Label: Animals

September 20, 2012

It’s Thursday, so it is SeeMore Explorers day! Last week, we used an observation log to try to figure out what kind of animal we were seeing. But some weeks, I just want to go somewhere and enjoy many things I can see. I may not know exactly what they all are, but I can enjoy the experience of being out in nature.

That’s what I did last weekend when I visited the Innisfree Garden, in Dutchess County, outside New York City. Innisfree Garden was created in the hollow surrounding Tyrrel Lake - a large, deep natural lake. The garden keepers pump water from the lake through a huge system of underground pipes, so that there is water everywhere you look in the garden. There are fountains, pools, streams, waterfalls, and sculptures that spout water (you can walk under them on a hot day!).

I walked all the way around Tyrrel Lake, and here’s what I saw:

A lovely lake full of lily pads, puffy cumulus clouds dotting the blue sky.

A turtle sunning on a log.

A pink lily flower, one of the last of the summer.

A green frog just before he leaped with a squeak to try to catch a dragonfly (he missed).

A water sculpture shooting streams of droplets into the air.

A rotting log, covered with moss, full of life inside.

A blue heron gingerly wading through the lily pads on delicate, long legs.

A mossy path leading to more beautiful sights.

My lovely wife Liz, smiling at me.

September 19, 2012

Good Morning, and welcome to Writing Wednesday!

This is a fictional story about a 12-year-old boy named Alex Winter who is flying down to the Amazon jungle to visit his parents, who are anthropologists working there. When the small plane in which Alex is traveling crashes, he ends up living among an Amazon tribe, and keeping a diary about his experience.

This book is designed in a very unusual way. First, it uses handwriting (supposedly Alex’s handwriting in his diary) instead of printed text. It also incorporates drawings, doodles, and actual photographs of the Yonomami people. We’d like you to read this excerpt from Amazon Diary and as you read, think about ways in which how the story looks affects how you understand and enjoy what you are reading.

From AMAZON DIARY, by Hudson Talbott and Mark Greenberg

Your Assignment: Think about how the illustrations and pictures contribute to the story. How is this different than other books you have read? Then, write a reflection about how using diverse (different kinds of) media affects a piece of writing.

When you are finished, click on the yellow "Comments" below to post your writing. Enjoy today’s visit to the Amazon!

Note to Educators: Today’s Writing Wednesday exercise is designed to use in support of CCSS Reading/Literature Anchor Standard #7: Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem). Amazon Diary is one of the newly recorded and reformatted eBooks available in the StarWalk Kids digital collection. Click here for more information about signing up for a free, 60-day trial for your school.

September 4, 2012

This is Caddy, a baby wombat, who was rescued from her mother’s pouch after her mother was hit by a car. Wombats are marsupials, a group of mammals that are known for carrying and feeding their young in a pouch. Volunteers from a wildlife shelter in Melbourne, Australia took her in and made her a cloth pouch to live in. It is hung off the side of a crib, just above the ground, so that it feels to Caddy as though she is in her mother’s pouch.

Caddy is sharing the nursery with several other rescued wombats that are her size and being fed a special milk mixture from a bottle. After she is old enough, she will be released back into the wild. 

Photo: Craig Borrow / Newspix via Rex USA

August 16, 2012

An old favorite of mine is back in print. Dover Books has just published a new print edition of THE SECRET CLOCKS. In it, I look at all sorts of unexpected animal behaviors and answer questions like: Why do some plants blossom only during the day? How do certain birds know when and where to migrate? And what about humans? Why are some of us "early birds" (like my wife) and other of us "night owls" (like myself).

I always loved this book, and I’m so pleased to see it available again! We will also be publishing a digital edition, with narration, later this year.

July 12, 2012

My wife, Liz, tends to get a little grouchy about the deer that nibble on the plants and flowers in her garden. I understand how she feels, but we live in the country, after all, so we need to share our space with the wild creatures who live there.

Last week, I spotted not one but two baby deer, also known as "fawns." They settled in to munch some grass right next to the garden gate. It is hard to be mad at anything that is this cute, don’t you think?

What are you seeing in the outdoors this summer? Even if you live in a big city, like I did when I was growing up, there are still animals, plants and weather all around you. As you come to my blog this summer, you will find me posting photographs and writing about what I see in nature. It won’t be on a regular schedule during the summer months, but I will post photos whenever I see something that I think my readers will be interested in.

I love to hear from you all, too. If you take a photograph of an animal, plant or cool weather that you want to share, click on "SEND US PHOTOS/VIDEO" (in yellow at the top of every page on this website) and send it my way.

Don’t forget to download and print out copies of my free "Summer Vacation Science Observation Log." This simple form helps you write down all the details of what you see, so that you can figure out what kind of animal, plant, or weather you are watching. Click here to see an example of how I identified the beautiful Rosy Maple Moth using the observation log.

It’s summer, a great time both for reading and for exploring the outdoors!

July 3, 2012

Look at this amazing animal that I found on my kitchen door a few days ago! This is a Rosy Maple Moth (scientific Latin name Dryocampa rubicunda). It is called a Rosy Maple Moth because its caterpillar (called the green-striped mapleworm) eats the leaves of maple and oak trees.

When you walk outside in the morning, you will find sleeping moths all around you. Look at leaves, screen doors, the side of your house, tree trunks. Most moths are nocturnal ("nocturnal" means that they are awake at night and sleep during the day), so you can find them and photograph them during the daytime.

How did I know the name of this moth? I have studied animals all my life and know a lot about them, but that doesn’t mean I automatically know the name of everything that I see. However, if I look at all its different qualities and observe very carefully, I usually have enough information to look it up and find out what it is. You can do that, too, by using my Summer Vacation Science Observation Log. It is a sheet that you can download here, and when you answer all the questions and fill it out, you will usually be able to figure out exactly what wild creature you are observing.

Here is my observation log for the Rosy Maple Moth. Look at all the information I got, just by looking and observing carefully.

Download your own copy of the Summer Vacation Science Observation log, print out a bunch of copies, and see how many cool things you can observe this summer. I bet it will be a lot!

April 24, 2012

Scientists studying Orcas in the seas off eastern Russia have spotted an all-white killer whale, and have named him "Iceberg." 

Baby white orcas have been spotted in the past, including in Iceberg’s pod, but no one has ever seen one that grew to adulthood. Iceberg was photographed while he was swimming with 12 members of his pod off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

"In many ways, Iceberg is a symbol of all that is pure, wild and extraordinarily exciting about what is out there in the ocean waiting to be discovered," said Erich Hoyt, co-director of the Far East Russia Orca Project. "The challenge is to keep the ocean healthy so that such surprises are always possible."

Photo: E. Lazareva/FEROP via AFP 

April 17, 2012

When we celebrate Earth Day, we are also recognizing the beauty of the plants and animals that share our planet with us.

Students often ask me how I get all my photographs of big, dangerous animals.

Sometimes, it is just as tricky to get a photo of a tiny, harmless animal like this one. The photographer who shot this was a scientist exploring life in the ocean deep, and she (wearing a wet suit to keep her warm) was also swimming in the frigid waters underneath the Arctic ice pack ice. Brrrrrrrrrrr! 

Photo: Elisabeth Calvert/NOAA

Take a digital photo showing an Earth treasure around your school or home that makes you appreciate our planet. Click on Send Us Photos/Video (in the yellow bar at the top of every page) and follow the instructions to upload it to the website. We will publish your Earth Day photos and videos on Seymour’s blog, and each person or class that uploads a photo will be entered into the drawing to win a personally autographed book from Seymour Simon!

April 13, 2012

My readers love animals, and when you all write about Earth Day, you often write about the fact that you wish you could help animals. You can, if you look for opportunities in your own community.

The Manns worked with local police to be sure they could safely help the salamanders. The police department has installed two flashing lights and a lower speed limit sign at the salamander crossing, and drivers get a ticket for breaking the speed limit. On rainy spring nights you will find the Manns, along with other volunteers, scooping salamanders into plastic containers, carrying them safely across the road to their breeding pond.

Thomas Mann, who is a zoologist with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, would like to see the state close this two-mile stretch of highway for the salamander breeding season each year. But until that happens, he, his wife and a handful of other volunteers are out there on rainy nights, trying to make a difference.

What kind of animals need help in your community? Could your local ASPCA use volunteers? Is there a wildlife sanctuary anywhere nearby? Or you could call your local Cooperative Extension to find out where volunteers are needed. Work with your family or your teacher, and I bet you will find a way to help!

Photos: James Patterson/The New York Times 

April 11, 2012

Good morning, and welcome to Writing Wednesday, where every week there is a new opportunity to publish your creative writing on the Seymour Science blog. This week, we are asking you to read an excerpt from Seymour Simon’s book GLOBAL WARMING, research your own facts and explain in your own words the point that he is making.

Your assignment: Can you find facts to support what Seymour Simon is saying on this page? Use other books in your library, articles about global warming from Seymour’s blog, or other Internet sources to learn about the melting of the Arctic ice. Write a few paragraphs that use your own words and information that you have found to either argue for or against the idea that the survival of polar bears is threatened by the melting of the Arctic ice.

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