Rain didn't spoil last weekend's Flutterby-ology

Last Sunday afternoon was our Flutterby-ology class. The threat of rain held down our attendance and the real rain did shorten our great butterfly hunt outside but we managed to find five species of the Lepidopterians. 

Flutterby Fern

We then moved back indoors for the most adorable piece of performance art depicting the complete metamorphosis of a monarch butterfly and its migration to Mexico by our youngest member, three-year-old Fern. An improv star was born. 

Please note the charming Phia with Blue Morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides) wings in the top photo.

Our next Learn-a-Lot Class, Spider-ology, is scheduled for Sunday, October 23 at 2 p.m.

Thanks to the Moms for supplying the Flutterby-themed food treats and to Amanda Davis, Linda Knott and Clare Dattilo for the photos. 

- Stephen Lyn Bales 

Family Nature Club @ Ijams stalks the invertebrates

The Family Nature Club @ Ijams recently held their Invertebrates Workshop. We’re talking insects, spiders, millipedes, centipedes and their ilk. And it was a great afternoon, albeit a bit hot, to search for our quarry.

Here's a look back at some of our other outings, click: Aquatics and Birds.

We are now registering families for the 2017 Edition of Family Nature Club @ Ijams. For information call Lauren, (865) 577-4717, ext. 135.

Here's a look at the invertebrate fun.

Supplied photos by moms Linda Knott and Amanda Davis.

- Stephen Lyn Bales

Prize catches: Riley with walkingstick bug, Sam with velvet ant

Damselfly (best guess: blue-fronted dancer)

Friendly butterfly finds Jarrod and Amanda

Are Ijams centipedes really this big?

No caption necessary

We avoided those with stingers

Stalking a silvery checkerspot

A millipede in the hand

Sorting our catch with Josie

 

Rachel and Judah with friend

She is really not so bad

Riley and Lucy with tarantula

Rehabilitated green heron and mink released at Ijams

In the 1920s, long before this was a nature center open to the public, H.P. and Alice Ijams began to call their property a bird sanctuary. Today, almost a century later, it’s still a wildlife refuge.

Local wildlife rehabilitator Lynne McCoy recently brought two orphaned animals she had raised. Totally healthy, it was time to set them free but they were two very different animals. McCoy released a green heron and a young mink at the Lotus Pond H.P. built for his four daughters in 1922.

Thank you to Lynne and Steve and photographers Chuck Cooper and Evan Kidd for capturing the moments.

- Stephen Lyn Bales