Ravens and Crows

Dear Lilliputian ,

The photo above is of a Raven and a Crow .  Both are friends of mine . I first met the Raven . . .  when he would fly over me while I was working in my garden and he would circle over head and talk Raven talk to me . I would talk back to him , but of course I would talk people talk . I started leaving a tasty treat for him especially in the Winter when food is hard to find . It was then that he started coming everyday and he also started to bring his mate . They would eat the snack together and then they would be all lovey dovey with each other . 

In this photo one Raven is sort of caring for the other Ravens feathers . It is what they do when they care for each other . They will also offer each other food and place it in the others beak . I think of it as a Raven kiss .

The Crow started visiting when he discovered that the Raven was finding tasty morsels left by me in my yard . The Crow and the Raven are like cousins in the bird world . Do you see how much bigger the one near the eggs is . . . He is the Raven and his beak is fatter than the Crows skinny beak . Click on photo at the beginning and you will see better . They both are very , very intelligent birds . They can even count . They can also make and use tools to obtain food in hard to get places . In the video link below there is a little basket with food in it in a glass , and the Crow wants the food but can't reach it . He thinks a little bit about how to solve this problem when he notices a piece of wire left near by . . .  He tries to use the wire to get the little basket of food but it doesn't work . So the Crow thinks some more and then decides to bend the wire to lift the basket out of the glass . There are not many animals that are smart enough to know how to make tools . . . we are one of the creatures of this world that can make tools and the Raven and Crow are also tool makers . Click on the link below and you will see the Crow making the wire into a tool to use it to get food .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtmLVP0HvDg

Like you , the Crow and Raven also like to play . Below is another video of a Raven playing in the snow . This video is from PBS .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjgpenWavO8

The Crow couple that have been coming to my yard for over a year now really feel that it is there home . Mr. and Mrs. Crow have recently had three baby Crows and they have been trying to show them that my yard is sort of a Crow Restaurant . They have brought them here to taste some of the snacks I leave for Crows . . . and this morning I got a photo of one of the parents bringing food to the Crow babies in my yard . When you see a group of Crows together . . . do you know what you call them ? NO . . . it is not called a group of Crows it is called a Murder of Crows . This is a photo of my Murder of Crows . 

A fun Summer read is Blacky the Crow by Thornton Burgess . Remember there is a Thornton Burgess Activity Center in Sandwich .

http://www.thorntonburgess.org/GreenBriarNatureCenter.htm

Until next time ,

Wildbee

Spittle Bug

Dear Lilliputian ,

When I was a little girl we thought this white foamy stuff was snake spit . Click on the photo and you will see how bubbly it is . . . but why we thought a snake would spit on plants I don't know .
If you live near grass that is allowed to grow tall . . . you might see this on the stems of plants growing in that grass . It is a rather funny sort of bubble bath home for the very young Spittle Bug . Wouldn't it be fun to have a bubble bath home ? Did you notice that the word spit is in this insects name ? That is because the scientists who named this insect thought the bubbles looked like spit .

Most , if not all insects grow in stages . Sort of like you . First . . . you were an egg , and later you were a child ,  and of course some day you will be an adult . Like an insect you look a little different in each time in your life . Insects have three stages also , and they are egg , nymph , adult . We don't call young insects children , we call them nymphs .

I am writing to you about the Spittle Bug because if you think like I did . . . you think a bug is just a bug and it is born that way . But they are very much like us in that they have to grow up before they become the grown-up bug , and their bodies change like ours change as they grow . Below are some photos of what I looked like at each time in my life and what the insect looks like as it grows up also. Remember you can click on the photos to get a better look .
Baby



Big Kid

Teenager

 
             Adult              
                 

 

Lets see . . . what is another fun book to read ? James Howe wrote a fun book to  read aloud or to yourself titled Bunnicula . It is about a mysterious bunny who was found in a movie theater and eats fruits and vegetables that turn white .

Until next time ,
Wildbee

Turkeys

Dear Lilliputian ,

I just heard that my nephew has seen Turkeys out one of his windows . I wonder if the Turkeys he saw were girl or boy Turkeys ? I think you all know that the boy Turkey , called a Tom , has a colorful head . . . like the one in the photo above . And depending on whether he is excited , or mad his head will change color . Blue is the color his head would be if he was excited , and red if he was mad . . . and sometimes it is pink and others times white . How do you think the Turkey up above is feeling . . . happy , excited , or mad ? The Tom Turkey also has a beard , but not like my nephew's father's beard . The Tom Turkey's beard is that long feather looking thing hanging out of the middle of his chest . The girl Turkey is not as dark as the boy Turkey . . . she is more of a brown and soft grey color . Like in the photo below .

She is called a Hen . 

When a Turkey is a baby Turkey it is called a Poult . When Turkeys are no longer considered to be a baby Turkey (a Poult) , but they aren't an adult Turkey either . . . the young boy Turkey is called Jake and the girl Turkey is called Jennie . Did you know they had so many names ?

There is one more way you can tell if the Turkey is a girl or a boy Turkey . . . but it is kind of gross .
When the Tom Turkey poops on the ground it is in the shape of a "J" and when the Hen Turkey poops it is shaped more like a swirl like soft serve ice-cream . So if you see the Turkeys go through your yard , go out after they have left and see if they pooped in your yard and if they did see if it is a "J" or a swirl .

June is National Turkey Lovers Month . That is why I am writing these few things about Turkeys . At the end of June and through July you may see very young Turkeys out your window . . . they are very cute . 

Here is a video of what you might see this Summer . It is of some Turkey Hens going through my yard with a posse of Poults . 

The book I am going to recommend this time is called  The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto by Natalie Standiford .

Until next time ,
Wildbee

Sand

Dear Lilliputian , 

If we had super duper eyes we could see what the tiny grains of sand really look like. To us sand looks like each little speck is the same shape as the next speck of sand . . . but if we could really see what those tiny specks look like they would be all different shapes , sizes , and most of the time even different colors . Most of what sand is, is rock that has been crushed as it traveled to the beach , but sand is not just crushed rock . The photo up above was taken with a very powerful machine that can see what our eyes can not . This machine can see that the pieces of sand are all very different . Some grains of sand are not pieces of rock but a very tiny shell , or a piece of lava , or even a piece of  coral.  When we look at sand with our eyes it looks like the sand below .

Those of you who know me know that I collect sand from all over the world . . .

These are four samples of sand collected from Maui , Florida , and Bermuda . If you click on the photo to get a closer look you will see that the first test tube of sand has pink grains of sand in it and it is from Bermuda . The next test tube has sand from an island called Maui that has a volcano on it and the sands from there can be black . The fourth sand sample is also from Maui and it has black and red grains of sand in it with white and orange also . . . 

The white sand is from Florida . 

Sand is not only colorful it can be quite noisy . On the North Shore of Massachusetts there is a beach called The Singing Beach because when you walk on it the sand squeaks and if you walk fast I guess it could sound musical . There are beaches that are known to sing , and some whistle , some even boom and others bark , and there is a beach that is suppose to sound like a frog . Scientists have not been able to solve this mystery of why a beach might boom and another might bark . But I think it makes sand all the more wonderful , don't you ?

Oh ! . . . One more interesting thing about sand . It isn't just rock , or coral , or lava from a volcano . . . it can some times be gems or jewels . There is a beach in Massachusetts on Plum Island that has a sort of purple colored beach sand because there is a purplish gem called Garnet in the sand . I have also read that some beaches have Gold in its sand and in Africa sometimes Diamonds . 

Plum Island sand

So this Summer when you go to the beach I want you to lay on your tummy and look very closely at the sand . Who knows what you might see . And it makes me wonder what your sand castles are really made of ? ? ? 

I think you may have fun reading a picture titled Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig .

Until next time ,

Wildbee

Crabs

Dear Lilliputian ,

When you are at the beach this summer . . . I thought I would tell you about one of the things you might find . I bet you knew that this is a Crab shell . It was not alive . . . I found it on the beach all dried up . Were you able to guess that this was a female Crab ? I will tell you how you can tell that the one above was a female Crab . If you flip the Crab over and look at its stomach you will see the apron . I bet you didn't know that Crabs wear aprons .

Do you see that reddish shape on the Crab drawing above ? That is her apron and when the Crab is female they call her Sook . 

The male Crab has a very skinny apron and he is called Jimmy .

When Sook has eggs she holds them against her stomach underneath her apron till they are ready to hatch and then she lets them go . If you look at the photo below you will see Sook holding her orange eggs with her apron .

So this Summer if you see a dried up Crab on the beach turn it over and see if you can tell if it was a girl or a boy . 

 There is a chapter book that is perfect for young girls who like to read chapter books during the Summer . I read it aloud to my children when they were small . It is called Misty of Chicoteague by Marguerite Henry . It is about some children who spend their Summer saving up enough money to buy a wild pony on Pony Penning Day . The ponies come from a  the wild herd of ponies that live on an Island just off the coast of Virginia . 

Until next time ,

Wildbee

Shells

Dear Lilliputian ,

This is a common sight on the beaches of New England . It is a Clam's shell . A Clam has two 

shells . . . one on top and one just like it on the bottom . Until recently I always thought this is just what a Clam shell looks like , but . . . it isn't . This is what a Clam shell looks like after alot of time and work . The baby Clam starts out its life with out a shell but as it grows it needs the shell for protection and it makes a very teeny tiny shell to cover its teeny tiny body and spends the rest of its long life working on its shell . 

I have collected some Clam shells to show you how tiny they start out . You can also see how large they can get . This may surprise you  . . .  did you know they can live a very , very long time . About eight years ago scientists found a clam shell that they believe was living when
 Christopher Columbus was discovering the Americas ,

 and Leonardo Da Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa .

The way some scientists think that you can tell the age of the Clam is by counting its growth rings . If you click on one of the photos of the Clam shells above and look at the large shell you will see lines going across the shell . On the Clam shell found eight years ago . . . they counted 507 growth rings .  The scientists believe that means that the Clam they found was 507 years old . This makes that Clam the oldest living animal that has ever been found .

To make growth rings to fit its growing body a clam oozes out a bit of fluid around the outside edge of the shell . . . which hardens and makes a new growth ring .  You know how your bones grow each year to make you taller . . . well it is sort of like that .

So when you go to the beach this Summer look closely at the sand and see if you can find some of the little tiny shells . . . they were the homes of a tiny little ocean creature . Snails , Clams , and Mussels are some of the kind of shells you will find .

 Happy shell hunting !

Lets see . . . would you like to the know the title of a book we read aloud to my children every time we stayed at the beach ? It is a funny book titled Burt Dow Deep Water Man by Robert McCloskey .
Another book that Robert wrote was One Morning in Maine it is another treasure of a book . When you read his books you can tell that he liked to spend a lot of time at New England's beaches .

Until next time
Wildbee

Peregrine Falcon Nest

Dear Lilliputian , 

This letter is going to be about a very special bird .  It is a Peregrine Falcon . I think she is called   S71 , it is the number on her ankle band . If a great bird like this has an ankle band it means she was probably banded by a Massachusetts Wildlife Official when she was only a month old . The photo below is of a month old Peregrine who has just had a band put on its leg .

The reason they are banded is because the state of Massachusetts wants to keep track of these bird because they are rather precious . The Peregrine Falcons until not so long ago had disappeared from Massachusetts . Which means that there were no Peregrines living in our state at all . They have been on the Endangered List for over 40 years which means they may never live in Massachusetts
again . . . But , good news , changes were made ,  people thought they are too special to lose forever and now after many , many years of  putting up nest boxes and doing other things to help the Peregrines to come back here to live with us in Massachusetts we have a healthy bunch of Peregrines once again living in Massachusetts . Soon they will be taken off the Endangered List .  I am thankful for people like those at the University of Massachusetts who built the nest box above for the Falcons to nest in . The Mother Peregrine in the photo above is using this nest box right now and she plans to raise her young Peregrines there .
Right now there is a live camera that shows the mother and father Peregrine Falcon taking care of the four eggs laid just a few weeks ago on top of the Library at the University of Massachusetts . If you are interested in seeing them and even seeing the Peregrine's eggs hatch in about a week . . . here is the live camera address . Just click on it . I check the camera daily to see how they are doing .

http://www.library.umass.edu/falcons

Now . . . for a bit of news that may surprise you . The building that the Peregrine's nest is on is at the University of Massachusetts and quite few of our relatives have gone to this school . I know of a grandmother who is also an aunt that went to this university .  Two cousins ( one of those cousins is an aunt and one of those cousins is a father ) and my daughter also went to this very same
university . . . and if fact my daughter works in the building that the Peregrines live on top of .  Can you guess who they are ? I will give you a hint . . . they are part of your family .
If you can't guess who they all are you can email me and I will tell you .

 Underneath the mother Peregrine are 4 large eggs . Don't you think that the university was very nice to built a nest box for these birds ?

Here is a photo of the building that the Falcon lives on top of .

The eggs are due to start hatching in about a week . I will let you know so you can check out what newly hatched Peregrine Falcons look like .

There is a picture book that will tell you more about Peregrine Falcons and it is called The Peregrine Falcon - Endangered No More by Mac Priebe . It talks about how they became nearly extinct in North America and how we were able to save them from disappearing forever .

Until next time ,
Wildbee