Sunday, August 31, 2014

Arboretum Photos Part 1

A 3rd Nikon DSLR for us, photo from last month!!
It is somewhat crazy how one's own decision making easily changes. Take for instance this weekend. 

I often intend to spend time in nature aware of my surroundings, studying my surroundings, and opening my senses to the experiences around me. Other times I chase a reported bird sighting, where it may be the first time I've seen that species or one I've seen before but am interested in seeing again. Less often I target specific bird species by searching appropriate habitat, or lastly I grab a camera with hopes of catching a good photo or two.  Many of those reasons disappear partially or completely when the girls are with. 

This Labor Day weekend I asked the girls to complete a rainbow challenge. The intent was to have the take a photo of an animal of each color of the rainbow. We returned to the Overland Park Arboretum in search of the birds, insects, reptiles, arachnids, and amphibians variety we had seen earlier this summer. Before we left the car however, the girls had decided it would be too tough to find anything purple or blue, and instead modified their challenge to find five different colors. They were great sports and spent the better part of an hour in their search.

I'm not sure what she was taking a picture of here.

Below are Danielle's photos.


 
Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a Painted Lady, species from my two favorite classes of animals.
    
Three Skipper sp. butterfly photos.
A Cricket Frog and Grasshopper sp. from the sidewalk.
  
A Fly (Villa Sp) and Arachnid (Harvestman sp perhaps Leiobunum vittatum)
Christine pointed out this hiding Five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) to Danielle. 

Below are Michaela's photos.


  
The Goldenrod Soldier Beetles (Chauliognathus Pennsylvanicus) were everywhere, as were ants.
    
A Black-legged Meadow Katydid and two Skipper Butterfly species.
  
A Cabbage White Butterfly and another visitor to the Hummingbird feeder.

It is fun to watch the girls notice things, slow down to take pictures, and to look through them on the computer afterwards.  Their perspective is quite different than mine. I did not get many photos on this day, beyond the one below. I did not quite get my fill of the surroundings either, but I can always go back again for myself.

Friday, August 1, 2014

King Tut Exhibit

When we got to king Tut mom asked "Was it you or Danielle that thought they wouldn't like King Tut?"  I said, "Danielle".  When we got there asked "Can we go see something different?" Then Dad and Danielle went downstairs and we got headphones that tell you about King Tut as we walked through (the exhibits). 
Then we went to a show that tells you about King Tut and the people who found where the mummy of King Tut was buried.  (Carter) looked for a long, long, long time before they found the treasure and mummy. 
All of the rooms were mostly filled with gold to help the King after he was dead.  He was buried deep, deep, deep in the ground.  They had to take off a bunch of coffins because he was buried inside all of them.  Then they put it on a boat that was on the Nile River to go to the museum.
They found more than one treasure!