Baby naturalist

On Friday, Charlotte and I got our learning on. We headed up to Landis Arboretum for a "sounds of the spring night" nature walk. When the leader realized I had an infant strapped to my chest, he said, that's a really junior naturalist!

We listened to bird calls at dusk, and I finally figured out what a cardinal sounds like. Then we learned about the rod and cone cells in our eyes, and headed into the woods to try and call in an owl. We ended up seeing a massive great horned owl. Holy smokes they are big! Did you know that they can have up to a five foot wingspan? That's only a few inches shorter than me.

After that teachable moment, we headed down to one of the many ponds to listen to frogs.

Clearly, Charlotte was enthralled.

Once it got dark, we saw an Io moth, as well as the first fireflies of the season. I can't wait til Charlotte is old enough to actually, you know, stay awake and learn something on one of these walks.