Bowdoin Central School - Rocks and Sand Library Day

 Today was a success over at Bowdoin Central School. Eight K-1 students participated in the library day presentation.

Shannon read the book while I passed around the treasures that were talked about on each page. The kids were really engaged and loved each of the items.

We went outside to smash the geodes and to write on the sidewalk with limestone. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos while we were outside. But, it went great!

Shannon also took the kids on a tour of each of the tables that housed most of the activities of the day. This table had rocks that could be touched and admired through magnifiers.

This table had the sand and funnels set up for the kids to work with.

They loved layering the sand into their necklaces. One boy said, "I love this. We did this at Disney World!"

Painting rocks was a popular activity. Neighbor Carla showed up to help and was assigned to monitor the fun at this table.

The kids were very proud of their rocks. By the way, all of these rocks hail from Nova Scotia! Rockhound Shannon did the collecting of them for the program. The kids took their "Memory Rocks" home.

And, last was the rock balancing. I spread all the rocks onto the carpet. We left 30 minutes open for free play, and the kids were totally engaged in seeing how high their stacks could get. They did a fabulous job! We all had so much fun;-)

Fun with Rocks and Sand at Bowdoin Central School

I am prepping to do a "Fun with Rocks and Sand" presentation with several aged 4 to 8 year olds at Bowdoin Central School tomorrow. I am psyched! It will be so much fun. I bought a book titled, "If You Find a Rock." Shannon, my elementary school teacher extraordinaire buddy, will read the book aloud to the kids and I will show them the rocks that are mentioned as the story goes along.

We will then go outside, don some sized small safety glasses, and break open some geodes, use limestone to draw on the sidewalk, and use a Native American pounder rock to grind oats into flour. Finally, we'll go inside to paint memory rocks, fill plastic dolphin necklaces with layers of colored sand (using homemade paper funnels by Drew;-), have a rock stacking area, and look at pretty rocks and minerals with our magnifiers. We'll also shine a UV light onto some fluorescent rocks (and my running shoes!) HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I AM EXCITED !!!

By the way, Drew collected lots of flat rocks from a nearby creek. I gave them all a good scrubbing so they were somewhat clean and dry for the activity. I also included some river rocks (seen in the basket above) for stacking as well. Neighbor Shannon also donated a big bag of river rocks that she gathered from Nova Scotia. They are much more variable in color. Those will be used for our rock painting area.

Caesar Pond Prowl - Underwater

Yahoooo! Here is my second attempt at using the Apeman camera on Caesar Pond. I was quite successful at capturing video of a number of fish swimming around at the beaver lodge on the western shore. I also did a bit of drifting in the boat while holding the camera underwater, and then did a bit of paddling with the camera leaning on the edge of the boat above water. The geese in the beginning were a bonus as I was able to photograph them without spooking them. Great day! 

Of course, there was a ton of unusable video with just the belly of fish, the tail end of fish, and absolutely nothing in frame. I would stick the camera underwater and blindly move it around. In some places I could see fish but had no idea what was in frame.

On our next trial, I am going to see if using a cell phone can show me what the camera is seeing. Drew is in charge of the electronics! Actually, he is in charge of pulling together all my video clips into a nice iMovie presentation. He always does such a nice job and has a lot more patience than I do. We are a great team;-)

Hummingbird close-ups

Female hummer sips sugar water on the fly!

It may be just out of the camera's focus, but it is one of my favorite shots of the series
as the female arrives.

We love our little male hummer.

Male hummer

Drew has been having the intervalometer do the photography for us, and it is working out great. He set the camera (with a 70-200 mm lens + 1.4 teleconverter) on a tripod, set the intervalometer to take a photo every 2 seconds, and left it alone for an hour. Again, he taped over all but one feeding hole so the birds had to come within the focus of the camera. The camera took over 1,000 shots. Drew chose a few of the best ones. Enjoy!

We're making an Apeman Video!

We're making an Apeman Video! No, Drew is not dressing up as a gorilla! I used the Apeman 4K Action Camera (A80 model) for its first underwater trial run this afternoon. Drew put it onto a selfie stick and I held it underwater at the dock. We got a tiny bit of usable footage of smallmouth bass fry and bluegill. Fun, Fun, Fun! Next up...I think I'll try to find the underwater entrance hole to the beaver lodge;-) What does make this difficult is that I cannot see what I am shooting (especially if the water is rough or if it is dark down under:-)

Note to Shannon: "I now have an excuse to go to the beach!" Can you say "tide-pool footage?" 

Notes to self: 1. Hold the camera level.  2. Hold the camera steady   3. Don't get too close to the subject so the camera can focus   4. Go out on a calm day as the waves cause too much distraction with light shining every which way.   5. Hold the camera in one place for a few minutes before moving to a new location.   6. Pull the camera slowly out of the water and keep it steady for a final "out of the water" shot.   7. "Have patience, Grasshopper."

Crazy for Cedar Waxwings!

And, here are my favorite waxwing photos of the day:

My favorite photo of the day. See the red "wax" on the wing? Hence the name of the bird.

I love this shot. Too bad it isn't in focus. But...it is still nice to see how colorful cedar waxwings are!

Doesn't it look like the bird dipped the tip of its tail in yellow paint?

Cedar Waxwing eats dragonfly

Gotta maneuver my food for ease of swallowing!

While we were photographing several waxwings, I saw one swoop down, snag a dragonfly and fly up to dead tree out in the bog. Mind you, the bird was at maximum zoom for the camera and the boat was moving a bit, so the photos aren't tack sharp.

Oh yeah, gettin' this squirrely bug down my gullet is no easy task!

Great snackage!

Early Morning on Caesar Pond

Neighbor Carla and I went for a peaceful pond prowl early this morning. We saw geese and cedar waxwings galore! Enjoy this short video of our sightings. By the way, Drew shot the video of the geese while getting the boat set up for us.

Hummingbirds Up Close

We absolutely adore hummingbirds, and are fascinated by their aerial acrobatics. It is difficult to imagine how an organism like this could exist. They are amazing. By the way, Drew put tape over the holes of the feeder so the hummer would have to go to the one that the camera was focused on. Genius!

The female is so stunning, and visits the feeder first, followed by a disheveled male who could use a bit of grooming. Watch the nectar in the feeder move as the hummer's tongue disturbs it while drinking.

This is our 400th post on Maine Nature Diary, on Blogger!

Hummingbirds in Slow Motion

Drew has been experimenting with slow motion on our Panasonic Lumix point and shoot camera. We had put this camera aside as I wasn't satisfied with its still-shot quality, but Drew has found that it takes great video. Now, FYI, an inexpensive camera does not give the same quality of slo-mo as a dedicated slo-mo camera would give. Just saying... It is kinda noisy...don't expect much! Fun anyway;-)

Check out how much tail motion there is as the female comes in for a landing on the feeder. Drew likened it to a mermaid swimming underwater.