They're back!

Yup, the robins are back! They cleaned up their nest, and then they used it again!

We've got 4 more beautiful blue eggs! I will post again once something new comes up with them!

Another Update

So, I forgot to update this, but I scared the birds out of the nest when I dropped a shovel under the nest last week. 3 flew out, the fourth remained for a little while, but then it flew away too. But, SHOOF!!! It was a close one; I almost got pooped on!!!

So that's the bird update for now. Our robins are acting weird, though, so we might have baby birds again.

Baby Update!

Just wanted to post this pic real quick so you guys could see how our babies are doing. (Sorry about the blurriness.)

Yup, they're still pretty ugly, but not as much as before. Well, that's all for now. I'll post again in a few days.

Baby birds!!!

Yesterday, I took a peek in the nest, and we finally have 4 tiny baby birds!!!! When I looked 2 days ago, there were still 4 robins-egg blue eggs in there (see first pic). Yesterday when I looked, three had hatched, but the fourth was still an egg (see second pic). I looked this morning, (see third pic) and now we have all 4 babies!!! My guess is that I looked yesterday right after the first 3 hatched, and the fourth hatched right after.

Well, that's all. I just wanted to share this because it's so exciting!! I will post again when something new happens.

The robins are back!

So, you remember last year when I posted about the robins on the porch, and the baby fell out of the nest? So the robins came back again this year, and they're on the porch again, except on the other side this time...

So Lindsey climbed up yesterday to see if there was anything in it yet, since we've seen the daddy bird working for a couple of weeks. Sure enough, there are 4 robins-egg blue eggs in it!!

We think that they were laid last week, and the incubation step takes 12-14 days. So, if we're right, we'll have baby birds next week! I'll post again when something new happens!!!

Canoeing on the Chestatee!

Yesterday we went canoeing in Dahlonega, and it was AWESOME! I wish I could go every week!! And we saw a bunch of things like:

• kingfishers
• herons
• minnows & carp
• snails
• hawks
• turtles

And boy, there was a ton of turtles!! I couldn't even count how many there were! Most of them were fairly large, and this is what they looked like:

It was 6 miles from start to finish, and I think that was my favorite 6 miles anything ever! 

We had a half-way point mark, which was a fairly large beach. We stopped for almost an hour, and then moved on. There were several small rapids, but nothing really scary. It took us almost exactly 3 hours to get from start to finish, 2 hours if you didn't stop at the beach. But it was really fun, and I hope we get to go back pretty soon.

This is the beach we stopped at with some of the canoes. (Yes, we went with a big, homeschooling group):

And this is a picture from the front of our canoe when we were about to push off from the beach:

If you ever want to go canoeing, I would highly recommend Appalachian Outfitters in Dahlonega! It is AMAZING!! 

Well, that's all for now. See you later!

Robin Update

So, here's what has happened (and not happened) since I last posted:

• We have had no other babies fall out of their nest.
• All three babies seem healthy.
• The baby that fell out yesterday is completely fine (we think).

But the sad thing is this -- when the babies hatched, there were four. But now, there's only three. Why? Because (this is all we think, OK?) the fourth one hatched the day after the others, and so didn't get enough food. And for a baby bird, every day counts. So basically, its the runt. 

Yesterday we only saw three heads come up at food. We wondered if the fourth was dead, but we didn't know for sure. But last night, we saw the mommy robin pulling it out of the nest. 

So what do I think happened?? This:

I think that, as the one baby fell out yesterday morning, it was pushing away when it that its little baby sister/brother was dead, and it went too far and fell.

What do you think happened?

Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh!!

Oh, my gosh! Do you know what happened today? Well, first of all, we have these three baby robins in a nest on our back porch. They've been a bit squirmy because they don't have quite enough room in their nest. Well, this morning, Mama and I went to let Lacy out, and there was a baby robin on the ground!! So Mama picked it up (she thought it was dead at first, but then it opened its mouth, and we knew it wasn't), and then she gave it to me, and then I sat down on one of our adorondack chairs and held it, while Mama tried to find a worm to feed it (unseccessfully). Then she went inside, and researched if you can put a baby bird back in its nest. You can, and we did.

Here is a picture of me holding it (its cute because its resting its head on my thumb like its in its nest):

Yes, I know, I'm in my pajamas in this picture, but what do I care? I got to hold a baby bird! What's cooler than that?

As a side note, if you couldn't tell, the old wives-tale about parent-birds smelling your scent and ditching their kids is NOT true. (Birds don't smell very well!)

Releasing Our Butterflies

Yesterday we released the butterflies! It was really fun, but it was hard too, because they all stayed right where they were. We actually had to pick them up out of their habitat and let them fly away:

But even when they all got out, they still hung around in the backyard for a while (even though I don't have a picture of it, a butterfly kept landing on my foot. Gosh, that tickles!!!):

Lacy chased and tried to eat them for a minute, but then we sent her to time-out (aka the corner of the yard away from the butterflies):

One of the butterflies had a damaged wing, so we left it one a lantana - a flower that butterflies like to be around and eat from. We hope to be seeing some of their descendants soon (in other words, a bunch of tiny little black caterpillars), and we expect to see butterflies flitting around all summer long.

Also, if you ever see a little inch-long black caterpillar, or a chrysalis, or little tiny blue-green eggs, please don't hurt them - they're Painted Ladies, and they won't hurt you - why hurt them?

We Have Butterflies!

Yup, we have butterflies! Yesterday the last one of the 5 hatched, but you know what was cool? I saw it come out of its chrysalid!! I thought that it was pretty cool! It hardly looked like a butterfly when it came out, its wings were so crumpled.

For those who would like to see pictures, here you are:

These were the caterpillars:

There were the chrysalids:

This is what the butterflies looked like when they came out (although the wings were a little more crumpled when they first hatched):

And this is me holding one of the butterflies:

Well, those are the pictures. I hope you liked them!

Update

Well, yesterday the last caterpillar turned into a chrysalid! I'm pretty excited. By next week they should start hatching, and I'll post and show you some pictures of them. I'm really glad that you can do this. Its amazing to watch them grow!

Well, I'll keep you updated. I'll let you know when they hatch!

We're Painting Again!

Interesting title, isn't it? Well, here's the news! We got Painted Lady Butterflies again! Well, not quite butterflies yet, they're more accurately called caterpillars right now. But they are getting pretty chubby, already. We expect chrysalids by next week.

Well, that's all for now. I'll keep you updated, OK?

More Puppy Pics

Here are some more pictures of puppies. This is Chipper (formally known as Spot). Chipper has two brothers and two sisters. Both his sisters have homes waiting for them, but his brothers still need homes:

There are two other puppies who are looking for homes. There's a white boy:

And there's also this adorable little laddie:

This is what I call extreme puppy cuteness! don't you agree? They will be three weeks old tomorrow, and they're getting so big!!!

Spring has sprung!

Everything is in bloom in our garden! Its so pretty:

Roses:

Sundrops:

Lady's Mantle:

Pincushion Flowers:

Peonies:

and Lavender:

Spring HAS sprung, and everything is beautiful!

Bee Facts

Here's some facts about bees:

• Honey bees are the only insects that make a food eaten by humans.
• Only worker bees sting.
• Bees fly at about 15 mph.
• Bees can't see red.
• Queen bees lay 3000 eggs a day.
•  A single bee can produce 1 tablespoon of honey in its lifetime.
•  Honey is 80% sugars and 20% water. 
• Drones have no stinger at all.
  
  
  

Giraffe Facts

Here's some facts I learned about giraffes:

• Giraffes are born with horns.
• Each giraffe looks different.
• A new born giraffe is about 6 feet in length.
• Giraffes sleep 5 to 30 min. in 24 hours.
• Giraffes have really good eyesight.
• Every step a giraffe takes is 15 feet long.
• The tongue of a giraffe is 27 in.
• A lion can die if kicked by a giraffe.
• Giraffes are social animals, that live in open herds.
• A giraffe's heart is 24 pounds in weight, and 2 feet in length.
• The darker the spots, the older the giraffe.

I thought this stuff was pretty cool, don't you think?

I saw a...

... Praying Mantis!! Earlier this year I raised baby Praying Mantises even though more than half died, the ones that did live we let out in different areas. So anyway, I saw one today, so then we looked up some stuff (Google of course), and guessed that it was probably one of the ones that we raised.

I thought that was really cool.

We've got...BUTTERFLIES!!!!!!!

YAY!!! We have butterflies! I'm so happy! Anyway, our butterflies hatched! (You say: 'Ya, that "wasn't" obvious at all!') I'm going to pick up from the post titled 'Painted Lady Butterflies'. So they turned into chrysalids (the caterpillers) May 9th. And then, exactly 1 week later (May 16th) they hatched! Anyway, every morning we feed them with sugar-water that we sprinkle on the flowers that we have in a jar with water in it. So today when I was feeding them, I got a drop of sugar-water on my finger, and gently touched the end of one of the drinking butterflies' "straw" with the drop. And you know what? It put one foot on the finger, and it drank. Then I began to pull away, and it held on to my finger!!!!!!!!!! I was amazed how light it was!So that's what the butterflies have been doing!