The Magnifying Glass

Night glider

What flies at night?

Well, bats do. And moths. And owls.

But what else flies--or in reality, glides--at night?

A flying squirrel!

Southern flying squirrel, eating peanut butter.

Where we live, there are lots of diurnal squirrels (meaning they're awake only during the day). We couldn't possibly go for a walk without spotting one (or ten) Eastern Gray Squirrels, even though we have our share of foxes, hawks, cats and dogs.  But, as soon as the sun goes down, gray squirrels find their tree top nests and go to sleep.

About an hour after sundown, it's showtime:  that's when all species of flying squirrels come out. As amazing as it seems, in densely populated Washington, D.C., our local naturalists calculate that there are as many flying squirrels here as there are gray squirrels. 

 Peekaboo!

The vast majority of our neighbors have never seen a flying squirrel, and most would be astonished to learn that they are so common here. Partly that's because these animals are active only at night; but they are also very small, and they prefer to spend nearly all their time up high in tall trees.

Our local species is the Southern Flying Squirrel, which ranges from the very southeastern edge of Canada, down the eastern half of the U.S. (as far west as central Texas), and south to the highlands of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

To attract flying squirrels, our town's nature center has several roosting boxes on trees about ten feet above the ground. Although flying squirrels are solitary for much of the year while the mothers raise their young, in the winter they like nothing better than to sleep their days away with as many as 25 of their buddies all snuggled in one roosting box! This man-made box has two holes, so the snoozers always have an escape route if by some chance a rat snake should pay them a visit.

            

Of course, the most amazing thing about flying squirrels is their ability to glide.  Their bodies have a flap of skin known as a patagium (that's what a bat wing is called as well).  These flaps allow flying squirrels to glide as far as 200 ft (up to 70 m).  Their tails act as rudders and our naturalist told us that they can turn 90 degrees in mid-flight! Their tails also easily break away, allowing them to escape if a predator grabs them only by the tail.

When they first land on a tree, they quickly scurry to the other side in case an owl has been following them, which explains the inordinate number of photos I took of these trees...minus the squirrels.

Flying squirrels will "eat almost anything" according to the naturalist our family met, and that includes nuts and seeds, insects, fruit, fungi, bird eggs, tree sap, and meat if they are desperate.  These squirrels were enjoying nuts and peanut butter.

 

Other flying squirrels around the world.

The Northern Flying Squirrel prefers the most northern part of the U.S. and Canada.  Many species of true flying squirrels (which are rodents) can be found in Asia, and a lone species, the Siberian Flying Squirrel, can be found from Finland to Japan.

There are other animals around the world that are gliders resembling flying squirrels. In Australia, you can find the sugar baby, which is not a rodent but rather a marsupial (meaning the mamas have pouches to care for their young just like kangaroos and koalas). Sugar babies are sometimes cared for as pets, but their nocturnal habits aren't for everyone, which is how this particular Australian native ended up as a rescue animal at a nature center in Virginia.

So, if you happen to live in a region with flying squirrels, take a look up into a stand of tall trees one night--you just might see these little acrobats gliding through the air.

Here's a link for instructions for building a flying squirrel (winter) roosting box; as I mentioned, you might have over 20 flying squirrels snoozing the day away all winter in such a box.  (Note that the recommended dimensions are different for southern vs. northern flying squirrels.)

~Nancy

Solstice eclipse

Did you get a chance to see the total lunar eclipse last night? If you were in North America, had a clear sky, and you were up during the wee hours, it was a special gift, falling as it did on Solstice.

Some families exchange gifts on Winter Solstice to celebrate the return of daylight. This day marks the shortest day of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and the start of winter. To be precise, the Winter Solstice occurs when the sun is at its furthest from the celestial equator.

Earlier in the evening, just before they went to bed, we showed our kids the full moon as it hung low in the sky, straight off our front porch.

We set out our coats and boots, so we wouldn't be fumbling around later. I set the alarm for 2:30 a.m. When it went off, I surprised myself by jumping out of bed and running outside for a quick peek. I decided then to wake up our 7-year-old to come and take a look. This is what we saw--the thinnest slice of bright moon just before the total eclipse.

By now the moon was very small and high in the sky, and I wondered whether she would be impressed. She was very enthusiastic and when I asked if she knew what a lunar eclipse was, she recited back to me what her dad had explained to her earlier: that the moon doesn't shine on its own; that it reflects the light of the sun back to earth; and that when the earth's shadow falls on the moon just right, the shadow covers it up, or 'eclipses' the moon. We also talked about how this was the first eclipse to fall on the Winter Solstice in nearly 400 years.

She went back inside to get warm, and then I brought her out again when the eclipse was complete. The moon was still visible as a dark brown ball.

She went back to bed, this time for good, and I stayed out a little longer to take a few more photos. Here is what the moon looked like through my lens, pretty much the size it appeared to the naked eye.  This photo has not been edited or altered.

Here's the same photo, enlarged this time.

I went back in and set the alarm again, but when I went out a bit later, the clouds had rolled in and the show was over.

We wondered later why the moon appears reddish during a total lunar eclipse. The answer is that some faint sunlight is still hitting the surface of the moon.  As that light passes back to us through the earth's atmosphere, the dust-filled air acts as a filter and and scatters the blue and green parts of the spectrum. The reddish light of the spectrum is what reaches our eyes. It's the same reason that sunrises and sunsets cast a reddish glow.

I hope you had a chance to see the eclipse last night; if you did, feel free to share your story with us!  Also, if you were able to take some photos, however blurry (it was quite hard to capture!) please share them on the TMG flickr pool.

Last, here's NASA's eclipse website with lots of information, including the dates and times of future lunar and solar eclipses.  For each event, they include world maps so you can see whether it will be visible from your country.

~Nancy

Gifts From Nature: Driftwood Crafts

We have been doing some driftwood crafting here.

I thought you might like to see what we have been up to.

Tic tac toe (inspired by this post from Imagine Childhood), snakes and air planes...

Great fun!

I blogged about it here if you want to see a bit more. Such a fun and busy time of year at our house. 

Hope you are all well and taking time to enjoy the season!

~Dawn

Gifts From Nature: Nature in a Bottle

We have been making all kinds of simple gifts around here lately. This is one that is very simple and sweet. 

Gather up some favorite nature finds to put in a cute jar with a little ribbon or yarn attaching a heartfelt note and you are all done.

 

My mom loves white and we thought this jar of white shells we collected over the summer would be a wonderful gift for her. My son gave away a jar of sea glass he collected. I have always loved feathers in glass jars. You could also use acorns (just make sure they don't have larva in them) or even "pretty rocks" as my son likes to call them. There are so many possibilities. 

Happy Holidays!

~Dawn

Gifts from Nature: Gifts of Green

 
I almost hesitate to post this gift idea here since it is so simple, but it really is one of my favorite gifts to give (and receive) and we seem to have made a tradition of it in our family. Some years we give blooming bulbs, other years seeds or small pots of fragrant herbs. Some years we decorate the pots (by painting or decoupaging), other years we have just wrapped them with pretty tissue paper and bows. These living gifts of green are perfect for teachers, neighbors, and garden-loving friends. They are also gifts that little hands of all ages can easily help to prepare. And these are gifts that will hopefully provide some much needed color and cheer during the chilly months of winter.

 

This year our gifts of green are succulents. Since moving to a Mediterranean climate, we have discovered the wonderful world of succulents. They come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and textures. They don't need much water and they can thrive in sun and shade. And best of all, they multiply like crazy! Seriously, all you really need to do is break off bits and pieces, let them dry out for a day or two, and then just stick them straight into the dirt where you want them to grow.

If you don't have easy access to succulents in your own garden or if your garden is already under snow, here are some of the bulbs and seeds that have worked well for us in the past:

Amaryllis

Paperwhites

Daffodils

Muscari

Parsley, Cilantro, Basil (from seeds or small starts)

Be sure to include the name of the plants you are gifting along with care instructions. And if you really want make those teachers/neighbors/gardening friends happy, try making some of this fabulous gardener's hand scrub to go along with those special green gifts. Happy planting and happy gifting!

---Lucia

Favorite Books for Wintry Weather.

I generally try to have enough creative brainpower to write totally unique posts for my own blog and this lovely page here.  However, I have decided that this time of year is completely crazy enough to make a bit of cross-posting a-okay.  So, click on over to Bird and Little Bird to see my list of favorite books to share with your little ones as the first snow falls.  Or, if you live somewhere warm and relatively sunny, you can just read them in honor of the rest of us as we dig ourselves out with snow shovels and rock salt. 

Gifts From Nature: A Nature Shadow Box

In the fall Lucia wrote a great post about migration here on TMG. In it she mentioned how she wished "there was some way to bottle up our recent stork sightings and give those to friends and family as holiday gifts". When I read that it brought to mind a gift idea I had been thinking about for some time. While I have not figured out how to bottle up a stork sighting I think a shadow box would be a great way to share nature with those we love. 

While we set about gathering nature finds for our nature exchange we also set a few things aside for some shadow boxes.

 

These are going to a few of our favorite folks that love nature but might not be up for a nature exchange.

After everything was gathered together we laid it out on the background. Once we were happy with how it looked we glued it down. We used a hot glue gun for this. Other types of glue would work but it might take longer to dry. Just make sure it is strong enough to hold the weight of the object once it is hanging on the wall.

We purchased a shadow box from a craft shop but you could also make your own if you are the very adventurous crafty type. If you search the web for "build a wooden shadow box" you will find "how to" sites to meet just about every skill level.

Here it is complete. It is amazingly hard for me to take pictures of things under glass but I wanted you to see the frame. It looks great on the wall. I am ready to make one for us to have here at home. 

Other ideas include:

~ Adding pictures from a trip or you kids out in nature to the background. 

~ Using post cards of local wildlife as a background.

~ Dividing the background into four sections to represent things collected in each season.

~ Think about the home of the recipient. Try to get a shadow box frame that will match their home decor. Our local craft shop had a wide selection.

While we can't always share our nature experiences first hand with loved ones, we can offer a bit of nature's goodness under glass.

Happy Holidays!

~ Dawn

 

Gifts from nature: for the birds

Around this time of year, we start to think about the birds that don't migrate (or maybe they came from colder regions for the winter). We wonder how they survive, although we know they can fend for themselves.

Still, what bird doesn't like a treat or two?  Once it gets cold enough, we enjoy making "bird cakes" for our feathered friends, stringing them on ribbon or twine, and hanging them from a branch.

 

Here's the recipe we used this year:

Bird Cake

1 cup natural crunchy peanut butter*

2 cups oats (steel cut or quick-cook)

1 cup bird seed (black-oil sunflower seed is ideal)

1/2 to 1 cup warm water

*you can also use "sun butter" or other seed or nut butters, as long as they are somewhat stiff at room temperature

Melt the nut butter gently over low heat, then place in a large bowl and stir in the dry ingredients.  Allow to cool, then slowly add warm water and knead by hand until it forms a very thick "dough." Pat into small shapes or pans.  Use the handle of a wooden spoon or a chop stick to make a hole for hanging.  Freeze for several hours or overnight.  Hang outdoors with string or ribbon. (You can also use cookie cutters if you chill the dough slightly; we pressed the dough into cutters, froze them, then released the cakes by rubbing the cutters with warm water). 

 

About bird cake ingredients:

• Nut and seed butters should be offered mixed with other ingredients such as birdseed or oats to prevent the butter from sticking in the birds' mouths.


• You can use suet or lard along with, or in place of, nut butter. Melt over low heat before adding other ingredients.  While it may seem odd to feed birds animal fat, they glean fat from grubs and worms in the wild. However, avoid bacon drippings, which can have impurities.


• Many bird cake recipes call for cornmeal, cracked corn, or raw peanuts.  All of these can have traces of aflatoxins (from fungus) that are extremely harmful to birds even in small quantities. If you choose these, make sure they're for human consumption--but it's safer to use cereal oats and birdseed.


• Many birds love sunflower seeds. Black-oil sunflower seeds are preferable to striped sunflower seeds; the latter have tough shells most birds can't crack. Or, use sunflower hearts.


• Before buying commercial bird feed (like we did), consider that it's often full of millet (tiny round seeds) mainly eaten by ground feeding birds that won't perch on a hanging feeder. Another seed-mix 'filler' to avoid is red milo, with reddish seeds slightly larger than millet. Few birds care for red milo, and so this seed is often spilled and wasted at bird feeders.

About bird feeding:

• Serve bird cakes when temps are chilly. At higher temps oils soften and coat chest feathers, a hazard for nesting birds whose eggs then clog with residue. Bird cakes also spoil in warm temperatures.


• To watch birds feeding on your cakes from a picture window, hang the cake closer to the window, 3 ft or less. Picture windows are grave hazards for birds that take off from feeders at full speed, injuring themselves (or worse) when they hit a window. 30 ft is a safe distance if you'd rather have the feeder further away.


• If using a feeder or perch, clean it with hot water and soap to prevent the spread of disease.


• Urban families should sweep under feeders and consider taking cakes in overnight to avoid providing food for rats.

This site has lots of reliable information about feeding birds; and this page has a lot of information about helping birds avoid window collisions (read first before sharing with wee ones).

Last, as a family, we participate (for a fee) in Project Feeder Watch, of which the Great Backyard Bird Hunt is a free part. PFW lasts from November through the first week of April; if you live in North America, it's a great activity to do with your kids.  Here's a link to their free feederwatch kids' resources.

Happy birdfeeding!

Gifts From Nature: A Nature Exchange

Most of us have friends and family that spread around the country, maybe even the globe. We have such an amazing time learning about what is right out our backdoor and delight in sharing it with others. It is also great fun to get a package full of nature's goodness from far away. This would be a great time to contact a relative or friend to arrange a nature exchange for the kids as gifts for the holiday this year.

We always have a nature table full of good things to share. We set about gathering up the best examples of our favorite nature finds.
 

As we add new things to the collection we make a list.

Sea glass.

Mussel shell with seaweed hold.

Crab claws.

And sometimes add things that are not exactly nature made but we find often on our walks.

The sea glass above and this bait bag from a lobster pot are great examples. It says somethings about our local area and might just inspire some research by our recipients. 

The smaller fragile things get wrapped up in tissue paper and placed into an egg carton. The larger items get wrapped up too and it all goes into the box. 

Sometimes we also include pictures of the kids out in nature, some postcards of local wildlife (our Museum of Natural History has a great collection) or some supplies for a nature based craft. 

Another fun and easy gift from nature.

Have you ever done a nature exchange? We would love to hear about it.

~Dawn

 

 

Gifts From Nature: Yule Log

Kelly of We Are Here submitted this great tutorial on how to create a Yule Log.

Kelly says...

"It is very simple to do - the main consideration is making sure that you use materials that can burn safely and tying a string around the log to use as a frame to hold every thing in place.  We also used a small amount of cinnamon scented oil (one drop!) to give the log a special scent when it is burned.  

At the moment the Yule Log is sitting on our piano with fairy lights draped across it, and I'll be a little sad to see it go to our friends at Christmas...I think we will make an extra one."

I have to admit.  I have heard of the yule log tradition.

But never taken the time to research it and look into its history.

According to wiki:

"A Yule log is a large wooden log which is burned in the hearth as a part of traditional Yule or Christmas celebrations in several European cultures. It can be a part of the Winter Solstice festival or the Twelve Days of Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Twelfth Night."

I think this would fun to tie a little card explaining a bit of the history of the yule log.  

Get Kelly's instructions by checking out her post here.

Or read more about the history of yule logs over on Wikipedia.

Thanks for the submission Kelly!