School Garden Caterpillar Growing and Growing and Growing

Just before school let out for the summer, I took one last look at some of the creatures attracted to the school garden. There were several Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars and some eggs on the garden's fennel plants. Fennel and dill are hosts plants for the caterpillars. This is what they eat. I brought one of the caterpillars home and have been having a blast feeding it and watching it grow from a tiny squiggly thing to a plump, colorful, fully-grown caterpillar. Any day now, it will become a chrysalis, so stayed tuned!

CAM CRAZY!

Tasfiya just gave me an update on some of the cams I've written about in earlier posts. According to Tasfiya, Kaloakulua, the Hawaiian albatross, fledged on June 24. That is about 148 days after hatching. Kaloakulua will now spend the next 3-5 years traveling the open oceans before returning to land.

And one of the three baby hawks at Cornell was injured after it fledged on June 14. While resting on a nearby greenhouse, it's wing was caught when an automatic vent opened up. The hawk has had surgery and is doing well.

If you want to check out some other cams, click here. This site is featuring, among other animals, a snowy owl and her six chicks nesting in Alaska. What's nice about Alaska is during summer the sun doesn't set until some time after 11 pm so there's plenty of time to check in on the chicks.

Trip to Jamaica Bay

At the recent Sip Into Spring auction to raise funds for P.S. 230, I donated an afternoon of nature with Ms. Seitz to be auctioned off. The three lucky winners were Bethany, Ella, and Cameron and today we went out and explored Jamaica Bay, including the refuge in Broad Channel.

The weather was amazing, perfect really, and we saw lots of birds, including ibis, laughing gulls, tri-colored heron, tree swallows, ospreys, great egrets and cowbirds.

Osprey parents with their young

We also saw prickly pear cactus in bloom and milkweed covered in orange aphids. We found several diamondback terrapin nests that had been ransacked by raccoons that ate the eggs, leaving the leathery shells just lying in the sand. We saw more poison ivy than we wanted to, but it was very good that we kept recognizing it so we could stay far enough away.

Dreaded Poison Ivy

The girls brought home some nature finds, including horseshoe crab shells, clam shells, snails, terrapin egg shells, and ribbed mussels. It was a great day!

Inspired by the Flatbush Gardener

Today was a busy day. First, I spent some morning time searching for pollinators in my own garden and I found a bunch--photos below! Some I recognized, like the earwig (third photo), others are a complete mystery to me. I plan on trying to identify them later this week.

The Flatbush Gardener

Sweat Bee on Black-Eyed Susas (Halictus ligatus)

We dissected a Day Lily to see the male and female parts.

This is a pink variety of Evening Primose, which is usually yellow

To garden is to be an optimist, to believe in tomorrow. While there may be some immediate satisfaction in a garden, for example, the siting of a hummingbird moth or a praying mantis, so much of gardening requires patience and waiting to see what blooms and how it fits into the garden as a whole. And contrary to the belief of some, gardening isn't just a solitary passion. I was reminded of this today when a gardener named Chris, who calls himself the Flatbush Gardener, opened his garden up to a bunch of strangers who, like him, just love gardening.

Chris giving his tour

Zebra Spider (Salticus scenicus)

His garden is special because it is a pollinator garden and Chris knows so much about the insects that visit his flowers. The visit has inspired me to slowly transform my own home garden into a pollinator garden awash in native plants. Here are some photos I took today:

IN MEMORY OF REX

It is with great sadness to say that my beloved turtle, Rex, died this morning. His age was unknown, but he was at least 10 years old, maybe as old as 20. Rex had been acting lethargic the last few days and wasn't eating much. I was worried about him, so I kept checking on him throughout the day. When I got to school this morning, he looked fine from a distance, but on closer inspection, and then with a gentle nudge to the shell, I realized he was just floating, not swimming. He was dead.

I reacted emotionally, not just with tears, but with audible grieving. It may seem odd to mourn an amphibian this way, but Rex was special. I got Rex eight years ago, when I first became a teacher. My first job was at P.S. 38 in Brooklyn. An anonymous donor sent Rex to me through Donorschoose.org. He arrived at the school in a box through the mail! I remember picking him up at the school office, along with three other large turtles. (I gave two away and one ran away in my yard; but Rex was always by my side). Rex was named through a contest I held at P.S. 38. Students suggested various names and then voted on their favorite.

Of course, Rex came with me when I got a job at P.S. 230, and has been with me for the seven years I've been teaching at P.S. 230. He wasn't the friendliest turtle sometimes. He actually bit a student and wasn't welcoming to other turtles I tried keeping in his tank. He probably had his reasons, but I don't know what they are other than that he is simply a territorial male turtle who defends himself when he thinks he has to.

When school was out for the summer, Rex always came home with me, although he did spend one summer in the school basement, where Matt, the custodian, took care of him. Other people also watched Rex when I went on vacation, but as soon as I got back, Rex came home to me.

I was going to clean out Rex's tank on Friday and bring him home again, but this won't happen now. Perhaps Rex's death is closure for me as I leave P.S. 230 for new challenges at another Brooklyn school. I will miss watching Rex just swimming around being a turtle or eating the occasional goldfish I'd throw in his tank to be reminded of the food chain. I will miss him basking beneath his turtle light and staring out at students as they took the New York State science test. I will miss the simple hum of his tank filter and the fishy smell of his pelleted food. Most of all, I will just miss Rex.

VISIT TO BROOKLYN GRANGE AT THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD

Arriving at the farm

If you want to visit a farm, look no further than....Brooklyn, New York! That's what some of P.S. 230's fifth-graders learned during a recent after school trip to Brooklyn Grange. The farm, which opened in 2012, is 12 stories up on Building 3 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It's a commercial farm, which means it grows its produce to sell. Some area restaurants are buyers and the farm has a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. As a CSA member,  you pay a membership fee in the winter, which helps to support the farmer during the growing season. Then each week, the farmer delivers freshly-picked produce to Brooklyn, where its picked up by the member.

The farm also has an apiary, which is another word for bee hives. The honey made by the bees is also sold by the farm. Fresh Brooklyn honey!

The colorful boxes in the background house the bees

There are rows and rows of vegetables, especially all kinds of salad mixes

The farm overlooks the waterfront. After all, this used to be the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Our tour guide, Nicki, was quite knowledgeable

Sarah and Maddy sharing their worms

 We also got to poke around the farm's worm bin. Students picked their favorite worms and watched them squiggle and wiggle before putting them back.

Tasfiya seems to like her worm

Fatima is protecting her worm from the sun

Sanjida shows off her worm for the camera

Hasib checking out Tasifya's new friend

Robayah wants in on the worm fun

Worms make people happy, right Taosif?

Kaseng and Taosif share worms

Nicki then took everyone over to the farm's chicken coop. Here she explained that egg colors vary...blue, brown, beige white...and that is because of the color of the hen's earlobes. I never even thought about chicken's having earlobes!

Estrella has a question for Nicki

Students also got to taste some lemony sorrel and spicy arugula and smelled licorice-scented anise and refreshing mint!

Yes, that's the Empire State Building in the background. I bet no Iowa farm can top this backdrop!

The farm was amazing and so large. And this isn't the only farm run by Brooklyn Grange. Their flagship farm is in Long Island City, Queens, where they host free open houses on the weekend.

 Click here for more information.