Silks in the air

Lovely clear blue skies have made us alert to a very strange occurrence: there are long spider silks trailing everywhere in the air! We've found them draped over sign posts, tree branches, buildings, but most amazing of all is when we'd look up and see long trails of threads drifting quietly along.

Spider silks en mass? I'd never heard of it before, let alone seen it. We probably haven't had the right conditions to see this so clearly in the past, but it's been happening the last few days.

I phoned my girlfriend this morning, and our conversation lead to her saying that she'd noticed them too. Then the question was asked, "What type of spider is it?" And another, "Where have they come from?"

Naturally, I couldn't resist the investigation, and here's what I found: a rare airborne migration has been reported in Tasmania. Could it be the same thing we're experiencing in Victoria? This article is a very informative read.

Another article from England shows a picture not unlike scenes around our area.

Well, learning about spiders ballooning was all new to me until now. I love how observation brings about the questions to help us learn more. (smile!)

A 30 second You Tube showing a spider getting it's silks ready to take off:




Part 1 of 5 documentary (5 mins):

Turning pasta into butterflies

Mariposa (our social butterfly) really likes doing craft activities, so if I can incorporate that into her learning she's very happy.

Last week we learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly, using Sonlight's Science 3 program. We used the recommended book from the "Real Science for Kids" series, by Gravitas Publications. This was a series of science books I was actually looking into using, so when I found that it was part of the recommended texts Sonlight scheduled, I was very happy. We began using the book at the beginning of the year for Science 3, digressed to another main text, but we're back to this one for a while again now.

An activity suggestion made by Sonlight was to make a butterfly's life cycle mobile, but I decided to vary it a little and use another idea I'd seen and Maestro had done years ago. We used pieces of pasta and an egg carton to make a linear model of a butterfly's life cycle.  First, cut the egg carton so you have four 'cells', then let the child paint it the desired colour.  (Funny .. Mariposa has gone primarily with greens, but Maestro had a deep blue theme going when he did this.)

I didn't have any small macaroni, so a small glass bead was substituted here. It's been glued (craft glue, or hot glue gun with SUPERVISION!) onto a silk leaf, but a real leaf could be used.

Twisty spiral pasta represents the caterpillar (which, Mariposa reminded me, actually eats the egg first, before munching away on the leaves). Some white paint was added to try and represent stripes.  If you have a pipe-cleaner, this could also be stuck in between the ridges.

A pretty shell pasta is chosen next, providing us with an example of a chrysalis. We glued it to a twig and let it dry before sticking it into the egg carton cup 'window'.

Finally, butterfly pasta for the actual butterfly. Both the chrysalis and butterfly were decorated with felt tip pens (Mariposa's choice), but paints could also be used.

We'll blu-tac this to the wall, with a few pictures found on THIS SITE; a pretty reminder of Spring which isn't too far away now.

We're hoping to go on the hunt for some caterpillars again and nurture them into butterflies. We did this last year, but found that we'd actually collected moth caterpillars instead, which wove lovely cocoons then emerged with pretty brown and orange wings. We used a kit I'd purchased. Actually, you would have seen it in use when we caught the locust last year. I'm tempted to look into purchasing an actual chrysalis kit, to ensure we do raise butterflies, but we'll do a nature hunt again first.  Hopefully our buddleia bush will attract many more this Spring.

Should these butterfly enquiries take off, here's a wonderful site to entice children's curiosity: The Children's Butterfly Site.  I've got it bookmarked for Mariposa when we have time to sit at the computer together.

LOL!!!  ~ I'm back again, editing to add that I was just over at Crafty Crow and guess what? She's recommending a site to make a balancing butterfly.  Have a look HERE.  We're definitely going to do this activity (smiles!!)

• Have a look at Cee Lew's post about their pasta butterflies!

Wordless Wednesday

Just hovering!

We learnt another amazing nature study lesson today. It was inspired by the fact that as soon as we walk out our back door, we're immediately surrounded by flies.

They're everywhere! They're especially hovering around the roses and pine trees. Well, hubby had tried to figure it out last week by looking for dead rodents that cat may have left under the pergola.

Well, dear Duffy was found NOT GUILTY.


Nothing suspicious under the pergola at all.

Then we thought about Midgy. Maybe he'd left a deposit somewhere. Cleaning up his mess may help.
Well, he was also found to be NOT GUILTY!

I found the culprit this morning. LOOK!

.. or rather, LOOK!

Actually, I think it's my fault. I'd neglected my roses and they're full of aphids, and the aphids are attracting HOVER FLIES!

Trying be quick enough to catch a photo was a bit of fun. :)

Well, that will teach me for not paying enough attention, but at least I know that we're still getting rid of a garden pest by natural means. Hover flies lay their eggs in aphid colonies so that their lavae can feast there. Meanwhile, they're great pollinators.

So, I'm no longer going to complain about the current number of flies hanging around my back door. They're doing a great job!!

Update: I'm going to make up a batch of homemade white oil. I found a recipe here.

Just thought I'd hop in!!

We were most surprised to arrive home from an outing and found that we had an unexpected visitor waiting in our hallway, patiently gazing in the mirror. Quite surprised indeed!

Well, we could hardly allow this 'stranger' to go hopping into mischief all over the house, so we gently coaxed it into a jar, and from there into our butterfly kit house.

We've had plenty of small grasshoppers enjoying a good nibble in the veggie garden, but this was no small visitor. This one is about as long as my index finger. In fact, I've measured it's body (head to abdomen, so not including wings) and it's 55mm long.

Going through some websites, I believe we have a 'Spur-throated locust' (Austracris guttulosa) going by the description and markings. It is brown in colour and dark stripes and has the characteristic long triangle under the eyes. This also appears to be female (also explains why she was looking in the mirror, lol!)

This is one of our three native locusts. I found a very interesting write up of it's biology and behaviour to read to the children later. I've also had a look at the Locust Bulletin and noted that to have one reach our area is quite rare, so I should be quite pleased that we've had the opportunity to actually see a locust now and learn so much about them.