Saturday, August 21, 2010

Nature Around the Yard

We had a lot of fun outside yesterday. We caught lots and lots of little tadpoles (and then let most of them go), as well as a couple of 3-inch frogs.  We came across a snake which I've tried and tried to identify.  My best guess is that it is a water snake (another book to borrow from the library!). And finally, we found another quite amazing looking mushroom growing in our yard.  It's been raining a lot, making conditions ideal for all kinds of mushrooms, but I don't think I had photographed one quite like this yet.



As I said, I'm guessing this is a water snake, but I still took it VERY far from the house before I let it go!! If anyone else can identify it, I'd be grateful!

6 comments:

  1. The snake looks very much like a colubridae we have in Europe, e.g. Natrix natrix. Maybe this site http://www.pitt.edu/~mcs2/herp/SoNA.html could help you find one that lives in your region?

    Love your blog!

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  2. Just found this http://www.ellenjmchenry.com/id31.html. Maybe you'll find the Chicken Egg Development Wheel useful.

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  3. Thanks for the snake identification link. I'll check that out more in a bit. I tried looking on some of the local nature sites, but really didn't find one that looked quite the same.

    And THANKS too for the chick development sheet. If hubby gets the printer working soon enough I'll definitely print that out. I love how it shows where it develops in the hen. I can't wait to check out some of the other free activity sheets as well!

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  4. My hubby said it is a diamond back water snake, or a Brazos Valley Water Snake.

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  5. Barnes & Noble has great light field guides. They are only $6 and if you have a teacher's card, you get 20% off. We use them for our nature walks. They are from the Pocket Naturalist Series. http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=166642

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