I Love a Perfect Day for a Hike
It wasn’t exactly the perfect day for a hike. It was 94 degrees after all. But I had Daisy all to myself, and she was excited about going to the nature center, and that made it the perfect day. First, though, we had to de-glam.
Put the boots back on…
…and go.
Daisy and I enjoyed a fabulous little afternoon together. We checked out a backpack from Sandy Creek Nature Center. I don’t know why I’d never thought to do it before. It’s great - binoculars, bug observing devices, magnifying glasses, a journal, insect bingo game, and a bird call identifier. Daisy loved having the backpack. Every five feet she’d say, “Got the backpack? Got the binoclolors? Great.” Everytime we passed a bench we had to stop and unpack to see what we had in there.
The first bugs we found were red bugs eating a leaf. Had to put them in the device for a closer look.
Do you see the little inchworm there? Awesome. We were pretty excited that the magnifying glass showed us something new.
We walked down to the end of the wooden trail where there is sometimes a stream, depending on how much rain we’ve had lately. We’ve seen it so that it floods the whole platform, and we’ve seen it like it was today - almost totally dry. Daisy asked if we could walk in the stream bed. I was hesitant at first, but then realized I had no good reason to be, so off we went.
The first thing we saw were tracks.
Daisy correctly identified the deer tracks, and she guessed that the second set of tracks belonged to either a raccoon or a skunk. She was really hopeful it was a skunk.
We saw water striders and tadpoles in the few puddles that remained. (Note the beloved red and black backpack.) I think I was way more excited about the tadpoles than she was, but she did tell me that they’re magical because they turn into frogs.
Next bug to observe was a moth who was flapping her wings but getting nowhere. She traveled quite a bit with us today.
Daisy navigated the bends in the stream bed, climbed over branches, stopped to observe every few feet, picked flowers for me, and of course, inventoried the backpack at regular intervals.
Our animal sightings: chipmunks, red bugs, inchworm, water striders, tadpoles, a small toad, a blue tailed skink, a green anole, another lizard, and a really really long thick rat snake. Oh! And giant, giant acorn caps! I think some large fairies are in our future. Very exciting day.
Post-script
I added this post to an outdoor play link up at An Amazing Child. Lots of great ideas there.
