My Phenology Calendar

                                            
               My mom and I recently ordered a Phenology calendar.  Phenology is the study of
periodic life-cycle events in nature that are influenced by climate and seasonal change, such as wild life emerging from hibernation, birds nesting or migrating, and even flowers blooming. I thought it was pretty cool.
                                                             Here is a picture of the front of it.

                                       

 

This is how you use it. First you flip to the month it is. Then you look up the date and see what is happening that day. Its pretty easy.

This is a picture of what the inside looks like. As you can see it says the date, year and what is happening that day. For instance, on June 4th, painted turtles begin laying their eggs. On June 6th, bullfrogs begin calling.  And on June 15th, Black-eyed Susan blooms. It also has a big picture of an animal, bird or an insect for each month, and has information on the animal or insect.
                                                          

And at the beginning of the calendar, it tells you a little bit about Phenology.  My calender is for Wisconsin, but maybe their is one for the state you live in. 


                    FUN FACT: Did you know that the cheetah is the fastest animal on earth and can run up to 70-75 mph in short bursts!

 

Winter Backyard Birds

 

Wild Turkey's

One weekend in February, my family and I took a little road trip to southern Wisconsin.  We saw a ton of wild turkeys on the way there and on the way back.  I could not believe how many we saw!  The first two pictures are from our trip.

 Aren't they cool?

                                          Here are some wild turkeys in the open farm field.

 

This is a group of wild turkeys, also known as a rafter, a gobble and sometimes a gang.

Here's a mother hen and her babies.  A baby turkey is called a Poult.

This is a hen sitting on her eggs.  A mother hen lays up to a clutch of 10-14 eggs, usually one per day, and are incubated for at least 28 days.

A turkey can fly short distances, up to 60 miles per hour, and while they fly, they stay close to the ground.

Aren't they interesting animals?

This is a male turkey.  A male turkey is called a Tom.  Male turkeys are larger than the females, and they have areas of red, purple, green, copper, bronze and gold iridescence on their wings.  The hens have much duller feathers in brown and gray.  Turkey prefer a habitat of open woodland and wooded grasslands.  They are often seen in pastures, fields and nearby orchards.  Turkeys are omnivores.  Meaning they eat both plants and meat.  They will eat acorns, nuts, berries, insects and even visit back yard bird feeders.  They sometimes also eat amphibians and small reptiles such as lizards and snakes, but prefer to search croplands after a harvest for left over seed.  That's what the turkey's we saw this weekend were doing.  They were in the farmers fields looking for corn.  Have you ever seen a wild turkey?

FUN FACT:  Did you know the Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be the national bird instead of the bald eagle?

My First Nature Post

Welcome to Margaret's Nature Blog!!
Hi, I'm Margaret.  I am a nine 9 year old girl from Illinois.  I enjoy all things that include nature.  Like birdwatching, camping, fishing, and going for long rides in the car with my family to look for animals.  I also love going to my Grandma and Grandpa's cabin and building fairy houses, and gardens.  Follow along with me as I share my experiences with you.  I will post pictures, information and other things that I hope you will enjoy. 

This picture was taken by me last year at the Chicago Botanical Garden on Mother's Day.  These flowers are called Poppies.  Aren't they beautiful?

Here are some closeups of some beautiful poppies.

 

 

This is a little secret garden.

 

 

Here's a little stream of water flowing through a garden of different kinds of plants.



I see ferns, Iris, and what I think is Jacob's Ladder.

 Here's a tree that I saw an Oriole in. I tried to get a picture of him but he flew away too fast.

                                                   Here's what an oriole looks like.

 

                
                 Here's a Painted Lady butterfly on a rock probably sunning or relaxing in the sun. 

                I used the butterfly fandex that I got at the gift shop to help me identify the butterfly.

 

I will share more pictures of my trip to the Chicago Botanical Garden another time.  Hope you enjoyed my first post.  For more information on the Chicago Botanical Garden, click here.

FUN FACT:  Did you know that oriole's like grape jelly and oranges?