A Sense of Wonder Continues........

        It has been a while since I've written on the blog. Starting at a new school has occupied a lot of my time.
          I also wondered whether or not to continue the blog as it was so connected to my time as a teacher at P.S. 230, a school that has shaped me as an educator and whose students will always be close to my heart.
          I believe in the interconnectedness of everything, so the blog will continue--preserving the link I already share with former students at P.S. 230 and establishing a relationship with my new students at The Brooklyn School of Inquiry.
          So, if you already know me from P.S. 230, check in from time to time and if you are new to the blog, welcome. Visit often and indulge in a sense of wonder.

New Beginnings

A luna moth holds tight to me during
a trip to Tennessee this summer

The summer is winding down and we are all getting ready for the start of a new school year. Some of you are going on to middle school while others are moving up a grade. As you know, I will also be facing a new challenge. While I will no longer be at P.S. 230, please remember that I will always carry each and every one of you in my heart, and I wish you much happiness as you move through life's chapters. You have fulfilled me in many, many ways, both as a teacher and as a human being. I hope I have done the same for many of you.

I'm not sure yet what will happen to this blog, but I will keep you all posted. Love Ms. Seitz

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: