“Turn it over!”
“What’s on the other side?”
“Where’s the bones?”
Apparently, although the kids had seen animal skulls before, they’d never seen a fur. One of their teachers explained how scientists preserve pelts of dead mammals to learn more about the animals and to teach others about them.
I pointed out that skunks have warning coloration, which is the opposite of camouflage. Instead of blending into the background, their striking black and white coloration warns other animals that they are dangerous, and not to mess with them. The scientific term for this is aposematic.
In keeping with the theme of spots and stripes, I decided that we should look for these patterns while walking. Finding stripes and spots in nature at the tail end of winter in Maryland took a little work! Frankly, everything looked brown where we were walking, with a tiny pop of color here and there.
I did find spring flowers along the roadside: delicate white Snowdrops and flashy Glory of the Snow. Aren’t those great names for flowers?
We noticed stripes in the tree rings of cut trees, along the bark of some tree trunks, and in little lines in the ice at the pond. We found spots of bird poop and in a series of tree slices.
But the most exciting find came when one of the teachers rolled a rotten log** and there was a yellow-spotted salamander resting beneath it! We squealed and took pictures and one of the teachers mentioned that she was going to forward this find to another preschool class and to the scientists working at the mansion. We rolled the log back to protect the salamander. I told the kids that this was really cool because they got to be citizen scientists - everyday folks whose findings help scientists.
It was a great nature walk!
** Always remember to roll a log toward you, in case something underneath comes running out!
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