: Moth or Butterfly?
It is Monday, so it's time for SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE! I have been watching my morning glory vine (the kind that gets blue, trumpet-shaped flowers in September) gradually creep up the light pole in my front garden. Although it seems almost too delicate to survive, the vine is actually quite strong, clinging onto the wire through heavy rain and windstorms. This morning, when I went outside, I saw what I thought was a dead leaf clinging to my vine. I went over to remove it, only to discover that it was a moth! We searched online and discovered that it was a Blinded Sphinx Moth (Paonias excaecatus). Click here to learn more about the butterflies and moths that you can observe right outside your door, and learn how to tell the difference.Happy July 4th to all my American readers!Every Monday from now until Labor Day, we will publish a new nature project. The goal is to get kids outdoors, exploring and enjoying the world around them. Check back here every Monday for a new installment of Summer Vacation Science.
July 1, 2011
Wild Animals: First Butterfly
I was so excited to see my first big butterfly of the season in our garden.I took the photo while it was sunning itself on a bush. (Perhaps getting ready for the upcoming July 4th weekend celebrations?) It's an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, a common butterfly here in the northeast. You can usually easily identify it by its large size, black tiger stripes over yellow-tan color and blue/red spots near the tail.
eBook Giveaway!!
Have you entered the drawing to win a free iPhone or iPad copy of Seymour Simon's ANIMAL FACT ANIMAL FABLE? There are just three days left to enterHere is everything you need to know: Seymour Simon is giving away ten (10) free downloads of the iPhone or iPad version - with "read to me" narration - of an enduring favorite: ANIMAL FACT ANIMAL FABLE. If you are at least thirteen years old, go to Seymour's new Facebook Author Page and "LIKE" that page. Ten randomly-chosen people who press "Like" between June 13 and July 3, 2011 will win a code for a free iPad or iPhone download of this Diane deGroat-illustrated eBook. Don't delay - this offer ends on Sunday!
June 21, 2011
Cool Photos of the Week: Sea Slugs
Being a sea slug may not sound like a very glamorous station in life, but they are among the most colorful animals on Earth. This beauty is known as a Spanish Shawl (Flabellina iodinea). Actually, sea slug is the casual name we often use, but this is technically a nudibranch, which means "naked gills." They come in many different shapes and colors, live in huge numbers in shallow waters near the shore, and they are invertebrates, which means that they do not have a spine. Nudibranchs lost their shellsthrough the course of evolution, which required them to develop a whole range of other kinds of protection. Most species have poisonous appendages sticking out from their bodies, as you see in this photo. They also tend to have very intense, bright coloring - "warning coloration" - which alerts other animals to the fact that they either taste bad, or may even be poisonous if eaten. Others are camouflaged because they look very similar to the plants around them. And if that weren't enough, their skin releases a slimy, sour liquid when they are touched by another creature. Sea slugs are definitely a "look but don't touch" kind of animal!Here is another beauty, a black-spotted nudibranch (Phyllidiopsis papilligera). This one was photographed in shallow waters off the coast of Haiti.Readers often ask me which is my favorite book of all the ones I have written. I can never say which I like the best (that's like choosing among your children!), but my favorite at any given moment tends to be whatever animal I am writing about. These days I am working on a new book called CORAL REEFS. So, I am fascinated by all these marine animals who live in the vast "cities under the sea" that we know as the coral reefs. They are some of the most diverse, and certainly among the most magnificent, ecosystems on Earth. Spanish Shawl photo: Magnus Kiaergaard Black-Spotted Nudibranch photo: Nick Hobgood
June 20, 2011
Summer Vacation Science :: Butterfly Gardens
It is Monday, so it's time for SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE!It's still not too late to plant, and this week we are talking butterfly gardens. Would you like to have a special habitat, right in your own yard or nearby lot, where butterflies, moths and hummingbirds visit regularly and return? Click here to download the full project guide, which has everything from how to find the right plants, how to plant them, and what butterflies need to thrive and return. Get started today and create your own, personal, very unique butterfly garden!Every Monday from now until Labor Day, we will publish a new nature project. The goal is to get kids outdoors, exploring and enjoying the world around them. Check back here every Monday for a new installment of Summer Vacation Science.
June 17, 2011
Spotting Wild Animals at Great Falls
I took a walk today in Great Falls National Park, along the Potomac River in Virginia. The falls are really beautiful, and the trails are wooded and shady, but the best part, for me anyway, was spotting all the wild animals.This Great Blue Heron(Ardea herodias) feeds at the water's edge, using its long legs to wade through the water, spearing small fish and frogs with its long, sharp bill.You can clearly see the compound eye of this beautiful Dragonfly (an insect belonging to the orderOdonata), which was perched in the foliage high above the falls. You usually find dragonflies near the water, because their larvae, called "nymphs" live in the water. These insects are valuable predators (valuable to we humans, at least) because they eat mosquitoes.My grandson Ben Simon took this great photograph of a wolf spider, which was hiding inside a crack of an old stump. Wolf spidersare members of thefamily Lycosidae, from theAncient Greekword "λύκος" meaning "wolf". The blue and white mass, which almost looks like a piece of jewelry, are actually all her babies - dozens of tiny wolf spiders, riding on her back! Have you taken a walk in the outdoors this week? If not, get outside and keep your eyes peeled. There are fascinating wild creatures all around you.
June 15, 2011
Butterfly Garden : Progress!
Back in April, Seymour wrote about his Earth Day pledges, and one of them was that we were going to build a garden that would be a butterfly habitat. We had a spot, under a big elm tree, that was completely overgrown with weeds.Two months, a lot of hard work and one terrible case of poison ivy later, we have a butterfly garden! Now, we just need to wait for it to stop raining, for the weather to get a bit warmer, and for our new seedlings to grow and flower. Hopefully, we will soon see many butterflies, moths and hummingbirds in this peaceful place. Next week's SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE unit will be about how to create your own butterfly garden. Be sure to check back here to learn more!
June 14, 2011
BIg Yawn from a Little Bird!
Today's Cool Photo of the Week is of a baby Canadian Goose (called a "gosling"). The little one is staying warm underneath its mother's feathers, and by the size of that yawn, I'd say it is settling in for a nap! Photo: Robin Loznak for msnbc.comREADERS:Are you wondering how to add your own "comment" to this blog? Click here for exact directions on how to add a comment so you can become one of our Seymour Science writers! We also want you to be safe and not share too much information when you write on this blog, so please take a minute to read about how to stay safe on the Internet. We love to hear from you, so give "comments" a try!
June 13, 2011
Summer Vacation Science :: From Tadpoles to Frogs
Welcome to week one of SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE!Frogs live all over the world. About twenty different kinds are in the United States including bullfrogs, including bullfrogs (Rana cateseiana), leopard frogs (R. pipiens) and green frogs (R. clamitans). Frogs can live almost anywhere if there is enough water. Summer time is too late in the year to collect frogs' eggs, but you can certainly collect tadpoles. Tadpoles will grow into frogs in a home aquarium or in a large wide-mouthed jar. But keep in mind that it's important for you to be able to return the baby frogs to their natural environment after you've kept them.Click here to download today's unit: FROM TADPOLES TO FROGS, to learn not only how to do this yourself, but also how to help protect frogs and their habitats. Every Monday from now until Labor Day, we will publish a new nature project. The goal is to get kids outdoors, exploring and enjoying the world around them. Check back here every Monday for a new installment of Summer Vacation Science.
Summer Vacation Science Starts Today!
Science and nature are great topics for kids when they want to be outdoors and have fun. Starting this Monday, the Seymour Science blog will feature a new SUMMER VACATION SCIENCE unit every week, designed for elementary aged kids and their friends or families. All these activities are fun, informal, encourage active learning and exploration, and have suggestions for supplementary reading. Watch for the first unit to be posted later today!
