A Picture by the Purple Platypus

Well, I was just doodling and a came up with a good drawing, so here it is:



I don't really know why I drew it; it just popped into my head. Well, bye for now!

Cicadas!

My family found a Tibicen Cicada on our front steps and took some pictures. Here he is, along with some other cicada info.



Cicadas like him have compact eyes (That means each eye is made up of a lot of tiny ones.), as you can see here:



Also, they have three extra eyes between their two big ones! They are small and red; can you see them?



The cicada we photographed had actually just emerged from its smaller skin. When cicadas are too big for their skin, they molt and come out of their old one! Here, you can see the old skin.



Cicadas have a very interesting life cycle. In May and June, adult cicadas mate, and the females make a slit in a stick or hollow tree. She lays her eggs in the slit, and leaves. In about six weeks, the cicada nymphs (babies) hatch and fall to the ground. The nymphs look nothing like adult cicadas. They dig into the ground and suck the sap from the roots of the tree. After about three years (wow!), they come out of the ground, shed their skin, and emerge as an adult. As an adult, they don't eat anything. Their mission is to mate, lay eggs (if it's a female), and die.

Adult male cicadas make the chirping noises we all hear in the summer to attract females in the mating season. The sound of the chirping depends on what type of cicada it is.

I hope now you understand more about cicadas. Please remember that cicadas don't bite or sting, so don't smoosh them. =)

(I got the information on this post from this page.)

Here's another great cicada website: www.cicadamania.com

Red, White, and Blue

I'm sorry I haven't posted lately, but I've been at my grandparents' house! (They're the ones that take us to Bald Head Island.)They live on a lake and we have all sorts of fun. On Tuesday, my grandma, mom, sister, and I went blueberry picking. (BLUE!)



Most of the blueberries were unripe, but we still got a bunch. Here's my sister holding some:



My mom also told us about a ladybug project where you can send in pictures of ladybugs (RED!) to help with research. We found a ladybug there, so we took its picture and sent it in. Here's the ladybug in a cool but out-of-focus photo:



If you want to help with the Cornell University Department of Entomology's Lost Ladybug Project, click here.

Later that evening, we all went over to my grandparents' friends to see their new kitten, Aladdin. He is a Flame Point Himalayan (WHITE!) He was so cute!!!



While we were there, one of the granddaughters told us about how she and her dad had rescued a drowning baby bluebird while kayaking. This got our attention, because we had baby bluebirds at grandparents' house! We ran back to the house to discover that one of the babies was gone! That was when I realized I had looked at the nest earlier that day and one of the birds had flown out! I had thought it had been a parent that flew out. So, my sister and I rushed back down to the friends' house with a container. Just as I was about to grab the baby, it fluttered away into some tall trees. The dad that had rescued the drowning bird helped me look for it, but we just couldn't find it! Finally, as we were about to give up, I saw a patch of spotted blueish- gray feathers! The dad grabbed it for me, and we hurried back to my grandparents' house with the bird in the container. My mom and grandpa put it back in its nest. Phew!