The Magnifying Glass

Petoskey stone

If you’re from Michigan, or have ever visited Michigan, you probably know all about petoskey stone.  After all, it is the “state stone” of Michigan.

But I’m not from Michigan, and so my husband had to educate me; allow me to share the story with you.

When taking a stroll along a Lake Michigan beach in northwestern Michigan (on the lower peninsula), keep your eye out for promising pieces of limestone. Pick a stone and wet it a little—if you’re lucky, a web of crooked and variously-sized hexagons will appear in the stone right before your eyes.

 Wet petoskey stone.

It can be nearly impossible to tell regular limestone apart from a petoskey stone unless the stone is wet.  In fact, collectors often carry a small container of water with them as they look for the stones so they can tell on the spot if they’ve found what they were looking for.  (Other collectors prefer to go out in a light rain so they can more easily find these special stones.)

 

When a petoskey stone is dry, it can be hard to tell it apart from ordinary limestone. 

 

The stones get their name from the resort town of Petoskey, Michigan, where they were (and still are) sold to tourists as souvenirs.

Petoskey stone is technically limestone, but can you guess how the distinctive hexagon shapes came to be? If you guessed that they are fossilized coral, then you are right. (The stone in the first photo is a little unusual in that you can see the ridges of the sides of the coral running down the sides of the rock, in addition to the distinctive coral shape at the top that is the hallmark of a petoskey stone.)

Coral, of course, favors warm salt water, and Lake Michigan is a fresh water lake that isn’t particularly warm most of the time. So how did fossilized coral end up in Michigan?  Well, scientists believe that a very, very long time ago, the land now known as Michigan was near the equator.  Not only was it warmer, but it was covered by a huge shallow sea.

Over time, the land mass broke apart and our modern continents began to take their shape.  The land under the shallow sea was lifted up a bit and the shallow sea dried up.  As the land mass of modern Michigan shifted northward, the climate also became too cold to support tropical sea life such as a coral reef.

You may then wonder how the coral became embedded in rock.  The coral was likely buried in mud filled with lime (calcium carbonate) that was covered by more and more mud over time. As the water was squeezed out, the intense pressure hardened the mud and coral into stone.

Petoskey stones can be highly prized and are often polished to bring out the beauty of the coral.

Here’s a link that gives the history of petoskey stones and provides guidance for hand polishing any treasures you may find on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Be sure and share your rock hunting stories with us here at TMG, and photos of special rocks you find on the TMG flickr pool.

Wishing you happy rock hunting,

~ Nancy

Young Naturalist: Zach

Today's interviewee is a charming young sea lad named, Zach. A few weeks ago Zach's mom, Cindy very kindly shared her experiences with life on the water. I thought it would interesting to also hear about it from Zach's perspective. At six years old, Zach has already had some unique experiences that many of us just dream or read about...being lulled to sleep each night on the water, catching crabs from his back "porch", learning to sail, hiking a volcano, riding horses, and all sorts of other grand adventures. He is a dedicated young naturalist who fully embraces all of the natural wonders that surround him on land and sea.

Welcome to The Magnifying Glass, Zach! Can you please tell us about the best parts of living on a boat?
It kind of feels like you are on a giant trampoline, and trampolines are awfully fun. And that's why I like living on a boat. I like having a home that can move around.

What are the hard parts?  

The hard parts are you always have to scooch around. And the grown ups get to do all the cool things like throwing ropes and I don't get to yet.  

(mama note: "scooch around" meaning in a tight space often one person has to move for another person to do something or get by.) What kinds of wildlife can you observe from your sailboat?

Fish, deer, birds mostly herons and ducks. Sometimes a seagull hanging around. Crabs and turtles. And if you were brave enough you could catch a sea snake also. And jelly fish live here also.  

What are your favorite animals?

I love cheetahs, lions, and foxes. 

What is your favorite season and why?

Summer because you can swim and play on the beach. 

If you could sail anywhere in the world, where would you go and what would you hope to see?

I would go to the Caribbean and search for old sunken ships with gold doubloons.  And Australia so I can catch a Kangaroo and ride it.

Zach, do you have any special nature collections and how do you store them on the boat?

I have a thousand collections! I love to collect everything! I have bones from dead animals like a raccoon jaw and a mongoose head and some fish bones and other mystery bones. I have lots of shells and rocks too. Oh and feathers. And coral. Oh, and tracks, too. I store them mostly in jars. And some in little box containers in my closet. 

And one final question, what are your favorite science/nature books?

National Geographic and Buck Wilder.

 Zach, thank you so much for this interview! You are lucky to live on a house that can move around, has built-in trampolines, and has so many interesting aquatic neighbors. I loved hearing about your interests and your collections and I hope your dreams of sailing to the Caribbean and Australia come true one day. Just curious, are you a fan of Alexander? He also wanted to go to Australia, but I don't think his plans were quite as creative or adventurous as yours. I would be very curious to know what riding a kangaroo feels like. We'll look forward to following all of your adventures on Zach Aboard. Happy Sailing!

---Lucia

Iron Pyrite Giveaway

During the winter months the gates to our favorite beach are closed and we have to hike along the road to get to the ocean and trails. Early this winter, before everything was covered with snow and ice, we were walking along and my son noticed a "beautiful rock" he just had to go back and grab. Now, he finds a lot of "beautiful rocks" but we stopped to wait as we always do. As he ran up to us we saw he had something shiny. It was indeed a beautiful rock. It was iron pyrite, sometimes called "fools gold."

 

My husband works with a lot of rock in his job and he told us there are a few quarries around here that tend to have a lot of iron pyrite. They must have ordered the gravel for the newly grated road from one of those quarries. We could not help but look down the entire walk out to the beach and we found our fair share of iron pyrite... and talked about quarries and rocks and how they are formed and used...

Knowing that we would share with friends and family we let the kids collect until their pockets were full. It has been fun to share with others and now we would like to share with you. 

If you think your little nature lover would like to have a bit of "fools gold" to add to their collection please leave a comment. You can tell us about a favorite nature find, a collection or just that your kids would love to have something shiny from nature.

A winner will be announced Saturday, April 2nd.

And the winner is Niclole who said:

My 5-year-old son would just love this! He has a special rock collection. Thanks for the chance. :)

Nicole email me your address at [email protected] and I will get that sent out to you asap.

Thanks for all your great comments.

 ~Dawn

Make a Mason Bee Nest

Where we live, crocuses and forsythia are the very first flowers to bloom as winter transitions to spring. That happens to be the best time to put up a mason bee nest, and this year we’ve tried our hand at it.

Mason bees are small plant pollinators like the familiar honey bee, but they are solitary and do not produce honey. With no hive or honey to protect, they virtually never sting (unless extremely provoked) and are safe to be handled gently by children.

Mason bees use nests to raise their young. Although they live alone, they happily lay their eggs in cavities near fellow mason bees in miniature human-made communes.

Mason bees are considered true “natives” in North America (as are similar bees around the world). By comparison, honey bees—thought to have originated in Asia and cultivated in Europe and Africa since ancient times—are rather recent arrivals to North America (1620’s) and Australia (1820’s).

Here's a mason bee nest at our local nature center.  You can see that the bees use mud to seal in their eggs into the nest holes, where they will mature into adults and eventually emerge to greet the world.

You can buy mason bees by mail-order and for the past few years we contemplated doing this. However, you must place your orders in the fall (breeders quickly sell out). Plus, we know that mason bees live in our area because we’ve seen their active nests at a local nature center (see photo above).

You can also buy nests, but we’ve learned that they should be replaced at least every two years—if not annually—because they quickly become infested with fungus and mites that kill the growing bee larvae.  Adult mason bees can then carry these pests to new nests and spread the problem.

So, it seemed more logical to make our own nest from found materials, and to hope that local mason bees would find their way. We scavenged a large chunk of an old fir tree on one of our neighborhood walks for our nest.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Below are instructions for making and installing your own mason bee nest. There are lots of tutorials around; here, I’ve distilled the best of them.

1.  When choosing wood for your mason bee nest, select wood that isn’t treated and avoid aromatic wood such as cedar. Our bit of fir tree is 7 1/2” x 8” on its face and 7” deep. A 7” deep block of wood (4” wide or wider) will work fine.

2.  Mark holes for the nest cavities, setting them about 1/2” apart. Drill holes(do not drill all the way through). The ideal hole width is 5/16” (8 mm). The ideal depth for a cavity is 6” deep. Unfortunately, standard drill bits only drill holes 3” deep. You can try using 3” holes, as some suggest, although shallower holes tend to produce far more males vs. females.  I opted to make 6” holes.

3. When you’re finished drilling, cover the front of the nest with chicken wire (I used two overlapping rectangles nailed down to the sides, creating a “bubble” an inch or two away from the nesting hole entrances). This keeps out the birds and squirrels.

4. Consider nailing a shingle as a sloping “roof” to direct water away from the entrance to the cavities. We sawed some wood away to create a one-inch “awning.” You can also place your nest under an overhang for additional protection, as we’ve chosen to do.

5. Mount your finished nest (on a post, fence, or building) facing south and avoiding direct sun.

6. Do not spray insecticides near your mason bee nest.

7. Mason bees need mud to seal their eggs in the nesting holes. We’re keeping a bit of garden bed near our downspouts moist from now until fall so our bees will have mud for their nests.

8. Last, you’ll need nearby flowers to attract and keep mason bees.  But that was why you wanted them in your garden in the first place, right?

If you are amateur mason bee keepers like our family, set the nest up and then keep it undisturbed for a year or two. Then take the nest down and discard it. We’ll make a new one again in late winter another year if all goes well ~ we’ll let you know if we manage to attract any mason bees to our garden.

You may be more ambitious than we are, in which case you may want to line your holes with parchment paper, harvest the nests in November and store them in the fridge. Take a look at this PDF link to learn more.

~ Nancy

Through the Lens

Charlie's First Fossil by Heartfelt

 

Dinosaur "Fossil" by The Quilted Turtle

(click here to get the cool recipe for fossil dough)

Let us peek through your lens! Through the Lens is a weekly series which highlights recent submissions to TMG Flickr pool. Show us what your family has been exploring.

Young Naturalists: Emily and Michael

  It has been so much fun to do interviews for The Magnifying Glass that I thought I'd expand the interviews to include a mix of young naturalists. Please join me in welcoming our first pair of young naturalists, a brother and sister team all the way from Hawaii: Emily and Michael. I happened to stumble upon their mother homeschooling blog, Fairly Square, when I was searching for information on nature journals. After reading Melani's post about their long and on-going dedication to nature journaling, I was eager to learn more about their interests in the natural world and I was not disappointed. In fact, I am inspired and encouraged by their example. At a time when so many of the reports on teens and tweens focus on the negative or challenging aspects of modern adolescence, it is even more meaningful to me to hear directly from such thoughtful, bright, and passionate young naturalists. I hope you will feel the same way, too.

Welcome to The Magnifying Glass, Emily and Michael! Please tell us a bit about yourselves and the area where you live.

E: My name is Emily.  I'm twelve years old, and I live in Honolulu, Hawaii.  I dance ballet, I play piano, and I like to beat myself at Monopoly.

M: My name is Michael. I am fifteen and enjoy jazz music, literature, and theater. I live in Honolulu, Hawaii.

How old were you when you started keeping a nature
journal? 

E:I don't really remember not having a nature journal.  When we were living in Alaska, mom took us on hiking trails to draw flowers. 

M: I was six years old when we started nature journaling.

Any tips for kids who want to start their own nature
journals?

E:Don't worry if you think you can't draw, just have fun.

M: Keep a camera with you.  If you have to stop drawing for some reason, you can look back at the pictures you took of your specimen so you don't have to draw from memory.


Please tell us about your favorite nature spot.


E: My favorite nature spot is Swan Lake in Sumter, South Carolina.  There's a trail around a lake filled with ducks, swans, geese, herons, and turtles.  The black swans chased me and tried to bite my toes! 

M:  My favorite nature spot is my grandparents' beef farm in Ohio.  There are approximately 170 acres of pasture, meadows, and forest.  Wild turkeys and deer roam freely.  Every ten years or so beavers move onto the property and create a swamp; when they leave the swamp dries up again.

What are a few of your favorite nature books?

E: My favorite nature book is Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance by Stephen Herrero.  I also like The Complete Amateur Naturalist by Michael Chinery.

M: I like Walden by Henry David Thoreau, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, and My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.

If you could travel any place on earth to observe/document a natural occurrence or specific animals, where would you go and what would you hope to see?

E: I would like to go back to Alaska to study polar bears.

M:I'm a licensed SCUBA diver, so I would like to visit the Great Barrier Reef.  I've always been interested in Australia's marine life, particularly cuttlefish.

Emily and Michael, thank you so much for joining us here on The Magnifying Glass. It is obvious that your appreciation of the natural world has deep and early roots that are continuing to thrive. I love that nature journaling has been such a core part of your lives that you can't remember a time without it. And I love your list of reading suggestions. I have already added several of them to my reading list. When your dreams come true and you get to study polar bears and cuttlefish in the wild (because I have a feeling you could both turn those dreams into reality), please let us know because I would love to do a follow-up!

---Lucia

Through the Lens

My Favorite Worm by valariebudayr

Apples, Someday! by Lisa Steinbrueck

Underside by A Wild and Precious Life

Let us peek through your lens! Through the Lens is a weekly series which highlights recent submissions to TMG Flickr pool. Show us what your family has been exploring.

Knots of knowledge

My dad is a woodworker, so as a kid I heard a lot about knots. Sometimes they were looked at as a source of character and beauty in a piece of wood, other times they were simply something to be avoided. It all depended on the project at hand. In all those years of my childhood, sitting in the garage watching my dad work, I don't recall ever talking with him about how knots were formed. We may have had that conversation but it probably escaped me because this is how I saw a knot:

I would venture to say that most people would visualize a knot this way. At some point along my journey I learned that knots formed where branches were attached to the tree. Once my kids started asking questions about the strange circles in the wood on the shed I passed on my knowledge. But a flat board makes a somewhat abstract representation of a tree.

One day this last fall I was splitting wood and found some interesting knots. They split apart and went right back together like a puzzle. 

 

I called the kids over and they had a great time fitting the pieces together and looking at the bark side to see where the branch would have come out of the tree had it still been attached.

We talked about how trees grow and how the branch extended deep within the trunk of the tree to hold it in place. 

Now that spring is here we are finding new growth all around.

The kids are looking at how new growth starts out and the structure of the trees in a new light. 

As I was looking back at some old pictures I realized that we have been looking at trees for a long time. This picture of my son looking up at the small oak tree in our backyard is from two years ago. 

This brings home the idea that with each passing year, with each season that goes by, they are adding new layers of knowledge about the natural world. Their understanding of how things work is branching out and taking root, building upon each experience, like new branches build upon the old growth.

Next month I am taking the kids to visit my parents in Colorado. My dad has plans to build some wonderful wooden toys with them. They are excited and I am sure will come away with another layer of knowledge about wood and trees from the woodworkers perspective, just as I had as a child.

Are there any nature topics your family comes back to again and again, building knowledge with each visit? We would love to hear about them.

 ~ Dawn

Welcome the New Season! Celebrating the Equinox

 
Lucia:  Welcoming Spring in Sicily

Spring is my favorite season in Sicily. It is a heady mix of green fields, fast moving clouds, and ditches over-flowing with vibrant wildflowers. Being on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean means that most of the year we have full sun, lots of cacti, and dry, heat-baked surroundings.

 
This is the season that is most productive: blood oranges, artichokes, strawberries, lemons, purple cauliflowers, wild asparagus and fennel. It is also the season that is most unpredictable. March is especially temperamental and there is an Italian saying which is very accurate: “Arriva marzo pazzerello; esce il sole e prendi l’ombrello!” (Here comes crazy March; the sun comes out, and you grab your umbrella!)  We welcome Spring in Sicily by picking lots of wildflowers, eating lots of strawberries, and hiking with sunscreen and raincoats.

 

 

Dawn:  Welcoming Spring in Nova Scotia
After a winter full of snow, Dawn and her family are excited to see the snow starting to melt and the crocuses poking through.  They have much to be thankful for.

 

Annie:  Welcoming Spring in Vermont
As the equinox approaches, life in Vermont does not appear quite so Spring-like on the surface.  In fact, we are having a bit of snow this weekend.  But if you look closely, it is indeed possible to see evidence of the new season to come.

Although we are not farmers, our lives are very much intertwined with the happenings on the local farm where my daughter goes to school.  We know that Spring must be just around the corner, because there are numerous new additions to the farmyard these days.

 
Perhaps the cutest harbinger of Spring around, no?

 

Nancy: Welcoming Spring in Washington, D.C.

 

Our snow is long gone, but our Spring flowers have barely started to bloom. The temperature swings wildly from just above freezing to the warmth of a summer day.  Yesterday we took our first bike ride of the year as a family. Today we are planting some seeds for our kitchen garden, and we are looking forward to the annual kite and cherry blossom festival.  Welcome, Spring!

 

How is your family celebrating the change in seasons?  Please share with us here and be sure and post your photos on the TMG flickr pool.

 

Guest :: Gwyn Beasley

Celebrating the Autumn Equinox in Australia

Here at TMG, we’ve been celebrating Equinox Week in anticipation of the big day tomorrow.  The Northern Hemisphere will experience the Vernal (Spring) Equinox, while those living in the Southern Hemisphere will mark the Autumnal Equinox.  Today, Gwyn Beasley, author of several nature books for children based on her family's experiences, kindly shares with us how her family enjoys the transition from Summer to Autumn in Australia.

 

The Autumn Equinox is our lowest key seasonal celebration of the year which is why it is perhaps my favourite! Where we live, there has only been a slight shift in the weather from that of summer. Leaves haven’t turned, so we can’t indulge in autumn leaf crafts yet, so we celebrate the Autumn Equinox with a walk and a talk.

 

To our ancestors, the Autumn Equinox was a time to give thanks for the bountiful harvest of summer. We aren’t vegetable farmers yet, so as we walk, we typically talk about the aspects of summer that we are most grateful for. Like the patches of sunlight that light our path, and the ample rain that has our waterfall running.

 

We notice that we are seeing less of our favourite reptiles and as we walk, we always talk about whether they hibernate, or how long it takes them to warm up in cooler weather.

 

If we find evidence of where a bandicoot has used its snout to burrow for food alongside our track, we wonder whether they will find more or less food for as the plant life changes with the weather.

 

We always end our walks with a check on the spiny blue crayfish which breed in Autumn. This year, we hope to witness them carrying their young on their backs.

 

And as we return from our walk and talk, I usually think to myself that the best thing about Autumn is that my children sleep in a little later each morning. As we return from our walk and talk, my children think aloud that the best thing about Autumn is the Easter eggs!

~ Gwyn Beasley, guest contributor