A Second Look--August 26, 2015

I am going to continue last week's talk about caterpillars with the mention of a wonderful book, The Secret Life of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar by Laurence Pringle, I found recently at the library. It is centered on the life of Bella, a woolly bear.

The The Secret Life of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar strikes a good balance between simple text and beautiful pictures while telling Bella's story and can be enjoyed by all ages. With the very young, the stunning pictures provide ample opportunity to talk about woolly bears, plants, and other animals. With older kids, you can either read the text to them or they can read it themselves. And while a lot can be learned from the actual story, there is a two page summary with vocabulary in the back that is useful for older kids and adults.

From a woolly bear post from two years ago. I guess I've been
interested in woolly bears for a long time.

One of my pet peeves about some children's books about nature is that while the generalities are correct, the details may not be--like putting the wrong kind of leaves on a flower. This book avoided that by being reviewed by entomologists from the Smithsonian, Carnegie Melon Museum of Natural History, and the University of Florida.

So, can you tell I liked this book? If you're looking for a fall nature study or just want to know a little more about the fuzzy caterpillars that are supposed to predict the severity of the winter, this is a good place to start.

Now onto the business at hand.

Here are a few things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Day lily

Spirea

I have seen a lot of goldfinches around recently both on the feeder and on their natural feeders--coneflower seed heads.Can you find the one in this picture?

This is the same picture as above but zoomed in around the bird. Now do you see her?

Flower longhorn beetle, This was a fairly large bug measuring around 1 1/4"

Coneflowers

The last couple of days we've had low humidity and blue skies. Wonderful.